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Zing.vn some days ago quoted sales agents in Hanoi as reporting that Trung Nguyen had stopped selling instant coffee since November 10, 2015, while it did not say when it would resume the supply.
A coffee distributor in Hanoi said Trung Nguyen coffee products have been in short supply over the last month and the prices have been escalating.
“A carton of 20 G7 milk instant coffee boxes was priced at VND960,000, while it is now priced at VND990,000,” he said.
The news was confirmed by Trung Nguyen some days later. In a letter to customers and distributors, Nguyen Hoang Hiep, the group’s business director, said Trung Nguyen has stopped providing instant coffee products because it needs time for production line maintenance.
Trung Nguyen runs two factories making instant coffee, one in the southern province of Binh Duong and the other in the northern province of Bac Giang.
Now is not an appropriate time for ‘equipment maintenance’, because it is now the high sale season as the 2016 New Year and Lunar New Year will come in just two months.
Zing.vn quoted its sources as saying that Trung Nguyen has stopped making instant coffee because of ‘family problems’. However, Trung Nguyen’s representative declined to comment about the ‘family problems’ rumor.
Local newspapers cannot contact Dang Le Nguyen Vu, president of Trung Nguyen Group, though Vu has always maintained communication with the local press. Vu appeared in a series of local newspapers, stating that Trung Nguyen is not afraid of the US giant Starbucks which does not sell coffee that fits Vietnamese taste.
In 2014, at a meeting with the local press, Vu stated that Trung Nguyen is going to launch Brain Station Coffee – a take-away coffee chain for franchising, with which he targeted a startup.
However, to date, the company has only had one Brain Station Coffee in HCM City.
In 2013, when Starbucks opened its first shop in HCM City, Vu stated Trung Nguyen would sell 15 percent of its stake to get money to implement its plan to conquer the US market. However, there is no information about Trung Nguyen’s market in the US and about Trung Nguyen’s influences there.
Tri Thuc Tre has quoted its sources as saying that if Trung Nguyen stops selling G7 instant coffee, it would lose 18 percent of revenue, or VND185 billion, in 2016.
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Stores: Trung Nguyen resumes coffee supply Major stores in HCMC have confirmed that Trung Nguyen Coffee Corporation has resumed supplying its instant coffee products after a period of interruption. An executive of Lotte Mart told the Daily that the Lotte Mart supermarket chain has again got instant coffee from Trung Nguyen around 20 days after the corporation announced a supply halt for maintenance work at its factories. Representatives of other major store chains Big C and Co.opmart confirmed with the Daily about Trung Nguyen’s coffee supply resumption after two weeks of suspension. Vo Hoang Anh, marketing director at Saigon Co.op, which operates the Co.opmart store chain, said this chain still has Trung Nguyen instant coffee available for sale at its stores during the period of interruption. The executive at Lotte Mart said Trung Nguyen’s instant coffee products are now in good supply and their sales are stable. Lotte Mart had much instant coffee in stock during the supply halt, so its price did not increase. Ho Quoc Nguyen, public relations manager at Big C, said Trung Nguyen instant coffee products are selling well at the Big C stores. Earlier, the corporation sent a document signed by its director of business development Nguyen Hoang Hiep to distributors and retailers throughout the country announcing the suspension due to maintenance of machinery and production lines. The Daily managed to reach the corporation’s chairman Dang Le Nguyen Vu but to no avail. Currently, Trung Nguyen has one instant coffee factory in the southern province of Binh Duong and another in the northern province of Bac Giang. Saigon Times Daily |
Kim Chi
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