Hai Nam enthusiastic about future prospects

Huynh Quoc Hung

What has Hai Nam’s ­experience been with ­working alongside Schneider Electric, Siemens, and ­Mitsubishi, and what is your role in these collaborations?

We were founded in 2002 with the determination to become one of the top Vietnamese-based specialists in designing, manufacturing, and services for electrical switchboards and automation. After 16 years of constant growth, we are proud to be ranked among the most well-known Vietnamese suppliers for electrical equipment. Evidently, through our close partnership with Schneider Electric and Siemens, we are under strict quality control and use their technology for our productions. We are the first licensed Blokset manufacturer for Schneider and the first for Siemens in MV Simoprime and Simosec production in Vietnam.

What we do is to import and assemble materials into finished products under their brand names.

We seek buyers in Vietnam for these international giants, as well as help to solve any disputes that their Vietnamese-based customers might have.

In short, we fulfil the combined roles of the middleman, the franchisee, the producer and the mediator.

Do you manufacture products under your own brand name, and if so, what help did you receive from your partners for this?

Yes, we have products that bear our own brand name. Specifically, we collaborated with trusted partner Mitsubishi to launch our own low-voltage SSnR switchboards under the Hai Nam brand. Previously, Vietnamese managers in official development assistance (ODA) projects disagreed with Japanese investors because the two sides used different standards. Vietnam only recognises certifications by the International Electrical Commission (IEC), while Japanese products strictly follow Japanese industrial standards.

We have helped to mediate this issue by introducing Japanese-quality products under the IEC, so that both Vietnamese managers and Japanese investors are satisfied.

How do you satisfy strict ­quality requirements set by these electrical giants and your own customers?

From my experience, international clients always look for high standards and consistency. In other words, anything produced by Hai Nam must have the same high quality in all its factories, which it operates around the world. Clients also want to see whether we can keep up with our consistent quality of products and services for a long period of time and have a steady network of buyers.

We assure our clients that all of Hai Nam’s factories are certified with SGS ISO 9001:2015. The main factory is in a 17,500 square metre facility in Saigon Hi-Tech Park. It is equipped with three lines of production machines. Together with other manufacturing plants in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and overseas, our total floor area is 42,000sq.m, and operated by about 400 employees. Thanks to our state-of-the-art equipment, we can manufacture a wide range of electrical products for factories, supermarkets, airports or high-rise buildings, where electrical stability is crucial for operations.

Our clients are from various countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Japan, and Australia, among others. We send our engineer teams overseas for training annually, and constantly innovate our products to meet with higher standards from client demands.

What are Hai Nam’s next steps, and how do you take advantage of Vietnam’s growing demand for electricity as well as Industry 4.0?

The future of Vietnam’s electricity sector will indicate our own prospects. It is good news for us that more trade and investment is coming to Vietnam, so demand for electricity will certainly increase. Moreover, global Internet giants are looking to set up data centres here, which means they want to be partners with local firms that meet their high standards of electrical supply.

As per Industry 4.0, all of us are living in the age of data and automation. The electricity industry is moving along and so are we. We want to grow from being product manufacturers to service providers. The next step for Hai Nam is to offer solutions for different clients, to set up our own data centres, and to become a long-term partner for our clients. We aspire to help our clients with step-by-step guidance and a complete package of solutions or products.

In fact, we have been doing quite well with many of our loyal and well-known customers domestically and internationally. They are multinational chains, supermarkets or developers, who are our key accounts. We are currently investing in our human resources, training our engineers, and recruiting young talent from technical universities to prepare ourselves for Industry 4.0. If our customer base and product offers are diversified, we will surely stand a greater chance of growing our business and minimise market risks.

We are excited for the future and determined to go full speed ahead.