Vinamilk CEO: Ho Chi Minh City is the 'cradle' for creative and innovative businesses

Vinamilk grew up with the city

At the event honoring 50 typical enterprises and units with key brands and products of the city, which took place recently in Ho Chi Minh City on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification, Vinamilk General Director Mai Kieu Lien shared about the enterprise's journey from zero to become the 6th largest dairy brand in the world and the 36th largest dairy enterprise in the world in terms of revenue.

On that journey, Vinamilk's milestones go hand in hand with the city's innovation and transformation.

Ms. Mai Kieu Lien said that with the mission of overcoming malnutrition in children after the war and taking care of the diverse nutritional needs of all people, Vinamilk was established in 1976 on the basis of taking over two factories that were "shelved" in the area. It was during this period that Vinamilk understood the difficulties that the city had to go through in the early days after liberation, especially the lack of raw materials for production. With specialized knowledge of milk processing trained in Russia, Ms. Lien and her colleagues were creative, finding ways to maintain operations to ensure the lives of staff and workers.

Ms. Mai Kieu Lien - CEO of Vinamilk - shared at the "Creation - Growth" seminar within the framework of the honor ceremony.

In the early stages of Vietnam's reform - originating from Ho Chi Minh City - Vinamilk also began to develop. Notably, with a very slow starting point of the Vietnamese dairy industry, Vinamilk had a strategic vision of being self-sufficient in raw materials for fresh milk production from domestic dairy cows. Together with Ho Chi Minh City, Vinamilk launched the white revolution in the early 1990s, opening the dairy cow farming movement in Cu Chi, Hoc Mon and then spreading to other provinces and cities across the country.

The "captain" of Vinamilk proudly shared that the Vietnamese dairy industry originated from Ho Chi Minh City. Because that livestock movement and the first factories here were the initial foundation for Vinamilk to develop a network of 15 large-scale, modern dairy farms and a system of 16 factories meeting international standards at home and abroad. Not only the model, financial resources... but also human resources such as a team of engineers and dairy experts were trained by Vinamilk in Ho Chi Minh City to develop the dairy industry nationwide.

The white revolution originated in Ho Chi Minh City, the initial foundation for Vinamilk to develop a system of 15 international standard farms at home and abroad.

A special milestone mentioned by Ms. Lien, showing the close cooperation between Vinamilk and Ho Chi Minh City, was the initial stage of equitization. In 2003, with the determination and vision of the board of directors under the leadership of Ms. Mai Kieu Lien, Vinamilk was equitized. Then, in 2006, the stock code "VNM" was officially listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), with an estimated capitalization value of nearly half of the total value of the floor at that time.

It can be said that this is not only a significant milestone for Vinamilk but also a successful example of the innovative "decisions" of the city named after Uncle Ho. By the end of 2024, Vinamilk's capitalization reached 5.2 billion USD, an increase of more than 50 times compared to the level assessed when listed at 100 million USD. The enterprise has contributed more than 19,750 billion VND to the city budget, out of a total of 63,712 billion VND contributed to the national budget from the time of listing to the first quarter of 2025. In 2023 and 2024 alone, the budget contribution to Ho Chi Minh City will reach over 1,000 billion VND per year.

“In 50 years of development, it can be said that Ho Chi Minh City is the cradle of dynamism and creativity. Many policies and mechanisms from the pioneering of Ho Chi Minh City have been applied nationwide to untie and innovate, creating great opportunities for businesses to develop. It is thanks to that innovation, determination and autonomy that we have a multinational Vinamilk today,” Ms. Lien affirmed.

Sharing the vision of becoming “better and better”

Also at the event, representing more than half a million businesses in the area, Vinamilk was proud to be voted as one of 50 typical businesses and units of Ho Chi Minh City on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South.

Ms. Mai Kieu Lien, representing Vinamilk, received the trophy honoring the Top 50 typical enterprises and units of Ho Chi Minh City from the city leaders.

Talking about the honored enterprises, Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc - Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee commented: "More and more enterprises in the city are reaching out and participating in key projects. Small and medium enterprises are striving to become large enterprises. Large enterprises are growing larger, have scale, potential, high competitiveness and are initially leading a number of key and key industries and fields and reaching international level. You are the fulcrum of inspiration, spreading strongly to the city's business community".

In these aspects, Vinamilk is one of the large, pioneering enterprises with the spirit of innovation, creativity, inspiring the determination to "renew oneself", transforming strongly with Ho Chi Minh City and the country at the milestone of entering a new era.

“Like the city, Vinamilk’s burning desire is to do better and better every day. Better in business efficiency, brand, employee life and to contribute more to the country. We pass that flame on to the current young generation of Vinamilk, to make the brand shine brighter and brighter, both domestically and internationally,” Ms. Lien emphasized.

Possessing the most advanced technology and the highest standards of the dairy industry helps Vinamilk raise the standards for the Vietnamese dairy industry.

A typical example is the impressive transformation of the billion-dollar brand starting from 2023. Not only completely renewing the brand and packaging, Vinamilk also innovated the way to approach consumers, bringing the world's leading standards and technologies to Vietnam, creating a "new playground" for the nutritional products market. With these impressive innovations, Vinamilk is proud to bring the "Vietnamese milk" brand to conquer 63 international markets, building a dairy industry that is self-sufficient by Vietnamese people and recognized by the world.

Minh Thu

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/doanh-nhan/tgd-vinamilk-tp-ho-chi-minh-la-cai-noi-cho-doanh-nghiep-sang-tao-doi-moi/20250417100907890