Transport, retail firms make unexpected business moves

Vinasun Corporation, the second biggest taxi firm, has just started selling pomelos in its taxis. Each taxi hangs up a bag of two Tam Tan pomelos at the price of VND64,000 per kilogramme.

Ta Long Hi, deputy general director of Vinasun, said that selling pomelos in taxi has been implemented for a few days and the innovation received widespread approval and support from Vinasun drivers. These pomelos are the products of Tam Tan Co., Ltd., a company of Vinasun chairman Dang Phuoc Thanh.

“The pomelos have been sold for many years and have their own reputation. However, recently, to support drivers’ finances, Thanh has promoted selling products in the taxis and giving drivers a commission. After each pomelo sold, drivers can earn 20 per cent—the more sales, the more commission. At present, we are implementing this programme for 700-800 drivers in District 1, 3, and 5 in Ho Chi Minh City,” Hy said.

He added that although the programme has been launched for only a few days, drivers earn VND50,000-100,000 ($2.2 - $4.4) per day on average and the better sellers can even earn VND300,000-400,000 ($13 - $17) a day. Drivers usually register and get the pomelos to sell from the taxi operating offices. If they want to restock, they can call and the pomelos will be shipped to them. When the trial run is finished, if it is largely supported, Vinasun will expand the programme’s scale.

Similarly, Vietnamese consumer electronics retailer Mobile World Investment Corporation surprised the market by selling clean vegetables through its chain of Bach hoa XANH stores, and recently, the company intends to sell Vietlott lottery tickets at Dien may XANH stores.

Nguyen Duc Tai, chairman of Mobile World, said that the company has no detailed implementation plan for selling lottery tickets yet. However, in the next few months, the trial run may take place in three or four stores. “We will work with authorised dealers instead of Vietlott. This plan is aimed to diversify the company’s products, as well as benefit customers,” Tai said.

In October 2016, another consumer electronics retailer, FPT Retail, entered into cooperation with Vinamilk, the largest diary producer, to open a chain of stores to sell Vinamilk’s products. Both parties have started test runs in a few stores and they anticipated to expand the business if seeing positive results.

According to FPT Shop’s leaders, this cooperation is aimed to diversify business lines. This is a new model based on FPT Retail's advantage in retail management as well as Vinamilk’s advantage in production and distribution. However, the main target is that FPT wants to find a potential and less risky investment besides its core business.

An expert in Ho Chi Minh City said that despite diversifying business lines, this cooperation is only temporary. Also, it may reflect that the core business lines of these firms may be stagnating.

Nevertheless, on the other side, if firms can turn these grocery sales into a professional business and have good advertisement and customer service, this might just set them apart in customers’ eyes. Meanwhile, this is an opportunity for them to invest in a variety of new fields.

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