NCS - Keeping Change to Meet Customers' Demand

NCS - Keeping Change to Meet Customers' Demand

The Noi Bai Catering Service Joint stock Company (NCS) is the first enterprise in the Vietnam aviation service to be set up based on the equitisation of a State-owned enterprise. It is now a profitable company. VIB Forum interviewed Dr Dinh Phuc Tieu, NCS director, about the company’s activities after being equitised.

Can you tell briefly about NCS?

NCS has a function of supplying meals and related services for airlines which have flights to or from the Noi Bai international airport. Now, apart from traditional customers, including Vietnam Airlines, Russian Aeroflot, Air France and Japan Airlines, NCS supplies meals for special flights of Vietnamese and foreign leaders. Now, we provide 5,000 portions per day. In 2004, we supplied 1.7 million portions. In the next period, we hope to gain an increase of 15 per cent per year.

Noi Bai International Airport has not yet had a catering establishment with state-of-the-art equipment as in developed countries. How has your company observed the regulations on food safety and hygiene?

We always attach importance to food safety and hygiene. We have set a close procedure for examining input materials by selecting prestigious material suppliers. In particular, the company's quality control department supervises material buying, production, processing, preservation and delivery. Also, the company maintains the effectiveness of the ISO 9001-2000 quality management system and hires foreign firms to do industrial hygiene work. The company has always paid careful attention to labour safety equipment and the training of staff members of food safety and hygiene. We always keep samples of our food for 48 and 72 hours to find reasons if any incident occurs. Our partners have always appreciated our efforts. They make regular or sudden examinations on our food and return the results to us. They voice their comments, so that we can make timely adjustments. Customers’ recent comments are good signs for our company. Thierry, who is in charge of food at Air France, said that all food samples of NCS had been analysed and they all had qualified. Indeed, he said, we had done our job well since last July.

Passengers have various tastes. What has your company done to create a specific feature of Vietnamese traditional food which can still satisfy passengers from different countries?

This is an important question during integration for any Vietnamese enterprise and not for the aviation service only. The quality of food goes along with taste of customers and the ability of chefs. We have striven to improve the skills of our chefs to meet the most hard-to-please requirements of our customers. We always change our menu and our chefs try to cook new food. Materials for our food are bought from all regions in Vietnam, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City Da Lat, and abroad. When the fifth Asian-Europe Meeting (ASEM 5) took place with many foreign delegations going to Vietnam, we met our customers’ requirements. With firm integration steps, we will turn potential customers into our real partners.

As the first enterprise in the Vietnam’s aviation service to be set up on an equitisation basis. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the model for your company after one year’s conversion?

Equitisation is an indispensable solution, which helps enterprises increase their competitiveness in the market economy. The model has brought a wind of change to our company, helping us expand our activities. This process has helped make a breakthrough in food safety and hygiene. However, not every staff member is aware of their obligation and interest. The biggest difficulty for us is we have yet to create a unique awareness and activities among our workers and cadres. However, I believe that we will overcome the difficulty as years go by.

More information about NCS

Uzbekistan Airlines has recently become the eighth regular customer of NCS. They are the second customer of the company to do so since it was equitised.

NCS serves 5,000 portions for more than 30 flights per day.

NCS’s revenues were estimated at VND 51 billion in the second half of 2004.

• Reported by Hiep Thuong