In 1992 when Vietnam started opening up the economy and amended the law on foreign investment, the first confectionery production joint venture in the country, Hai Ha - Kotobuki, was established by Kotobuki Group of Japan with a 71 per cent stake and Hai Ha Confectionery Company of Vietnam with 29 per cent. The validity is 20 years.
With an initial capital of US$4 million, some modern production lines powered by Japanese advanced technologies were brought into Vietnam by Kotobuki, together with a novel marketing concept - a very strange selling lesson at that time.
The market started to see a dozen of new products of fine-looking design, high quality and reasonable price for Vietnamese consumers. The name, Hai Ha - Kotobuki, gradually became familiar to consumers with snacks, cookies, fruit candies, chocolate cookies and especially cakes.
After the early success, the joint venture met numerous difficulties, even facing the possibility of collapse, because of fierce competition.
Fortunately, the entire company united and assessed its strengths, identified weaknesses to overcome, and utilised every support to continue. The equity was transferred to the Vietnam Tobacco Corporation (Vinataba) in 2003.
Seeing the potential development of the Hai Ha - Kotobuki brand, Vinataba acquired additional 41 per cent of equity from the Japanese partner to raise holdings to 70 per cent in 2005. This was an important milestone for the later development of the joint venture company.
With the close guidance from Vinataba and effective cooperation from Kotobuki, Hai Ha - Kotobuki brand name strengthened its market position and the company’s revenue and profit increased steadily. Its revenue in 2011 was 3.5 folds more than in 2003, profit expanded over four times, and average monthly income of nearly 500 employees was over VND5 million each.
In 2010, after assessing the potential development of Hai Ha - Kotobuki brand name, Vinataba and Kotobuki reached an agreement on production expansion in Tien Son Industrial Park, and signed a 30-year venture extension contract. This was an opportunity but also a challenge for Hai Ha - Kotobuki.
After 20 years of construction and development, Hai Ha - Kotobuki increased its brand recognition not only in Hanoi but also throughout the country. With its outstanding achievements, Hai Ha - Kotobuki has received a number of awards and titles such as "Vietnam Gold Star Award" in 2009 from the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association, “Top 20 Trusted Vietnam Products and Services Award" in 2011 and two “Consumer Loving Products Award” in 2010 and 2011.
On November 9, 2012, Hai Ha - Kotobuki solemnly celebrated the 20th founding anniversary and received the Third-grade Labour Order at the Melia Hanoi Hotel, in the presence of central authorities, Hanoi officials, distributors, suppliers, partners and media agencies. This was a great pride for all the company and Hai Ha - Kotobuki will continue promoting its strengths to deserve the trust of domestic and foreign consumers.
Thanh Ha
Vietnamese
