Saigon Co.op: Affirming Leadership in Vietnam’s Retail Market

With its 36-year leadership in the Vietnamese retail market, Ho Chi Minh City Union of Trading Cooperatives - Saigon Co.op has maintained consistent development and innovation. The cooperative has gradually diversified retail models, adopted digital transformation, restructured personnel and management, streamlined business stages, and brought the best quality and service to consumers.

Currently, Saigon Co.op is serving 1 million customers a day

Transformation to adapt to market economy

In the early 1990s, the old cooperative model exposed numerous shortcomings that resulted in forced dissolutions on a large scale. In that context, Saigon Co.op was transformed with two functions: Promoting cooperative movements and directly doing business. With support from cooperative movements in Japan, Singapore and Sweden, the “modern market” Co.opmart Cong Quynh was born in 1996, becoming a living proof of daring to think, daring to do and daring to change to lay an important foundation for the birth of the first modern retail system in Vietnam. And after nearly three decades, dwellers in Ho Chi Minh City in particular and people in the country in general have a familiar, prestigious Vietnamese-only retail brand with a strong cooperative character.

With the motto “Vietnamese supermarket, built by Vietnamese people, served by Vietnamese people”, the share of Vietnamese goods in Saigon Co.op's distribution systems has consistently remained over 90%. Saigon Co.op also supports and stays ready to cooperate with agricultural, industrial and handicraft producers to create opportunities to promote brands, expand markets and develop business. Saigon Co.op also facilitates cooperatives nationwide in selling goods in the supermarket system with output and revenue growing by 10-15% a year.

In 2024, as the global and domestic economies faced many challenges, Saigon Co.op overcame these difficulties to obtain a milestone revenue of nearly VND30,000 billion, maintain gross profit, generate additional rental income and control costs. Notably in 2024, more than 10% of its sales came from e-commerce, growing by nearly 50% from a year earlier and Co.op-branded products grew by 7% year on year. Currently, Saigon Co.op is serving 1 million customers a day, with more than 4 million loyal members, and running more than 800 outlets, including Co.opmart supermarket along with other brands in the retail ecosystem such as Co.opXtra, Co.opFood, Co.op Smile, Cheers 24h, SC Vivo City, Sense City and SenseMarket, covering all market segments.

Regarding network development, in 2024, all distribution models of Saigon Co.op, including Co.opmart, Co.opXtra, Co.op Food, Co.op Smile, Finelife and Cheers, opened new outlets to expand its retail area. In particular, typical new outlets like Co.opmart Pham The Hien, Co.opXtra Long Binh, Co.opXtra Ta Quang Buu and Finelife Lumiere An Phu are operated in a streamlined manner, incorporating creative innovations and cutting-edge AI technologies to deliver optimal experiences to customers. In 2024, Saigon Co.op officially ventured into a new business field, beginning with the opening of Charmant Suites Can Tho Hotel and the commencement of a commercial service-office project at 102 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, completing the final piece in its strategy for investment, development, management and operation of commercial properties. The cooperative further enhanced digital transformation, logistics operations and warehousing systems together with goods restructuring, actively participated and implemented many trade promotion events, carried out Saigon Co.op-specific unique programs, continued to promote, seek and build material supply sources, and gradually adapted to the green transformation trend.

Saigon Co.op General Director Nguyen Anh Duc highlighted the "cooperative quality" of Saigon Co.op - a special collective economic model: "Saigon Co.op is a new type of cooperative organization based on the principle of collective ownership and business autonomy. These intrinsic values have helped the cooperative absorb positive values and create a driving force for change."

Always for the community

With the meaningful principle of "We are for all, all are for us" which has been persistently in place since its inception, Saigon Co.op has regularly organized community activities. To mark an important milestone demonstrating its deep commitments to society, Saigon Co.op launched the Co.op Cares platform with 150 social projects and many exciting activities on online platforms that brought about a ripple effect to customers and the community in 2024. This is one of the key projects of Saigon Co.op in the series of celebratory activities for its 35th anniversary.

Upholding its role in the cooperative movement, business support, coordination and cooperation between Saigon Co.op and member cooperatives continue to be maintained and strengthened. Saigon Co.op closely coordinates with the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance to support domestic cooperatives, typically assisting the formation of agricultural value chains between the Saigon Co.op supermarket system and producers, largely agricultural products and OCOP products. Given positive results, Saigon Co.op continues to receive many noble titles such as "Vietnam Cooperative Star 2024" and "Contributions to Cooperative Development" awarded by the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance.

Saigon Co.op focuses on market stabilization and connecting supply with demand. In 2024, more than 473 mobile sales trips were deployed to poor communes in remote areas, industrial parks and export processing zones to serve consumers at stable prices.

In addition, Saigon Co.op pioneers and actively joins environmental protection events like "Green consumption" program, "Controlling the quality of goods in Ho Chi Minh City - Green badge of responsibility" program and "Green living" movement, thus helping change the awareness of consumers and customers about using eco-friendly products and minimizing environmental waste.

Saigon Co.op proactively responds to the HCM City People's Committee in a series of socioeconomic development cooperation programs between HCM City and other provinces and cities across the country to develop supply chains, commodity value chains, connect supply and demand sides, promote trade and circulate goods in accordance with the orientation and planning of each province and city. As a result, many cooperation agreements have been signed with provinces, cities and localities across the country to expand nationwide goods distribution through Co.opmart, Co.opXtra and Co.op Food outlets and more.

Toward the digital era

General Director Nguyen Anh Duc said, based on its insightful assessment and analysis of socioeconomic development, retail market, consumer trends and internal challenges, with the 2025 operating theme of "Innovation, Discipline - Strengthening Digitalization", Saigon Co.op has focused on implementing key tasks, including the sales growth of 4-6% and even 10%, a higher profit margin than in a year earlier, 154 new outlets added to its network, and VND3,500 billion of e-commerce sales, up over 30% over 2024. In the first half of 2025, Saigon Co.op's new e-commerce platform is expected to be officially launched, enabling it to improve its competitiveness in the retail market and effectively reach potential young customers.

Continuing the "35-year journey of bringing happiness to Vietnamese families", all the leadership and the staff of Saigon Co.op are determined to fully implement five key areas and nine fundamental projects to boost the business performance of the entire system in 2025.

By Duy Anh, Vietnam Business Forum