Ho Chi Minh City, 20 April 2017 – At its inaugural Brand Stories seminar in Ho Chi Minh City, Bog C Vietnam today announced the results of its ‘Accompanies Vietnamese Brands’ program, four months after its launch.

With its sights set on becoming the platform for every entrepreneur in Vietnam, Big C Vietnam unveiled the SME program in October 2016 in order to create conditions for Vietnamese SMEs to improve, breakthrough and expand their markets through modern retail channels.  This in turn sees them develop their own success and contribute toward building a reputation for excellence for Vietnamese brands regionally and around the world.

Enterprises are selected to join the program by a dedicated committee within Big C called the SME Development and Support Department, based on various criteria including Vietnamese production, on certain limit of charter capital ,headcount.  Enterprises can be either food or non food, or want to launch innovative, breakthrough ideas.

Once selected, Big C Vietnam works with the enterprises, offering support including knowhow (access to training session in retail market, Support to build development plan, branding, and resource management, training on quality, innovation , adapt to international standards…), finance (access to preferred financial deal with Central Group Vietnam’s bank partners, Payment terms facilitated from Central Group Vietnam,…), distribution and logistics (access to store network of brands and BUs, great exp[osure in our shelves, support in Supply Chain,…), and marketing (support on marketing training, display area and media,…).

The event was attended by representatives of Ministry of Industry and Trade, Association of Vietnam Retailers, brand-consulting specialists and more than 100 small and medium enterprises from around Vietnam.

Speaking from the seminar, Mr. Philippe Broianigo, General Director of Central Group Vietnam and Big C Vietnam, said: ‘We have a Group-wide strategic commitment at Big C Vietnam and Central Group to work together, think together and grow together with small and medium enterprises from all over the country.  The ‘Accompany’ program embodies this, and has delivered strong results from concrete actions.  A lot of works has been done since last November and the first positive results start to be seen but there are still a long journey to achieve our goals»Indeed, four months in, the program has seen great improvements in the branding, packaging and distribution of its 19 participating enterprises.  Products from all of these businesses are on the shelves of Big C Supermarkets nationwide.

According to  General Statistics Office of Vietnam (Ministry of Planning and Investment), currently in Vietnam, there are about 500,000 operating enterprises, in which, 96% are small and medium enterprises.

‘Small and medium enterprises are both the backbone of the Vietnamese economy and one of the key strategic interests of both Central Group Vietnam and Big C Vietnam.  These small businesses are spurring the growth of the nation, and we are committed to creating a creating a mutually beneficial and harmonious relationship with our partners, based on a culture of trust and shared growth and promote Vietnamese products,’ Mr. Broianigo continued.

Speaking from the seminar, branding specialist Ms. Nguyen Phi Van of World Franchise Associates, Southeast Asia Region talked about the way in which the globalisation of trade is blurring traditional national borders, and went on to remark that : ‘The development, surviival and ultimate success of small enterprises depends on the development of a brand vision of the business.  To survive and compete in a flattened, global market, enterprises need to think global, upgrade their vision and expand their horizons to international markets. ‘

Speaking from the seminar, Ms. Dinh Thi My Loan, President of the Association of Vietnam Retailers talked about the process for SME growth in Vietnam.  She acknowledged that SMEs find themselves with an array of challenges including production issues, low sales volumes, and high inventory levels. When markets contract, SMEs often need to narrow their focus to keep their businesses performing. She said that: “Central Group and Big C’s ‘Accompany’ program was invaluable to SMEs in retail.”

More information

At the Suppliers’ meeting with the theme « One Vision, One Success » held in Ho Chi Minh City in November 2016, representative of Central Group Vietnam confirmed, to achieve the target of doubling the growth rate until 2021 comparing to current, Central Group Vietnam and Big C Vietnam will have a strategy focused upon 4 main segments, including price, promotion, product diversity, developed hand-in-hand with an enhanced commitment to the nation’s community.

Policies with small and medium enterprises in the program « Accompany Vietnamese brands » of Central Group Vietnam and Big C Vietnam will focus upon 4 segments : firstly, three year contract terms with start-ups (helping enterprises to focus on their business) ; second, commitment of availability of products at all Central Group Vietnam brands (including Big C, Lan Chi, Nguyen Kim, Robins, Zalora Vietnam…) ; third, training programs in terms of technology and other relevant skills. And fourth, opportunities to access loans with facitilated interest rate of 0% with bank partners of the program, export.