VietNamNet Bridge – There is the least to say about operating a coffee lounge, where patrons habitually drop by to sip some drinks while gossiping with friends or surfing the Internet, simply because the model is no new at all. There is not much to brag about opening a take-away coffee shop, as it is after some time no longer trendy when the cash-and-carry practice is losing its appeal. For newcomers, there must be a new way in the business. So Nghia Pham conceived the idea of delivering coffee to the door, and he launched it, and then succeeded.

Phin Cafe delivery man makes coffee for customers in downtown HCMC

At least the image is strange, and stirs up curiosity. At a certain corner of the city, one may see the mobile coffee bars – referring to motorcycles fitted with a big yellow box containing all the ingredients to prepare coffee for customers – stationed around, and in no time, those mobile servicemen will diffuse to all areas in the city upon orders. Of course there is also a telephone operator, via the number 0919 471 188, who knows from where the order comes to dispatch a mobile bar. And it takes less than 15 minutes.

Nghia Pham, or Pham Le Tuan Nghia, adopts the new serving style, but retains all the traditional ingredients and the old recipe. In yellow container on a mobile coffee bar are coffee, fresh milk, condensed milk, and ice. It costs reasonable prices of VND15,000 for black coffee and VND17,000 for coffee with milk.

His business is named Phin Café, literally meaning filtered coffee, because most coffee lovers in the city, argues Nghia, still love the age-old way of brewing coffee through a filter.

Phin Café was born around two years ago.

The new business style is convenient for customers. Nghia says that in recent rainy days in Saigon, the service is quite convenient for lazy bones, especially those who normally wake up late and have to rush to work in the morning. Phin Café works as sweet treat, with which one just simply has to pick up the phone and enjoy coffee in a couple of minutes.

But the business model was developed only after much laborious thinking. The owner, who decided to quit his former job at a local newspaper to plunge himself into the market, says he has witnessed fierce competition among different coffee shops and take-away coffee operators. Nghia knew he had to find a new way to serve his customers, which is to launch mobile coffee service, not for customers to stop by and take their coffee away, but to bring it right to their places.

Nghia says this style of serving coffee helps him from competing directly with other coffee shops which have been growing like mushrooms around the city.

The mobile coffee service also spares him the big cost of leasing space, and all business now is conducted at his own apartment, where his staffs gather each morning to prepare for a full day of service.

To run this mobile service, Nghia builds up a team of all young men, who are mostly students, to work as delivery men and bartenders as well.

The team is equipped with uniforms and single-seated motorcycles in yellow, which make them easy to recognize on the street.

Nghia is attentive to the quality of coffee as well, having been aware of the frequent complaints about substandard coffee made from soybean and chemical additives. The coffee bean at Phin Café is selected from Buon Me Thuot in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, which is known for the top-notch bean quality in Vietnam. He wants to build fame for his new coffee business.

It might be too early to claim his new way of coffee a success, since two years is just a short span of time for a new business style to prove itself. A new trend needs more tests in the real life to prove itself not an ‘easy come, easy go’ mode, but for the moment, Nghia is enjoying the first fruit of his first business.

SGT/VNN