TCP Group delivering value

CEO Saravoot Yoovidhya

What are the opportunities available in Vietnam’s energy drink market?

Vietnam was our very first international office, which was opened in 2018. There were encouraging facts that reinforce our confidence in choosing Vietnam as TCP Group’s first overseas market.

Firstly, Vietnamese consumer lifestyles show high potential for growth. On average, more than 30 per cent of Vietnamese consumers’ monthly spending budget is for food and drink.

Additionally, Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in the Southeast Asian region and was one of only a few economies to post two consecutive years of GDP growth since the pandemic emerged.

Since entering the market, TCP has committed to providing the highest quality of products to Vietnamese customers. Its purpose is to respect social values and ensure sustainable development throughout its global operations. As Vietnam is one of the region’s most important and promising markets, TCP is incorporating actions of responsibility to the community and society to align with our purpose.

TCP Group invested $120 million in Vietnam between 2018 and 2020. What are the key focus areas of TCP Vietnam in this market now?

We are now planning to expand our product portfolio into the north, such as Red Bull Coffee which we have just launched. We will try to expand and develop our distribution network in order to fulfil the demand for the rest of the Vietnamese market as well.

In order to provide consumers with great brands, we invest a lot in protecting our brands. In Vietnam, anti-counterfeiting is making progress since there are great brands from big companies who have also been investing here. Therefore, I think the government has focused more on how to protect the brands, so both local and international companies can innovate and make something new for the consumers.

In the meantime, we are following our key corporate strategies to reinforce leadership in the beverage market and grow sustainably in Vietnam through fulfilling, growing, and caring, under TCP Group’s new purpose of energising a better world for all.

How will TCP Group implement its new strategies in Vietnam?

These three key strategies under the corporation’s new purpose have been implemented for the Vietnamese market through tailored activities, because we want to ensure that our corporate branding is well blended into the local context.

Under our fulfilling strategy, Vietnam has been our top priority in expanding the presence of TCP as a house of great brands. TCP Group will expand its product portfolio and production line, focusing on introducing products which are unique and tailored to the taste of Vietnam’s consumers.

With our growing strategy, we are not only acting as a 2-way trade bridge between Vietnam and Thailand, but also contributing to GDP growth and state budget revenues while increasing the proportion of exports, tech advancements, and labour productivity growth. With state-of-the-art innovative manufacturing facilities, customer-oriented services, and a strong distribution network that engender trust from our partners, we are determined to be here for the long run.

Guided by our caring strategy, TCP Group remains steadfastly committed to sustainable development, solving socioeconomic and environmental problems, spreading positive energy, and improving people’s lives. In the context of this framework, we ensure accordance with the extended producer responsibility policy, in which TCP Group is given a significant responsibility – financial and/or physical – for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products.

Moreover, we will keep delivering TCP’s global values to Vietnam’s market through innovations and local commitment, including via corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities that articulate the societal movements to reinforce TCP’s long-term commitment to Vietnam. With a professional market research team, TCP promptly acts on social issues to provide the most appropriate operation direction.

We will continue to strengthen our existing partnership and scale up our sustainability initiatives in the future to contribute even more to Vietnam’s society, and these actions reflect our new purpose well: we energise people mentally and physically to achieve any goal, creating better impact for society.

What are the group’s efforts thus far in carrying out CSR activities in the country?

From day one, TCP Vietnam has focused our efforts on our long-term commitment to Vietnam through a series of activities that resonate with the spirit of positivity and make positive contributions to the community.

Some of our most memorable achievements came from the youth-centric activities that we operated by partnering up with the Central Vietnam Youth Federation (CVYF) and the Hoang Anh Gia Lai football club. We strongly believe in investing in young people, as they are the most important force in building a future for the country.

TCP Vietnam signed an MoU with the CVYF in 2020. Through this partnership, we have been able to honour and promote positive contributions and spirit to inspire the young generation across the country, notably with the Noble Youth Award – where we reward and acknowledge those that lead by example and energise their peers with positivity; and Light of Vietnam Perseverance programme, where we celebrate 50 individuals of disabled youths who have overcome their limitations to grow, achieve, and become the inspirations for the society.

We also held the Positive Day event to spread positive energy amongst the youth of the country in 2020. The event set an Asian record with more than 2,000 participants joining a fist bump relay in a group shaped on the Vietnam map.

In our partnership with the Hoang Anh Gia Lai football club, we wanted to recruit and offer young football talents the chance to pursue a professional football career by joining the famous club itself. For this tournament, we recorded a total of over 10,000 participants, and the five most outstanding contestants have been selected to proceed further.

Additionally, during the peak of the pandemic outbreak in Vietnam, we made timely and meaningful contributions to support the community in hardship. TCP Vietnam donated a total value of more than $213,000 in both 2020 and again in 2021.

Sustainable development is key to long-term development. How does TCPVN promote sustainable development in Vietnam?

TCP Group’s mission is to respect social values and ensure sustainable development elements throughout the value chain operating in global business locations. As one of the most important and potential markets in the region, responsibility to the community and society is always the top commitment that TCP Vietnam strives to implement in all its activities in Vietnam.

Under our strategy of caring, we are elevating our environmental sustainability initiatives by focusing on the three urgent challenges of carbon neutrality, the circular economy, and water sustainability. 

TCP Group is setting a goal of being carbon-neutral in all working processes in Thailand and abroad by 2050. Under the circular economy aspect, TCP Group will develop packaging to be 100 per cent recyclable by 2024. It is also working with global environmental organisations to support the collection of used-packaging components including glass bottles, aluminium cans and plastic bottles, putting them back into the recycling cycle.

Finally, for water sustainability, TCP Group aims to replenish more water for the environment and communities than the company uses by 2030, as well as increase production efficiency and reduce water use. The company will collaborate with partners and communities in countries including Vietnam, where TCP Group factories are located, to safeguard the sustainability of water resources in those locations.