Although it incepted nearly five years ago, 190 Furniture company has secured a strong foothold on the market thanks to its outstanding design and quality of products. Even when the global economic crisis was dragging on, the company still managed to find proper solutions to turn challenges into opportunities for development. After the economy revived, the company introduced new lines of school tables in summer 2010.
Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Nguyen Tuan Thanh, Managing Director of 190 Furniture, on his company's business development.
Currently, the market has many local well-known trademarks like Hoa Phat, Xuan Hoa and Fami and many imported brands. Why is furniture still your choice of business?
With rapid economic growth of Vietnam, we anticipate that demand for office and home furniture is growing. This will be a very potential market.
Our surveys showed that prices of imported furniture were very high and were unaffordable by most consumers while products imported from China or made by local producers had low quality and simple design. Consumers will turn their back on such items sooner or later.
We've thought of three questions:
- Why do Vietnamese people use very expensive imported furniture, not high-quality, affordable and useful local products?
- Why does Haiphong not have any large-scale furniture producer although it is a major industrial city in the country?
- Why do we lose strengths in competition with foreign items although our products satisfy “user-friendly, trustable and fashionable” factors?
These reasons, together with our experience in mechanics, prodded us to step into furniture sector.
What is the difference that helps 190 Furnituredevelop strongly and become a prestigious brand in Vietnam in the past time?
The difference of 190 Furniture not only lies in products but comes from a combination of three factors. Firstly, the difference primarily comes from design diversity fashionableness and quality. Our products have similar quality to imported ones, have a lot of features and protect users’ health. Secondly, the quality of our products makes different. The quality is the trademark of 190 Furniture and the respect to consumers. Thirdly, the difference lies in our administration. We always economises production expenses to lower prices and enhance competitive edge on the market
And, the three factors are the key to our today success.
2009 was a really tough year. Would you mind telling major challenges that 190 Furniture had faced and your solutions to weather this period? Do you have any lesson drawn from this hardship?
The global economic crisis in 2009 wrecked on operations of 190 Furniture. The market demand contracted while companies still had to operate to continue their existence. We usually inspired our employees to share problems and measures withstand difficulties.
- Increase concessional loans from the State Bank of Vietnam and commercial lenders
- Invest in strategic imported materials at low prices
- This was a favourable time to negotiate and procure equipment and technology to improve productivity.
- Advertise products on mass media
- Actively search for new orders, even small-valued ones
- We knew that this was the most difficult period but we could manage it to grasp new opportunities. We used this time to improve our capacity and personnel.
What is yourdeepest impressionin the long story of success?
My deepest impression was when we started to explore investment field and study technology. All worked together to find out how other companies had made their products. Actually, we felt sort of ‘silly’.
Which conditions are necessary for 190 Furnitureand other companies to further develop?
In my opinion, the central and municipal governments need to take into consideration to help enterprises to accelerate after the crisis.
Firstly, there are incentives and opening mechanisms for enterprises.
Secondly, the municipality needs to pay more attention to education and training as it is extremely difficult to find out technical researchers, engineers and machine operators in the city.
Reported by Trinh Long
Vietnamese
