AGTEX28: Steady Outreach to the “Vast Sea”

From a small-scale military uniform production factory, after more than 40 years of continuous development, 28 Corporation (Agtex28) has grown to become the strongest logistics unit in the army. Since its inception, the corporation has always stayed one step ahead of the demand to invest in human resources and technologies to improve productivity and product quality, and confidently asserted its position as a seasoned leading bird of the Vietnamese garment and textile industry. The corporation has also played an important role in polishing the image and reputation of Vietnamese garment and textile brands on the international arena.

The leadership confirmed
As a unit of the General Department of Logistics, the Ministry of National Defence, Agtex28 is active in garment and textile, petroleum and real estate. Particularly, garment and textile is the core business synchronously invested with a closed production system from spinning, weaving and dyeing to finishing and direct distribution to the market. To meet general requirements of new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs) to which Vietnam is a signatory and shift its production from outsourcing to FOB and ODM production to raise the added value to products, Agtex28 has always taken the lead in investment for modern production factories, machinery and equipment powered by state-of-the-art technology to meet the most advanced international standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and SA 8000 and ensure the highest quality of products for customers.

With 11 workshops and 85 production lines, Agtex28 is capable of supplying over 3.3 million men’s and women’s shirts, 1.5 million sets of men’s and women’s suits and 6.5 million uniforms a year. Especially, with skilful and diligent employees, Agtex28 always ensures best products for the market and pleases even the choosiest customers cross the world.

In proportion with intensive investment and customer trust, the corporation’s consumer market has been further diversified and expanded. At present, 80 per cent of the output is for export, with an annual turnover of US$90 - 100 million, of which the European Union (EU) accounts for 60 per cent; the United States, 30 per cent; and Japan and other markets, 10 per cent. The corporation’s exports include many well-known brands in the world such as Hugo Boss, Nike, Pierre Cardin, Moss, Ted Bake, Mc Gor and Nara Camicie. In the domestic market, Agtex28 is particularly shining with upmarket Belluni fashion brand for businesspeople and white collars.

Belluni brand impressions

Inheriting and innovating traditional values and combining them with European fashion elites, Agtex's Belluni brand has gradually asserted itself in Vietnamese fashion as a premium fashion brand for men, office worker and successful businessmen. With a diverse product line-up including suits, shirts, trousers, pants and Polo shirts, Belluni always wears luxury, bravery and power on men, thus helping them show up the virtue of Vietnamese gentlemen of the new era characterised by worldly-wise in style, deep in thought, decisive in action and successful in life.

In design, Belluni products are kept up to date with trendy features in the international fashion industry to better meet consumer needs and tastes and make its products new and impressive. Regarding materials used, Belluni brand has utilised advanced technologies and new materials to select and develop super-material shirt lineups such as BAMBOO NANO TENCEL with material made from bamboo fibres, ION SILVER made from antibacterial yarn, and MODAL made from oak fabric.

Belluni shirts feature such superiorities as deodorance, antibacteria, health protection, absorbency and non-wrinkle, making them able to keep form after many times of washing. Especially in 2017, Belluni has officially introduced the new, more advanced and superior fabric called COFREX - the combination of advantages of polyester fibres with cotton fabric finishing technology. This is also an important factor for Belluni-branded Cofrex shirts to give the most comfort to wearers and shape a new trend in fashion material.

With a desire to make Belluni a Top 5 fashion brand in Vietnam, Agtex28 has focused on developing the domestic market by opening a series of Belluni shops and met consumer needs in the domestic market in the past years. With this effort, the corporation’s distribution system has strongly expanded with many Belluni shops in the big cities such as Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Binh Dinh, Quan Ngai, Danang, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Hanoi and Thai Nguyen and sold in major shopping malls like Coop Mart, BigC, Vincom and Aeon Mall.

Strong desire to lift up the brand

Not only leading the garment and textile industry, Agtex28 is also very successful in petroleum and real estate business. Particularly in the petroleum business, from the first filling station in Long Binh, Dong Nai province in 1997, the corporation is now running a series of petrol stations in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Ca Mau, Binh Duong, Hanoi and other localities. Annually, Agtex28 provides hundreds of millions of litres of gasoline for the army, agencies, companies, wholesalers and retailers. To import petroleum products, the corporation is focusing on developing synchronous and modern storage and transport systems.

In real estate business, Agtex28 has confidently marked its brand name on many large-scale projects such as Loteco Industrial Park, Agtex - Long Binh Industrial Park, Do Son Industrial Park - Haiphong City as well as office buildings and trade centres for rent in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quy Nhon and other localities.

Always excellently fulfilling both military tasks and economic development tasks, over the past 40 years, Agtex28 has made great contributions to Vietnam's garment and textile industry as well as to the national economy as a whole. The today Agtex28 is distantly different from itself more than 40 years ago in progress, maturity and innovation. This success is the crystallisation of an ongoing process of making unceasing efforts of Agtex28 employees. Never being satisfied with its sweet fruits, the corporation will focus on boosting internal strength, taking advantage of external forces and constantly improve competitiveness in the coming time to gradually bring Agtex28 to a new level of development with diversified ownership and business scopes.

PV