Giant dairy firm Vinamilk has a big thirst for international ranking

“We believe we can achieve this. We even expect to beat the target by 2016,” Vinamilk’s chairwoman Mai Kieu Lien told the company’s annual general meeting last week in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vinamilk, one of Vietnam’s champion blue-chips, would strive for a 20 per cent annual revenue growth and a 13 per cent pre-tax profit growth during the next five years, she added.
“Our strategy is to become one of the top 50 dairy companies in the world by 2017.

We’re ranked 68th now,” said Lien, who in March was named in the inaugural FORBES ASIA Power Businesswomen list. The strategy included diversifying product lines to meet increasing consumer demand, continuing to expand the distribution networks and Vinamilk branded products to be manufactured in Australia and New Zealand, she said.

The cost to produce a litre of fresh milk in Australia and New Zealand was lower than in Vietnam thanks to stunning natural conditions for raising cows and modern production technology.

Last August, a powdered milk plant in New Zealand, in which Vinamilk has a 19.3 per cent stake worth NZ$90 million ($74.43 million), became operational. The Miraka Milk powder plant’s majority stake is held by the New Zealand-based Miraka Limited.

Vinamilk by 2016 would see a two-fold increase in its current liquid milk production, 30 per cent rise in yogurt and 125 per cent up in powdered milk. Its current total capacity is 1.6 million tonnes of product.

The strategy includes expanding its existing farms and building new farms to supply more materials as Vinamilk’s production capacity soars. The company expects its herd to exceed than 30,000 cows by 2020 to provide 100,000 tonnes of fresh milk per year.

Vinamilk’s PwC-audited financial statement for 2011 shows the company reaped over VND22 trillion ($1.05 billion) in revenue and more than VND4.2 trillion ($200.8 million) in after-tax profit, surging 37 and 17 per cent on-year, respectively. Its total assets increased to VND15.58 trillion (almost $779 million), rising 45 per cent year-on-year.