The company used to be the Thien Thanh Ceramic Plant established in 1950 at 59 Ngo Tat To, Ward 21, Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City. In June, 1975, the plant was handed over to the People’s Committee of Binh Thanh district with 25 workers. From July, 1975 to October, 1975, the plant was managed by the Ministry of Light Industry. During this period, the plant restored its production activities with its old equipment and facilities. Only until it was transferred to the Ministry of Construction, did the plant receive investment from the State a rebuilding of its workshops, offices and roads. The new plant started its operation in 1981.
In 1989, when Vietnam opened its economy, the market of construction materials, in particular ceramic products, saw fiercer competition. Lacking equipment for production, cadres and workers of the plant researched and upgraded old equipment and machines, improving the quality of products. From then on, products of the plant found their foothold in the market.
In 1991, the plant bought more equipment and machines to improve the quality of products, thus further meeting the increasingly high requirements of the market. As a result, the plant gained a high growth rate, 60 per cent, in the period. In recognition of the plant’s outstanding achievements in production and business activities, in 1992, the plant was presented with the Labour Order, second class.
An important landmark of Thien Thanh was its conversion into a company in 1995 by the Ministry of Construction. In 2002, Thien Thanh showed its rapid development process. As its production areas in Ho Chi Minh City could no longer meet the plant’s production requirements, the company built a plant for producing sanitary ceramic wares in the Binh Chuan industrial park, Thuan An, Binh Duong province. The plant, with modern production lines, has a capacity of 700,000 products per year. In 2005, the Thien Thanh Company was relocated to Binh Duong province after Ho Chi Minh City issued policies on relocating industrial establishments from the city’s downtown.
During its formation and development process, the company always attached importance to manufacturing high quality products as its top priority. As a result, Thien Thanh ceramic products have been voted as ‘Vietnamese high quality goods’ by consumers for ten consecutive years. They have become a favourite choice of consumers in France, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Ukraine. In 2000, the company was granted the ISO 9001:2000 quality certificate by BVQI and the Vietnamese standard certificate by the Centre III for Quality and Standard.
Two months after its relocation to Binh Duong province, the company signed contracts with three foreign partners, including the IKEA Company from Sweden to export products valued at US$50,500 per month and the De Baison Company from Australia to export products valued at US$8,500 per month. In particular, Thien Thanh is proud of being the first Vietnamese ceramic company to win the first order valued at US$72,000 from the Asahi Company from Japan. Hard to please as it is, the Japanese market has accepted products by Thien Thanh. This is the pride of the company and Vietnamese ceramic industry as a whole.
In an effort to expand its export markets, Thien Thanh has been negotiating contracts to export its products to the US, Denmark and Italy.
In December 2005, the Ministry of Construction approved the company’s equitisation plans. Accordingly, the State will keep 60 per cent of the company stake. Fifteen per cent of the company’s shares will be sold to its staff members and workers. The remainder will be sold to outside investors. The company’s post-equitisation plans in the 2006-2010 period are to firmly develop the domestic market as a launch pad for its export. The company will concentrate on manufacturing and trading sanitary ceramic wares and accessories, expanding its business activities to other construction material fields.
Le Quang Vinh, director of the company, said: “In preparation for equitisation and international integration, we focus on human resources development and management renewal, and co-operation promotion with banks for getting more capital for production. Also, we will continue to research and improve the quality of our products and perfect our quality management system, as well as develop our distribution network. An important factor for us is to build a strong trademark for competing against strong opponents in the region and around the world.”
Hong Phuong
Vietnamese
