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COVER STORY

Besides its good business operations, which serve R&D as well as new product application.” At the moment, with
employ more than 3,500 people and contribute It was among the most active companies in Covid-19 brought
significantly to the State budget, URC Vietnam introducing a wide variety of products that largely under control by the
also cares about corporate social responsibility meet consumer needs for healthy, nutritious,
programs. During Covid-19, it played an active and energizing solutions during such a turbulent Vietnamese Government and
role in supporting local communities to over- period. “Ultimately, what keeps us strong in with a vaccination program
come the pandemic, with billions of VND in competition is our sustainable approach, to now underway, we firmly
cash and thousands of URC products going provide a better life to our consumers, employ- believe that Vietnam’s
to frontline workers nationwide. ees, and partners alike,” he added. economy will rapidly recover
In the financial sector, Home Credit Viet- Also seeking motivation from the diffi- and consumption demand
nam saw improvements in the opening two culties, SCG Vietnam’s operational perform- will increase, which will
months of 2021, especially in the credit card ance in 2020 remained resilient thanks to
segment, which has witnessed significant the collective efforts of its employees, who enable our business to
growth and is a timely response to the policy placed priority on safety and business conti- become much better.”
from the government and State Bank of Viet- nuity. The team adopted new strategies and
nam promoting non-cash payments. In the introduced a series of agile business MR. JIRI BADR,
closing months of last year, it received a prize approaches, from modifying business plans Head of Sales at Home Credit Vietnam
from Visa for “Leadership in Credit Payment and altering sales proportions to developing
Volume Growth 2020”. the Active Omni-Channel to meet changing
“At the moment, with Covid-19 brought customer behavior. These enabled SCG to
largely under control by the Vietnamese Gov- deliver a comprehensive range of innovations, using cutting-edge technologies to minimize
ernment and with a vaccination program products, services, and solutions that catered resource usage, produce “greener products”,
now underway, we firmly believe that Viet- to market demand. provide recycling solutions, and lift manu-
nam’s economy will rapidly recover and con- For example, its packaging business facturing standards in the industry as a whole.
sumption demand will increase, which will adapted to cope with the recession by further SCG believes in Vietnam’s potential and wants
enable our business to become much better,” reinforcing its integrated business model to to cooperate with local businesses and com-
according to Mr. Jiri Badr, Head of Sales at build sustainable growth throughout ASEAN. munities to proudly send “Made-in-Vietnam”
Home Credit Vietnam. This also includes cooperating with businesses products to the world.
overseas to grow by expanding the customer The Covid-19 pandemic has affected indus-
Motivation for success base in product categories. SCG Packaging try in many different ways, including lowering
Over the past year, the foreign business recently invested in Bien Hoa Packaging and consumption power, changing shopping behav-
community in Vietnam has been united in Go-Pak UK Limited, the latter being one of ior towards healthy and safe products, creating
joining hands with the government to combat the leading food service solutions providers a need for an omni-channel approach amid
Covid-19 while keeping their business sus- in the UK, Europe, and North America, with social distancing, and disrupting supply chains
tainable. Home Credit Vietnam strived to a production facility in Vietnam’s south. due to global travel restrictions. “All of these
maintain its operations throughout and limit factors force a business, especially a regional
the negative influence of Covid-19, while Future strategies business with scale like URC, to change our
ensuring compliance with government The safety of products, employees, cus- mindset and innovate to step out of the crisis
requirements on implementing disease pre- tomers, and business partners is key to main- safely and healthily,” Mr. Levan said.
vention measures. taining business continuity, which helps SCG “At URC Vietnam, we place a strong empha-
“We also recorded a number of important sustain its business performance and move sis on effective leadership, which allows us to
achievements,” Mr. Badr said. “The total num- forward, according to Mr. Vongvanich. “The quickly respond to change while maintaining
ber of customers using Home Credit products dramatic changes in the needs and wants of business continuity. During this time, con-
and services stood at more than 12 million. our customers, especially from the digital rev- nections and partnerships with the industry
About 6.3 million people have downloaded olution fueled by Covid-19, have forced us to community allowed us to take effective measure
the Home Credit Vietnam mobile app to man- innovate and be agile. Thanks to our parent to cope with industry challenges. Moreover,
age loans and credit cards, pay bills, and enjoy company’s sustainability principles, we have to cope with current and future challenges,
promotions and measures to encourage non- steadily adjusted ourselves to meet expectations.” URC has a plan to transform our supply chain,
cash transactions. Specifically, last year we “In addition to the impact of the pandemic, in which all URC factories will apply the iLean
were the first consumer finance company in we also foresee other global challenges in system and digitize all touch points.”
Vietnam to successfully implement a paperless environmental issues, such as climate change, Home Credit Vietnam, meanwhile, has
contract signing process. We also increased waste management, and urban pollution. In also been resilient and succeeded in main-
our charter capital three times, to $88.5 2020, SCG in Thailand organized its 11th taining business continuity during this tough
million, demonstrating a long-term commit- Sustainable Development Symposium, con- period via digital transformation. Internally,
ment to Vietnam as a reliable partner of the necting hundreds of partners to discuss solu- it applied a digital approach to working and
Vietnamese people.” tions to regional challenges, including in Viet- training in all regions. “We will continue with
Meanwhile, URC Vietnam overcame the nam. Going forward, following our sustainable our improvement processes and focus on
challenges with its relentless commitment to development guidelines, SCG will focus on improving products,” Mr. Badr said. “We are
product quality and its agility in adapting to innovation and digital transformation to also trying to approach new segments. If the
fast-changing consumer demands. “Product respond to rapidly-changing customer expec- market encounters new challenges, we will
quality was guaranteed by cutting-edge man- tations, while creating more values and benefits try to utilize the existing market as much as
ufacturing technologies and the rigorous man- for the environment and society.” we can. These explain how Covid-19 helped
agement of world-class quality and food safety Internally, he went on, the company aims us to speed up a lot of our processes, and this
standards,” said Mr. Levan. “The company to join hands with partners in Vietnam to is how we maintained our position during
also has an in-house central laboratory to adopt a sustainable approach to business, the pandemic.” %

APRIL 2021 | VIETNAM ECONOMIC TIMES | 17