Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Michael Green, General Director of South East Asia Brewery Ltd. Yen Mai reports.
Could you please tell us the background of your company?
The first Halida Canned Beers were launched on the modern line of DanBrew brand (Denmark) in October 1992 after the research and efforts of cadres, engineers and workers of Viet Ha Brewery Factory, and they immediately became a favoured brand of beer. Furthermore, it has also become an indispensable drink for Vietnamese special occasions, holidays as well as festivals.
In the early time of Vietnam's opening market policy, many famous international companies desired to cooperate with Halida. We decided to choose Carlsberg Brewery Company (Denmark), a familiar country to Vietnamese people through the Andersen tale stories, to start the trade cooperation and consequently, SEAB was established. This marked an important event of the factory's developing history.
Over a decade of development, Halida Brewery's production capacity and market have continuously expanded. The capacity in 2004 was 35 million litres, 45 million litres in 2007 and up to now, it gains 65 million litres per year. In October 2005, the factory installed the canned beer production line of 30 thousand cans per hour. At present, factory's products have been increasingly diversified and met many various demands of consumer classes, namely Carlsberg, Halida and Halida Thang Long trademarks which are being manufactured with many types of canned beers and bottles.
Halida beer has been so far favoured and used not only in the domestic market but also in foreign countries. Right now, Halida beers are exported to many countries in the world, such as America, England, Japan, France, Canada, and Australia.
Could you talk more about the Halida Draught beer using the Draught Master Technology of International Carlsberg?
Carlsberg Beer is one of the world's most well-known premium beers with advanced technology for producing beer. We are extremely proud of using a fully self-contained technology applying the Draught Master Technology of international Carlsberg and a copyright invention that was researched by the Copenhagen - based headquarter’s research team to produce DM Halida beer. DM technology has been applied and tested in 12 countries in Europe and Asia. Vietnam is the first country that has applied this modern technology to manufacture DM Halida beer.
The remarkable advantage of Draught Master Halida is using the "beer bomb" made by PET high - grade plastic instead of aluminium or stainless steel that traditional fresh beer used. Beer bomb and beer pipe are only used once, especially with break - through technology of Draught Master system, it bypasses the use of CO2 completely, so the selling agencies could save expenses and area for putting CO2 vessels or having trouble in case it is out of CO2.
In addition, Draught Master machine is as small as a fridge, it makes beer have deep cold, smooth froth plus the bomb beer and integrated beer faucet system are just used once, the drinkers will find that DM Halida fresh beer still keeps all flavours as it has just been manufactured. Moreover, the amount of vitamins is maintained, which is good for health. The beer flavour is not changed up to 21 days.
Currently, Halida Draught Master Beers are favoured nationwide and also achieve consumers’ confidence because of such competitive advantages.
Corporate Social Responsibility is closely linked with the principle of sustainable development, how does SEAB take account of this issue?
I absolutely agree with you that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a vital factor in companies’ sustainable development strategies. For SEAB, Halida trademark has become popular in the whole country, through the sponsoring of hundreds of culture, society, sport events and colourful promoting programs. Being an official sponsor for the first SEA Games in Vietnam was one such remarkable event. Halida is long - term sponsor for Song Lam Nghe An and Thanh Hoa football clubs, running cross - country for peace, bicycle race, boat race competitions, for many beauty contests at national and regional levels. Millions of consumers in whole country feel interested in Halida as a leading trademark that always holds promotion activities to bring joy and luck for everybody. Social and charity activities are also a factor in its trademark development. Halida goes ahead in supporting compatriots who were affected by floods, and provides for heroic mothers, etc.
More importantly, SEAB is one of the first enterprises in Vietnam to invest in the system of waste disposal station, with the advantageous, modern technology, while most domestic enterprises do not pay enough attention to water treatment because the investment for the treatment system is quite costly, the operating expense is high and there are no profits.
The nearly US$1 million waste disposal stations are operated automatically, following a specialized software program which helps supervise the waste disposal process, as well as provide detailed reports. SEAB’s waste - water treating station has been successfully operated for 7 years. The output water standard is suitable for TCVN type B.
All this has shown that we are not only focusing on improving quality and sales, but also reducing by-products that affect surrounding people and the environment.
What are your development priorities for SEAB to become one of the leading beer producers in Vietnam during your term in the country?
I have been in Vietnam for a short time, therefore, my most important goal is to understand your country’s people and culture, especially the business climate in Vietnam. However, I think there are four key values that all companies should achieve in the international market in general and in Vietnam in particular, namely product quality, customer confidence, R&D, and distribution system.
Thus, having strong human resources always plays a crucial role in our sustainable development strategies. We have held many courses to improve professional skills in Vietnam and abroad with the aim of satisfying the requirements about science, technique and technology development in the age of modern technology. Up to now, Vietnamese directors and engineers have fully replaced foreigners in management and operation, and owned the advanced technology to conduct various quality kinds of beer.
In addition, we also give most favourable conditions for over 100 distributors nationwide to create win-win situations, leading to participants’ benefits as well as providing best services to customers.
Finally, it should be remembered that our motto is As a leading beer producer in Vietnam, we always create new values and bring pleasure to customers. Therefore, our colleagues and I will try our best to achieve this goal.
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