East West Industries: An Idea Born of Success

Despite the ongoing downturn that started in 2008 due to the global financial crisis, Vietnam’s FDI attraction remained positive. Some foreign investors have been returning to Vietnam while some are exploring new business opportunities. According to Mr Matthew Greenfield, Director of East West Industries (US), Vietnam has many advantages in investment attraction in comparison to other countries in the region.

 

One of the available advantages that hastened East West Industries (EWI) to build a production factory in Vietnam in 2008 is low labour cost. Mr Greenfield said that Vietnam boasts a young, dynamic work force, stable exchange rate and comparable freight costs, plus efforts made by the Government to improve the investment environment. These make Vietnam an ideal business destination in the region.

 

EWI is a 100% USA owned company that has been successful in many countries in the world. East West Industries specializes in manufacturing high quality plastic, metal, rubber and electro-mechanical products. In addition, EWI has full turn-key capability to develop and produce UL, CE, and ETL listed products. Since its inception in 2001, the global group led parent company East West Manufacturing has rapidly grown to become a leader in domestic offshore manufacturing, with offices and production facilities in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as China and Vietnam. In 2008, EWI expanded its production activities in VSIP II, Binh Duong. 95% of its products are exported to its mother company in the USA; the rest are for European and local markets.

 

With a factory located in Binh Duong, EWI Vietnam became the latest link in the East West Manufacturing USA global contract manufacturing supply-chain. EWI provides full development and production support with a variety of in-house capabilities including plastic injection molding, electro-mechanical assembly and packaging. This is supplemented with East West’s proven ability to source and develop competitively priced, high-quality components from around Asia for use in products.

 

However, Matthew also expressed worry about supporting industries in Vietnam. “Many basic raw materials, as well as higher value components for production, must be imported from overseas. We have a policy of localization, but it is not always possible to find a material supplier in Vietnam.” So, EWI is making efforts to localize raw material sources in the future.