Vinacafé Conquering World Market

Vinacafé has been recognized as a prestigious trademark in Vietnam by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Department Agency (VIETRADE), strong trademark by the Vietnam Economic Times, famous trademark by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the U.S.-based AC Nielsen Company, WIPO 2005 international prize for the most outstanding company in terms of intellectual property, and one among 30 leading trademarks selected by the government of Vietnam to the National Trademark Programme (Vietnam Value).

 

The Bien Hoa city-based Vinacafé was formerly a constant coffee factory that was set up in 1969 with an annual capacity of producing 80 tonnes of coffee and was renamed as Vinacafé Bien Hoa in 2005 upon equitization.

 

The facility turned out first products in the late of the 1970s but the quality was low, and technical specialities and output were instable due to inexperience. The factory that was the first and the only instant coffee production unit in Vietnam at that time became a venue for research and experiment on instant coffee processing.

 

State agencies bought all products by the plants before the national renovation to serve domestic demand and export to the Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union. In the 1990s, the plant encountered with a wide range of challenges when transforming into an independent operation institution with a capital of VND40 million ($2,242). With great efforts, the company raised its capacity to 120 tonnes and produced more kinds of products with the most prominent being 3-in-1 milk coffee. These new series of products created new appearance to Vietnam’s coffee sector and facilitated Vinacafé to build the second plant in late 1990s, becoming the biggest coffee producer in Vietnam.

 

The success is attributed to advanced science and technology, the secret to developing the genuine flavour of Vietnamese coffee and boycott of artificial flavour and chemicals. The business direction stems from an engineer who is Vinacafé’s General Director Bui Xuan Thoa. His ambition to science and technology has helped raised Vinacafé’s product quality as well as the company’s consecutive success. Vinacafé has been the first and the sole to produce 4-in-1 ginseng coffee product in Vietnam. Vinacafé always places consumers’ trend on the top of its business operations with the slogan of “Bringing about the best essence by nature to consumers”. Developing natural flavour in every Vietnamese coffee seed has been Vinacafé’s professional secret as well as created the typical difference to its trademark, helped the company set a firm foothold in the Vietnamese market and succeed in exporting products to over 20 foreign markets.

 

A market research by Taylor Nielsen Sofree (TNS) indicated that Vinacafé is the leading instant coffee trademark in Vietnam with a 50.4 percent market share. Being fully aware of increasing instant coffee demand and an export growth potential of 30 percent-40 percent per year, Vinacafé is preparing to build a new plant with an investment of nearly $40 million to raise its total capacity to process 60,000 tonnes of coffee per year. In addition to maintaining its first status in Vietnam, Vinacafé plans to extend its business operations to foreign markets, particularly in the U.S. via not only distributors of New Trend Marketing Group and I & T Enterprise but also supermarket chains there.