The iron businesswomen in the Vietnamese market
Vinamilk, Traphaco and Hau Giang Pharmacy – three out of the largest Vietnamese conglomerates - all are led by women.
- Vinamilk, Viettel top list of biggest brands in Vietnam
Vinamilk, the nation’s leading dairy producer, with VND40.223 trillion in revenue and VND7.7 trillion in profit in 2015 now holds 53 percent of the liquid milk market share, 84 percent of yogurt, 80 percent of condensed milk market shares and controls the distribution network with 212,000 retail points and 575 showrooms throughout the country.
Determined to develop the distribution network, the nation’s leading dairy producer allocates huge budgets for ads, listing itself among the three biggest consumer goods manufacturers which spend most on ads.
Mai Kieu Lien, the CEO of Vinamilk, is described as a courageous woman. Vinamilk once tried to make beer and coffee. However, Lien made an important decision on leaving the markets soon after realizing that it cannot find the opportunities there. The returning to its core business field helped the company gather its strength to develop.
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Mai Kieu Lien, the CEO of Vinamilk
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Lien is praised as a courageous businesswoman because she decided that Vinamilk needed to conquer the international market and list itself among the world’s top 50 dairy producers by 2017.
It has bought Driftwood in the US, established cooperation with partners in New Zealand and set up representative office in Poland which would serve as a jumping board for Vinamilk to enter Europe.
Like Vinamilk, Hau Giang Pharmacy’s key to success is the focus on the core business field.
Pham Thi Viet Nga, CEO of Hau Giang Pharmacy, is a pharmacist.
Hau Giang Phamarcy had huge amounts of cash, but Nga did not pour the money into financial investments or invest in other business fields.
Nga’s strategy on focusing on core business fields has brought encouraging results. Hau Giang gets annual revenue of VND3.6 trillion and holds 9.6 percent of the share of the $1.7 billion market.
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| Pham Thi Viet Nga, CEO of Hau Giang Pharmacy |
Traphaco, another pharmacy company, is also believed to gain big successes thanks to their large distribution networks. Hau Giang is the first pharmacy firm which pays attention to developing the distribution network throughout the country and compete directly with foreign imports.
Tran Thi Thuan of Traphaco decided that Traphaco must not rely on wholesale, but it needs to gather more strength to develop retail channels. Wholesale once brought 60 percent of revenue to Traphaco in the past, but now it accounts for 20 percent of revenue only.
