Thong Nhat matchboxes

The decision was announced at a recent irregular meeting of shareholders. After 60 years of operations, the company will stop all match production from 2020 and delist from UPCoM. The financial reserve fund will be used to support the workforce.

Matches have lost their market as technology develops. The main materials used to make matchboxes are woods, paper and different chemical substances. The company has to import the chemicals from overseas and has to face difficulties from changing global prices.

In 2018, Thong Nhat Match JSC sold 98 million matchboxes, much lower than 180 million boxes from 10 years ago. Last year, they produced 112 tonnes of matches, a decrease of 20% compared to 2017. Their goal by the end of 2019 is to earn VND113bn (USD4.9m) in revenue, much lower than 2018 goals.

Despite the company's name, matches and matchboxes are no longer its main product. The company leaders admitted that matches have low commercial value and there were a lot of replaceable products. Decreasing demand is unavoidable as matchboxes are being replaced by lighters.

Thong Nhat Match JSC was established in 1956 and its matchbox brand quickly became a household name. However, in 2014, the company had suffered losses due to low matchbox demand and pushed to make more lighters instead.

Lao Dong/Dtinews

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