Entrepreneur Au Ngoc Vung Affirming Businesswoman Calibre

 

Looking at the magnificent premises of Au Vung Company today, its hard to imagine the company had such a low starting point. Au Ngoc Vung, General Director, began with a small shrimp collecting agent in Ca Mau province in 1996. “It was thought that was a big estate, but I had nothing worthwhile then," she recalled.

 

As the margin for a shrimp procurement agent is very low, she was very active to learn new ways to do better business. Instead of collecting materials and selling them to producers, she decided to sign outsourcing contracts for other factories in search of better returns.

 

However, as she had to hire subcontractors, she sometimes encountered difficulties because she was unable to tightly control output, delivery schedule, and especially product quality. Thus, after accumulating experience and some capital, she started with production to ensure quality for consumers. In 2006, she decided to establish a company and Au Vung Export Seafood Processing Joint Stock Company was granted a business licence by the Bac Lieu Department of Planning and Investment on February 17, 2006. It had an initial investment capital of US$2 million.

 

Since its inception, Au Vung Company has set six quality objectives in business and production operations: Living quality for employees; input quality; factory process, product quality; service quality, and quality for consumers. Besides, all processes relating procurement, processing and export meet international quality management standards like ISO2000: 2005, HACCP, BRC and HALAL.

 

With an area of 1,300 square metres, the company’s processing factory currently employs more than 300 local workers. Its main products include giant tiger prawn and white-legged shrimp made under the peeled, deveined and tail off (PD) and peeled deveined and tail on (PDTO) processes for export to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Export turnover reached US$130 million in 2004.

 

For an export seafood processing company, inputs always play a very important role, as they not only ensure uninterrupted operation but also determine the quality of finished products. Locating its factory in material zones is also an advantage for the company. Au Vung Factory No. 1 is located in Gia Rai district, a bordering district of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces. “With a shrimp farming area of about 130,000 ha in the region, placing a factory here will help the company purchase inputs easily and control product quality,” said General Director Vung.

 

However, domestic and global economic slowdown in recent years and stiff competition on material and export markets has considerably affected business operations of companies, including seafood processors. She added that unexpected weather conditions have caused huge difficulties for shrimp farming and output, resulting in a great hardship for the company to collect enough input materials for production. Besides, Vietnamese seafood enterprises are facing fierce competition in prices with other shrimp-exporting countries such as India and Bangladesh.

 

These require the company to be quick enough in business operation and administration. With rich experience with the shrimp industry, to deal with input issues, she only selected suppliers proven both to have high-quality products and to ensure food safety and hygiene. She also carefully studies market factors to impose appropriate export prices to compete with rival exporters, both from Vietnam and other nations. Besides, the company always trains and helps its employees to follow higher training courses to improve professional skills and accumulate experience.

 

Specifically, to expand production, improve the position and enhance competitiveness on the market, the company decided to invest in the second seafood processing factory, which was kicked on in April 2015 on 60,000 square metres. The facility comprises a working office section covering 1,500 square metres, seven production lines, six freezers, and one cold storage facility with a capacity of 1,500 tonnes. The factory, which costs US$12 million in the first phase and is expected to go into operation in the third quarter of 2015 and employ 700 workers, has an annual output capacity of 15,000 tonnes. With modern production lines, the factory will turn out value-added products like Nobashi, Sushi, Tempura, seasoned and steamed shrimps, and Ebi-Fry for export to new markets such as North America, Japan and Europe.

 

In the second phase, Au Vung Company will build a new complex covering 18,300 square metres, which consists of villas, one swimming pool, two tennis courts, three soccer fields, four golf courts and two volleyball courts. This is also an entertainment and sporting address for employees and partners.

 

The company’s exports reached US$56 million in 2012, US$104 million in 2013 and US$130 million in 2014. With this growth rate, the value is expected to top US$170 million in 2015. When the second factory goes into operation, the export revenue will exceed US$200 million.

 

With its contributions to socioeconomic development, Au Vung Company and Entrepreneur Au Ngoc Vung have been presented numerous valuable awards and merits from the Party, the Government of Vietnam, and local governments, typically the “Hall of Fame for Company of the Year”, “Top 50 Best-growing Enterprises” Award, “Top 500 Fastest-growing Enterprises” Award, the Certificate of Appreciation for the cause of national economic development from the President of Vietnam, and Golden Rose Cup.

 

After 20 years of construction and development, Au Vung aims to become a leading seafood exporter in the country. Given its development and devotion of the staff, this prospect is within reach.