Our company has invested more than USD 20 million to double the capacity as of 5 years ago to meet the demand for domestic consumption and export.
Mr. Kajiwara Junichi – General Director of Acecook Vietnam said that, thanks to the application of modern technology, high capacity, the company has not only improved the product safety, but it has also reduced production costs in order to focus on investing and diversifying new products for both domestic and international markets.
How do you assess the level of competition in the instant noodle market in Vietnam?
The instant noodle market in Vietnam has become increasingly competitive. However, that would be the motivation for all companies to improve their quality and better serve the needs of consumers.
There is a great potential for market development of instant noodles as well as packed food in Vietnam. The problem is whether the businesses could find a suitable product to meet consumers’ demand.
What is the deciding factor for success of doing instant noodle business?
In Japan, the Kaizen philosophy has been widely applied and has greatly contributed to the growth of each business as well as the economy of Japan.
The Kaizen philosophy focuses on the improvement and administration of product quality, with the final aim to serve the customers, increase product benefits to maximize customer satisfaction and the ultimate beneficiary is the customers. Hence, any activities not improving product values and customer satisfaction should be discarded.
Same goes with instant noodle business, success must follow the focus on improvement and administration of product quality to serve and satisfy customers. To do this, the most basic important condition and minimum requirement are safety and assurance.
At Acecook, we materialize the ideas and flavors for the products to improve satisfaction level of customers, and also setting the harmony between the values and selling price of the products.
To talk about deciding factor for successful instant noodle business, I can summarize in these key words: safety – assurance, quality – improvement, value – benefit and price. If this order cannot be followed or the starting keywords are underestimated to reduce product price, failure is for sure.
Acecook once spent millions of USD to purchase production lines. What has this investment done for the company?
At Acecook, we make the most investment for technology. In 2012, we constructed our second factory in HCM city. This is the top modernized factory in Southeast Asia, with 3 high speed production lines costing approximately USD 5-8 million each, depending on the type of product.
The most advanced equipment to date for instant noodle production technology has been set up at the factory, boosting production capacity of the company to twice as much as 3-5 years ago. Thanks to that, the company has been able to improve safety of all product lines and reduce production costs.
How does the company control input ingredients to ensure food sanitation and safety?
Our company is aware that, quality sources of ingredients are necessary for quality products. To do that, the company has been controlling input ingredients by conducting frequent evaluation and giving instructions to the suppliers.
It is not only about evaluating at the time of buying but also watching how they produce, to ensure they meet the standards of food safety and sanitation and other quality control criteria such as ISO 9001, HACCP, IFS, BRC… The evaluation process is highly strict and is re-implemented annually.
What is the next strategy for Acecook Vietnam?
We will concentrate on bringing back the life of instant noodle sector by actively providing correct information regarding instant noodles to consumers and develop new flavors and products nutrition-wise.
Besides, the sector of cup noodles and instant food from rice, instant vermicelli has seen very good growth rate; therefore, the company shall continue to invest in development and expansion of this potential sector in the future.
In 2017, the company also planned for export boost. Our goal is to raise export revenue ratio from 8% to 20% in upcoming years.
By Thanh Thu (Vnexpress)
