With 12 years’ experience in manufacturing and developing high-class ceramic tiles, Catalan has continuously strived for development, affirmed its strong brand and extended to global markets. Behind its efforts to become a leading producer of construction materials are long stories about business and management.
Choosing individual path to sustainable development
Currently, the domestic tile market is facing tough difficulties as a result of oversupply, increasingly competitive and selling pressures, let alone cheaper, well-designed imports from China and India. While the actual production capacity of Vietnamese factories is about 600 million square meters a year, the domestic demand is about 542 million square meters. While a part is being exported, about 30 million square meters are being imported a year. This means that the domestic output is already in excess of demand. Many tile producers have to reduce expenses, slow investment, and scale down or suspend output.
Catalan Joint Stock Company adapted to maintain a reasonable production scale and avoid inventory pressures, researched and produced different high-quality product lines to dominate the domestic high-end segment which is being filled by imports and, at the same time, seek to make inroads into vast export markets. Its typical high-class products include Matt Satin, Vitinh and Lappato enameled products and technologically surfaced Carving and Deep-ink tiles.
Grasping right market trends and shaping economic development orientations plays a key role in current business strategy. Proven keen to catch new development trends, in 2017-2018, Catalan proposed and was approved by the Ministry of Construction and the Bac Ninh Provincial People’s Committee to invest in high-tech application to production with the scale doubling to more than 50 hectares. In particular, Catalan is always aware of its responsibility to community and society by investing in green technology, a wastewater treatment system, a green campus and a specialized kiln powered by CNG and LPG technology.
The success of Catalan brand is linked to the dedication of the soul of Catalan during the past 12 years - President and CEO Cao Viet Xung. He knows how to devise right business development strategies and directions, knows how to promote its advantages, adhere to the business philosophy of sustainable growth and effective risk management, taking professionalism and customer satisfaction as a compass for all activities. He is not only an innovative entrepreneur, a leader of science and technology, but also an experienced, business-sensitive manager. CEO Cao Viet Xung said, “If we want to reach out to the world, we must build modern enterprises and factories. At the same time, we also strive to build a corporate culture of humanity and transparency, preserve prestige, stimulate creative thinking, encourage learning and growth, and actively take part in community and social development activities for all to devote and be recognized. At present, the top concern of Catalan in development strategy is intensive investment for technology and people - the values that make Catalan modern and internationally integrative.”
Bringing Vietnamese brand to the world
Bringing Vietnamese products to the international market is the dream of many businesses but not all can do it. To reach out to the world, products must overcome strict standard barriers of importing countries, and fiercely compete in quality and price with strong competitors. In particular, modernity is one of prerequisites for a construction material producer to reach international stature.
Looking back on the past 12 years, Deputy General Director and Factory Manager Nguyen Van Nguyen said, “Investing in Sacmi Italia advanced know-how is a right long-term investment direction that brings long-term sustainable fruits to the company because good technology helps protect the environment, ensure product quality standards, and help us step into the international playing field more easily. Accepting high investment costs and using advanced technology to have quality products is the company's option and policy." The company’s technological lines are sourced from the most famous brands in the world such as Sacmi - Italy and Gamma 75 Durst digital printers - Germany. The company invested in two more lines with the PH6500 compressors and PH7500 compressors. Catalan is proud to be the first factory in Vietnam to own PH7500 compressors - the largest and most modern compressors made by Sacmi of Italy. Therefore, Catalan bricks feature hardness, sharpness and high quality. With European-standard modern machinery, Catalan ceramic tiles are highly appreciated by experts and consumers for quality, color, pattern, mechanical strength, chemical resistance and high durability in severe weather conditions. Inputs are also extremely important to make quality products. To meet increasing demands of domestic consumers and export products to demanding markets such as Europe, Catalan’s material managers import premium inputs from world-leading brands like Colorobbia, Itaca, Torecid, Vetri and Ferro, instead of using cheap ones to reduce product costs to build up customer trust and bring best benefits to consumers.
So far, through three stages of investment and development, Catalan has grown in scale and output capacity. The company invested nearly VND2,000 billion to produce 25 million square meters a year, created jobs for more than 1,000 workers with an average monthly income of more than VND8 million, built an environment-friendly factory campus and a clean and spacious housing area for employees that not all companies can do.
The open future comes with both opportunities and challenges, requiring Catalan employees to promote the tradition of solidarity, dedication and creativity to add new impetuses for Catalan to become a leading manufacturer of building materials in Vietnam, especially when the construction market develops both domestically and internationally. Certainly, Catalan will be a leading producer of building materials in the world.
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