Joint venture formed by major beverage groups Vinamilk and Kido

It is believed that the joint venture between Vinamilk and Kido will become the second-placed beverage corporation

According to the announcement from Kido, the company contributed 49 per cent of the capital, with the rest put in by Vinamilk. The new joint venture will focus on producing beverages, ice-creams, and frozen food, excluding soft drinks and sparkling water.

Tran Le Nguyen, general director of Kido, said that Vinamilk and Kido pooling their strengths to establish Vibev will enhance their power in the market. The joint venture will also aid these companies in avoiding merger pressure from foreign companies and ensure their future development.

The representative of Kido stated that both Vinamilk and Kido are national brands. Vinamilk is the leading dairy company, while Kido takes the highest share in the ice cream market in Vietnam.

Vinamilk is the largest dairy products company in Vietnam, occupying over 55 per cent market share in the dairy industry. The company has a variety of products like milk, energy drinks, and holds 8.8 per cent of the ice cream industry.

Kido is the leader of the Vietnamese ice cream industry with a 41.4 per cent market share, according to 2019 figures by market research company Euromonitor International. Its core products comprise of ice creams, dairy beverages, and frozen food. Kido is aiming to expand its markets in Southeast Asia and Asia.

According to Kido, the beverage industry has been surging in recent years. In 2019, the industry gained VND124 trillion ($5.4 billion) of revenue, up 8.4 per cent against 2015. It is expected that the revenue will grow by 6.3 per cent in 2020-2023 to reach VND134 trillion ($5.83 billion).

In the beverage segment, drinks without gas went from 37 per cent of the beverage market in 2014 to 41 per cent in 2019 and accounted for VND51 trillion ($2.2 billion) of the company's total revenue.

On the contrary, soft drinks generated a low revenue of VND28 trillion ($1.2 billion) in 2019, taking 22 per cent, declining from 24 per cent in 2014.