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Businesses can’t wait for God
“Try to rescue ourselves rather than wait for God. If you try hard, your efforts will be repaid,” said Le Quoc An, Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group, repeating the mantra of many Vietnamese enterprises in the current difficulties.
Going to find partners
Apparel, the number one export item in the ‘club of $1bil export items’, proves to be bearing the heaviest impacts of the global economic recession. The latest report by the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that only big brand names like Garment Company No 10, Viet Tien, Nha Be and Phuong Dong are still getting orders.
“Several days ago, the company got an official reply from a Danish partner that the partner will place a long-term order for 700-800,000 products a year. This proves to be the latest good news for us,” said Than Duc Viet, Head of the Marketing Division under Garment Company No 10.
Previously, the importer placed orders with exporters in Poland. However, the labour costs in Poland have become higher due to economic recession; therefore, the importer has decided to work with Asian exporters. They could have placed orders with Cambodia, Indonesia or China, the biggest rival of Vietnam. However, the partner finally decided on Vietnam.
The number of orders in January and February was lower than the same period of last year. However, Garment 10 Company now has enough orders to keep 14 workshops with the capacity of 1.2mil products a month in stable operation.
Viet said that since the beginning of the year, the company has been trying to seek orders by meeting partners directly in Europe. In negotiations with partners, the company offers attractive commitments in product quality, competitive prices and delivery schedules.
Professional sale
As for Nha Be Garment Company, the growth rate of sales in the domestic market is expected to reach 200%, which proves to be an ideal growth rate for any company in the context of the low demand prevailing currently.
Pham Dinh Doan, General Director of the Phu Thai Retail Group, which is distributing Nha Be products, said that two years ago Nha Be only focused on exports. However, the company has decided to target the domestic market as well.
As the decision of Nha Be to develop the domestic market comes in line with Phu Thai’s plan to push up the professional distribution of Vietnamese goods in the domestic market, Phu Thai and Nha Be have shaken hands to boost sales.
Vo Van Quyen, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Policy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that the cooperation of the two enterprises should be seen as a typical example of Vietnamese enterprises retuning to the domestic market and cooperating with distributors.
Every production is an invention
Another success story of Vietnamese enterprises in the current difficult period is the case of Robotics Tosy.
While Vietnam’s market is being dominated by Chinese toys, Tosy still has been trying to conquer the domestic market and reach out to export markets, including Japan, Australia and Hong Kong.
In February, the company participated in an international toy exhibition with UFO Tosy and many other products.
Ho Vinh Hoang, Tosy’s General Director, joked that the biggest difficulty for him now is an overly high number of orders.
Just three weeks after the exhibition, the company received an invitation to visit Takara TOMY, a big Japanese toy manufacturer. TOMY is now planning to distribute Tosy’s UFO in Japan this summer. Other partners, including Australia’s Hunter Overseas and US’ Hasbro have also ordered several hundred thousand Tosy products.
The success of Tosy lies in the fact that Tosy has attracted customers with very original toys, every one of which is really an invention. The company spent several billions VND to build its brand name with Topio, a ping-pong player robot. Foreign partners were so surprised to know that the manufacturer of Topios was a Vietnamese producer; therefore, they have enough confidence to set up long-term cooperation with Tosy.
Economists always say that opportunities can be found even in crisis, and the job of businesses is to find and grab opportunities.
Pham Huyen
vietnamnet
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