Entrepreneur Le Thi Thanh Lam: Together with Saigon Food to Capture the Market

Originating the concept "Food must be changed because people are fed up with only one kind of food” plus her cooking keenness, since S.G Fisco Company (now Saigon Food) was set up in 2003, she and her employees have constantly studied to introduce new product lines like frozen hot-pot soup with broth packets. This is considered a breakthrough in the frozen food industry because the company brings housewives a unique, convenient and economical tasty product. This success is proven by the increasing popularity of frozen soup in family meals. Not only hot-pot soups, Saigon Food Joint Stock Company is proud to be the pioneer of many innovative products for consumers during the past nine years.

 

She is never satisfied to rest with just that achievement, because frozen food serves a large group of consumers. Since the company was renamed Saigon Food Joint Stock Company with new development strategies, it has produced new product lines kept at room temperature to serve more customers.

 

The S.G Soup nutritious porridge line introduced in late 2012 also received positive consumer feedback. This product has many outstanding features like nutritiousness, instant use and six-month lifespan. This is considered a universal product because it serves all consumers and can be used anytime, anywhere. This is what she has longed for.

 

While trying to create new products to meet diverse market demands, she always pays attention to improving product quality and deems it a vital element of the business. To have nutritious products with guaranteed hygiene and safety, regardless of serving export or domestic markets, the company has built a supply chain for its factories by joining hands with farmers and input production facilities. Thus, input sources of Saigon Food Joint Stock Company always have good quality.

 

Saigon Food is one of seafood companies applying a lot of international quality management systems to formulate closely managed and controlled production processes. She holds that international quality management standards like ISO, HACCP and BRC are the most effective tools to manage product quality, as well as the company’s overall operations. Many companies want to learn from her experience.

 

At a trade fair on April 30, 2012, Saigon Food researched and cooked a special hot-pot soup to serve 1,000 people. This hot-pot was rated the largest hot-pot by the Vietnam Records. This gift was an expression of the company’s gratitude to all customers who trusted and used Saigon Food quality products in the past years. This was also an assertion that hot pot is a typical product of Saigon Food.

 

Not only devoted to business, Ms Le Thi Thanh Lam is also very active in social activities. In 2012, she joined Luong Van Can Excellence Awards organised by the Saigon Businesspeople Newspaper and Saigon Entrepreneurs Club. In addition to 30 scholarships (VND2.5 million each) granted by Saigon Food Joint Stock Company, she also personally sponsored the contest. She and the contest organising board worked with universities across the country to select good students, grant scholarships and share valuable experiences with students. Ms Lam said in 2013 she and Saigon Food would continue funding Luong Van Can Excellence Awards and she would personally serve as an advisor to Luong Van Can Excellence Club.

 

As a meticulous and dedicated woman, she takes care of workplace and employees in all details. She always guides and corrects behaviours and communications of her employees. In 2012, in the face of economic difficulties, Saigon Food spent much time training corporate culture and issued the Saigon Food Culture Handbook in an effort to build the corporate culture. She added “My standpoint is to create a professional but friendly, passionate environment, like a family, for all employees to have a stronger attachment and enthusiasm for the company.”

 

With her achievements and efforts in business and her contributions to social activities, in 2012, she was named the "Outstanding Entrepreneur of Ho Chi Minh City." This is the important encouragement for her and the leadership of Saigon Food to lead the company to more success in both domestic and international markets.