Businesswoman Le Hoang Diep Thao: Desire to bring Vietnamese coffee to conquer the world map

The hot weather during the meeting with CEO Le Hoang Diep Thao on a day in early March did not extinguish her charming smile, but rather boosted the already full energy for each word shared by the 'coffee general'. The interesting conversation passed very quickly with the businesswoman who owns a Vietnamese coffee brand present in 120 countries around the world , a person with a gentle, calm demeanor, soft and optimistic behavior in the face of all changes in the flow of life.

Starting her career in the coffee industry in the 90s, Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao now seems to be at the most mature age of a woman and is increasingly proving her superiority in the market. Asked about her first encounter with Vietnamese coffee, the woman recalled: Born and raised in the capital of coffee, Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao soon had a clear understanding of the benefits of this agricultural product for the mountain town. In particular, while working at the 1080 hotline, she had more opportunities to learn about the coffee industry. During her 5 years in the profession, she had to answer hundreds of thousands of calls for consultation about coffee. This required her to have a thorough understanding of the information to give the most accurate responses to her customers.

From her passion for coffee beans, she also worried about how to avoid the situation of "good harvest, low price". Since childhood, she witnessed with her own eyes the very low and unstable price of coffee. In the coffee ecosystem or global value chain, the farmer segment only received a very small value. "At that time, in my understanding, I saw that there were many very famous coffee brands but their countries did not grow coffee like Sweden, America... I always wondered why they could do it but I could not?", Ms. Diep Thao shared. That concern urged Ms. Diep Thao to continue to 'engage' in the coffee industry.

Her initial motivation was to help farmers have a better life when their income from coffee was paid better. During her time working at the 108 hotline, she learned that a cup of espresso was sold for $5, while a kilo of coffee cost only VND5,000. Her desire was to find a way to change this inequality as quickly as possible. She devoted herself to establishing the company with the desire to bring a large coffee chain, help many people start a successful business, create a coffee drinking trend and increase consumption in the domestic market. At first, distribution was not easy because we were often rejected, and the supermarket system at that time did not sell coffee. However, after nearly three decades, coffee has 'covered' many shelves and accounts for 20-30% of total products in supermarkets. In the world coffee industry, there seems to be an 'unwritten rule' not to mention the name of Vietnamese Robusta, while in reality every cup of coffee contains this coffee bean. "I focus on promoting Robusta with the hope that the true value of Robusta must be recognized, from which international partners will buy it at a more worthy price," Ms. Diep Thao shared. Then, due to a major event in her life more than 6 years ago, Ms. Diep Thao was forced to start a second business with the King Coffee brand. Her biggest capital at that time was her more than 25 years of experience in the coffee industry as well as the reputation she had built not only domestically but also internationally. By identifying her own position and strength, she quickly brought Vietnamese coffee to conquer the most demanding markets, before returning to Vietnam, and then expanding globally. In the process of building the Trung Nguyen coffee empire, Ms. Diep Thao studied the practical practices of many multinational brands, learned how these brands reached beyond national borders, how to develop commodity chains..., from which she distilled and applied them in practice to steer King Coffee to the big sea. The determination to bring Vietnamese coffee to conquer the world is embedded in the name of her coffee brand. King Coffee means 'King Coffee', the best, most premium, and most consumed coffee in the world. And, the businesswoman born in the mountainous town of Gia Lai is taking steady steps on the ladder to the 'throne' of the world coffee industry.

Since its first introduction to the US market in 2015, King Coffee has been present in more than 120 countries, including famously demanding markets such as the US, Japan, Russia, Korea, China, Singapore, the Middle East, etc. King Coffee bags are now on the shelves of the world's largest supermarket chains such as Wallmart, Cosco; present in the Carrefour retail system (considered the Walmart of the EU region) or the Lulu Hypermarket supermarket chain in the Middle East. King Coffee packages have also appeared on the world's leading e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, TMall, etc. and have become one of the best-selling products. In 2020, King Coffee became the only representative of Vietnam to participate in the world's largest exhibition Expo 2020 held in Dubai, UAE. This event has a history of more than 170 years, is considered the "Olympics" of the global business community, and is only held every 5 years. Being a representative of the country to attend this international event is a great honor, and also an affirmation of King Coffee's success in the international arena. King Coffee was also voted by the UK's Global Brands Magazine as "The fastest growing coffee brand in the international market". At the end of 2021, King Coffee helped Vietnam officially become the largest Robusta coffee producing country in the world in both output and productivity, recognized by the World Record Alliance. This is a proud "achievement" of the Vietnamese coffee industry in general and King Coffee in particular. Thereby, placing a solid milestone of Vietnamese coffee on the world coffee map. In mid-2022, King Coffee was voted by Global Business Reviews Magazine as the fastest growing coffee brand in the UAE. The above successes of King Coffee are like a solid milestone for the Vietnamese coffee industry on the world coffee map. Continuing with her pride, Ms. Diep Thao said that King Coffee's development strategy in the coming period can be summed up in two words: 'Everytime, Everywhere'. Current fluctuations in the world may lead to an increase in the demand for global food imports in the coming time. That is also a great opportunity that Vietnamese businesses need to prepare carefully to take advantage of and exploit, Ms. Thao said.

"Wherever there is internet, we introduce coffee there," Ms. Diep Thao emphasized. Since then, the electronic application King Coffee Super App was born, reaching millions of users, bringing Vietnamese products to every corner of the market. "Super App is a good solution to help brands, businesses, and labels enter the market more easily," Ms. Thao shared. She also said that she will soon take this business model and replicate it in the international market. The economy is gradually recovering well, and entrepreneurs are also embracing new opportunities to shape their businesses more firmly. King Coffee itself has recovered well, with sales growing well again and higher than before Covid-19. "With more than 25 years of building a career in the coffee industry, after a family incident, I started over with King Coffee and clearly defined a strategy for extensive development. Vietnam grows the best coffee in the world," Ms. Diep Thao shared. This strategy is realized by participating in introducing King Coffee products at Expo 2020 Dubai World Exhibition, which lasts from October 2021 to March 2022. At this international event gathering 192 countries and territories, King Coffee introduced the quintessence of Vietnamese coffee to buyers and connected to sell coffee in more than 120 markets. According to Ms. Diep Thao, there are opportunities at every moment. If you look at each small piece of cake, you can see that the opportunity is very small and there are many competitors there. Therefore, do not just look at domestic opportunities but look more broadly, reaching out to the world will see much bigger opportunities. The problem is that businesses seize opportunities, determine their own path, put reputation first, persistently build, overcome all challenges to go to the end.

Does being busy with business and long business trips make you neglect taking care of your family? "Happiness is the measure of success. The important thing is knowing how to arrange time for your children and your own needs," Ms. Diep Thao happily shared.

Identifying herself as a traditional Vietnamese woman, for Ms. Diep Thao, family holds a particularly important position, her biggest concern after work. Ms. Diep Thao shared about the time when she first established King Coffee, her biggest difficulty did not come from capital, market, marketing, experience, knowledge or any other professional factors, because she had accumulated and cultivated these things after more than 20 years of working with Trung Nguyen. What worried her most was how to balance the time spent on work and family. Because at that time, she also had to take care of her young child. There is a habit that Ms. Diep Thao has maintained for more than 25 years, which is not accepting any work appointments in the evening. Her point of view is that during the day she must devote all her energy to her own company, but the evening must be the time she devotes completely to her family.

According to Nhadautu.vn