Vietnamese enterprise beats top companies in Singapore, dominates paint market in lion island

‘’In the first year, they consider me nothing. They said Vietnam has only cashew nuts, coffee, bamboo but can’t bring science to Singapore. I do not know to do business, not know marketing as well. I just told them to try my products. Two years later, if they find them good, then pay me money.’’ Nguyen Thi Hoe, Chairwoman of Kova Paint Group recalled.

Nguyen Thi Hoe, Chairwoman of Kova Paint Group

In a letter addressed to customers of Kova Paint Group, Founder cum Chairwoman of the Board Group Nguyen Thi Hoe expressed her aspiration that is “to develop a Vietnamese – owned paint brand that becomes a recognized manufacturer all over the world’’.

Associate Professor. Dr Nguyen Thi Hoe was a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh University of Technology. She received Kovalevskaya Prize - a prestigious award for female scientists and was on the list of 1000 woman nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She calls herself “A scientist that does business’’. In more than two decades of Kova’s development, she has many times been “reckless”, one of which is to occupy the Singapre market – the most demanding market in Southeast Asia.

‘’In the first year, they considered me nothing’’

Singapore is one of the cleanest countries in the world. It requires a very strict quality of goods. The penetration into this market is extremely complex.

“Bringing Vietnamese-owner paint to Singapore is a recklessness. When I go to Singapore, they said Vietnam has only cashew nuts, coffee, bamboo but unable to bring science to Singapore. In the first year, they considered me nothing’’.

Like other scientist, Hoe said her most difficulty was “ignorant of business’’.

‘’I do not know to do business. I do not know marketing also. I told customers to try my product. In 2 years later, if they find them good, then pay me money. It’s a recklessness because if they do not pay me money, I can’t do anything else. But after only one year, they pay me money. They are very honorable,’’ she said.

Singapore’s largest commercial center covered by Vietnamese paint

Ms Hoe remembered that in 2009, Vivo City - one of the largest shopping malls in Singapore - is in the stage of completion.

Vivo City is located at No. 1 Harbor Front, with a floor area of ​​140,000 square meters, one of the largest commercial centers in Singapore voted by Forbes in the end of 2016.

This project has been implemented by Penta-Ocean of Japan since 2006, but it has been 3 years that the construction unit has not been paid due to uncompleted work.

“When I arrived, the whole area was black and the paint was peeling. I do not dare to assert myself but also propose to tender,’’ she recalled.

Kova and four other companies paint their paint on a large wall array. They were not named but numbered 1,2,3,4,5. Kova is numbered 2.’’

“After that I present operation mechanisim of my paint. Negative dusts and positive dusts are attracted to each other and stay motionless. Dusts of the same sign push each other out’’.

“At that time, four of Singapore’s most famous companies failed. They called number 2, Kova. One year later, Penta-Ocean acquired the money of investors,’’ Hoe recounted the victory marked the first Kova in the Singapore market.

Kova only guarantees one year because the work was done three years ago. However, in fact, after 10 years, the paint is still beautiful.

Development by science will be sustainable

After winning the Vivo City bid, Kova was contracted for other large projects such as Ng Teng Fong Hospital with a total investment of nearly USD 1 billion.

For Ng Teng Fong Hospital, Kova’s Nanoparticle paint is used. On features of this paint, Hoe puts a hand full of bacteria and rub on the wall, then examine the hand under microscope, almost no bacteria is found.

Or as condominiums Parc Condo, though it has been covered by Kova paint for 10 years, it still looklike just painted last year.

Kova's projects in Singapore

The key to Kova’s success is quality

“If we do not meet the quality requirement, we will not only be excluded from this market but also be beaten. At the present, I feel very confident of my products’ quality and can guarantee with partners up to 10 years.’’

"With my accomplishment, I think only science is sustainable, nothing can compete science because we constantly research new products," Kova proprietor said.

Kova has 9 plants and 12 subsidiaries in 7 countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, USA and Russia.

"With Singapore and Malaysia, we can say we are the strongest," said Hoe./.

By VNF