Tuoitre.vn_ Masan spent 15 million USD to buy 20% shares of Phuc Long, PhinDeli on Novaland team … compete with Starbucks, Highlands, Trung Nguyen… The participation of giants makes the coffee war great increasingly fierce.
15 million USD for 20%, so Phuc Long tea – coffee chain is valued at 75 million USD, or more than 1,700 billion VND, a number that surprised many people.
Founded in 1968 in Bao Loc, opened its first store in Saigon in the 1980s, but it was not until the giant Starbucks from the US entered Vietnam in 2013, that Phuc Long really exploded.
Phuc Long coffee and tea shops opposite Starbucks at the intersection of Phu Dong or Mac Thi Buoi and Ngo Duc Ke, prime locations in the center of Saigon, always witness the scene “out of parking spaces”, ” no seats”…
The space is young, modern, and importantly, a cup of Phuc Long tea – coffee costs only from 30,000 to 50,000 VND, half that of Starbucks, quickly attracting Saigon’s youth and tourists.
Phuc Long had to close its shop at the roundabout of Phu Dong intersection in 2019, but 4 kiosks in Vinmart+ stores in Thu Duc city contributed to bringing Phuc Long stores to approximately 80 nationwide, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City (59 stores), and Hanoi (9 stores).
This number will change quickly when Masan and Phuc Long plan to expand this model to thousands of points of sale in Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country. Masan has about 2,200 Vinmart+ stores nationwide, and that will be a formidable force.
While at this location, “rival” Starbucks is still doing well, and the number of stores of this American coffee shop has reached 70.
Of course, the two chains Starbucks and Phuc Long are in two different segments, one high-end, one medium, but that does not make the coffee war less attractive.
Phuc Long kiosk model in Vinmart supermarket in Thu Duc city – Photo: N.BINH
Entering the Vietnamese market from 2013 until now, Starbucks has 70 stores across Vietnam. Compared to domestic chains, this number is not significant, but the willingness to pay and loyal customers is what this coffee chain focuses on.
“Now, Vietnamese people are ready to pay 90,000 VND per cup of coffee, this mentality has clearly changed compared to a few years ago when Starbucks just entered the Vietnamese market,” said Patricia Marques, CEO of Stacrbuck Vietnam. time after more than 7 years present in Vietnam market.
In a coffee and tea market worth about 2.3 billion USD in Vietnam, Starbucks is considered to be positioned in the high-end segment next to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf…
In the slightly lower segment, next to Phuc Long is a very fierce competition with the participation of both new and old names. Highlands Coffee, belongs to Jollibee of the Philippines for a long time, but is still very popular with Vietnamese people and has 300 shops.
Trung Nguyen, besides the Legend brand, is trying to expand the E-Coffee franchise chain. The Coffee House, a new, young name, is also storming with 150 shops…
A series of names in the coffee industry from new to old are also transforming. The emerging Katinat chain is occupying prime locations in Saigon, besides the shops Passio Coffee, Guta… are also expanding and renewing themselves. Coffee Ong Bau of Duc – Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai, also joined the game. Dairy giant Vinamilk also dreamed of returning to the coffee market after two failures…
Last year, Vietnamese people spent about 53 trillion dong drinking tea and coffee, a growth rate of about 10% per year, which is an extremely attractive number. This makes the whole Novaland real estate group unable to stand out from the game.
King Coffee of Mrs. Le Hoang Diep Thao has just opened the first coffee shop in California, USA, which Mr. Dang Le Nguyen Vu, chairman of Trung Nguyen Legend, has said a lot but has not done yet.
Also last year, Nova F&B, a subsidiary of Nova Group, announced a strategy to expand more coffee chains with a series of names such as Saigon Casa cafe, Gloria Jean’s Coffees; Mojo Coffee, Soho Café & Lounge, Co Ba Coffee…
Recently, Nova Consumer has acquired PhinDeli, a coffee brand that appeared with the cult event that Vietnamese people bought the town of Bufort in the US. From the first 5 take-away coffee shops in 2015, this number has now reached more than 1,000 PhinDeli points of sale at convenience stores, rest stops, schools…
Insiders believe that Nova wants to put coffee shops as a “lead” point for customers to buy houses in their new urban areas, and insiders who are this corporation insist that they do not see this as a sideways step. but also the ambition to master the logistics system of the coffee industry behind it.
Mr. Bui Duc Tue – director of One IBC Vietnam, a corporation specializing in providing services for domestic and foreign investment enterprises – said that by the end of March 2021, the total foreign investment registered new, adjusted and contributed capital and bought shares of foreign investors in Vietnam reached 10.13 billion USD, up 18.5% over the same period in 2020.
Meanwhile, in the opposite direction, in the first 4 months of 2021, Vietnam’s total newly and additionally granted foreign investment capital reached 545.9 million USD, up 7.9 times over the same period in 2020.
This shows the picture of globalization and international integration, the Vietnamese market is no longer a separate “playground” for foreign investors. Vietnamese enterprises are currently very capable, competing fairly with international brands, even investing strongly abroad, occupying market share in some countries. Mr. Tue commented.
There are many problems behind the story of shaking hands with giants and opening chains, from logistics management to product quality, or consumer tastes… The coffee war, therefore, will be even more fierce. In the near future, and the title of “coffee king” will surely be a long battle between not only giants but also between traditional and modern schools.
