Tactics of the 'big guys' to adapt and recover after COVID-19

Solidarity and discipline

Nafoods Group Joint Stock Company (Nafoods) in the Central and Southern regions, reported that it still earned profits, even a record last year due to its proactively coping with the situation.

"Each factory/office is a fortress and each official/employee is a soldier during the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. They all worked with the spirit of wartime in solidarity, and discipline with 100% of determining, 200% of efforts, and 300% enthusiasm", said a Nafoods representative.

The representative said Nafoods had built four detailed scenarios for each situation and emergency level for the pandemic to put into application for the whole system to ensure synchronization but not rigid stereotypes.

The personnel structure system is also supplemented with a COVID-19 Task Force consisting of specialized departmental representatives who understand thoroughly the professional process of their units. In addition to their role of giving decisions, they also have a general advisory function for the whole system to ensure good operation in all conditions.

In case the pandemic occurs but there is no government and local directives of distancing, 100% of officials and employees work directly at offices, headquarters and factories but strictly follow the 5K regulations under supervision of an assigned team at each location to ensure 100% serious compliance with the rules and requirements.

If the pandemic develops complicatedly, Nafoods will quickly respond to the general direction of the functional authorities and then based on the actual situation to set a specific operation plan and strategy. From the beginning of 2021, when the disease continued to break out on a large scale and caused more impacts across the country, Nafoods quickly activated its highest response scenarios, ensuring human safety, production and business stability as well as maintaining the legitimate interests of customers and partners while still achieving its targets and plans.

More specifically, Nafoods has applied the online working model for 100% of indirect workers in the high peak pandemic hit areas. For direct workers and personnel at the Nafoods factory, the company immediately completed its operation plan and proposed the "3-on-the-spot" production model that combines activities of eating, producing and living right at the factory.

"With the spirit of ‘fighting’ fiercely and with more effort and enthusiasm than ever, Nafoods has well ensured its standards of business development with a stable operation and production during the pandemic," the Nafoods representative said.

In 2020, the revenue of the whole production system reached a record of VND1,206 billion, up 16% compared to 2019. Meanwhile, profit after tax increased by 32% to VND63.32 billion. The Nafoods management board set a target of VND1,350 billion in net revenue for 2020 and VND66 billion in profit after tax.

Thus, last year, Nafoods completed 89% of the revenue plan and 95% of profit after tax. The business has developed continuously, as of December 31, 2020, Nafoods' total assets had increased by more than VND259 billion from VND1,271 billion recorded at the beginning of the year to VND1,531 billion.

Amid the complicated development of the pandemic, Nafoods still recorded positive growth in net profit in the second quarter and the first 6 months of 2021. This is the highest level of profit that the company has achieved since its establishment until now.

At the end of the second quarter, the net revenue of Nafoods reached more than VND489 billion, up 41% over the same period last year, helping the gross profit to reach nearly VND86 billion, up 21%. During this period, financial revenue mainly from deposit interest was 3.5 times higher than the same period last year, reaching more than VND7 billion.

Moreover, financial and administrative expenses also decreased by 24% and 46% respectively over the same period last year. Thus, with a 21% increase in gross profit plus a 3.5 times increase in financial revenue, the net profit of Nafoods still increased by 34% over the same period last year, reaching more than VND28 billion despite expenses for sales increased significantly.

"Chances" always emerge among “challenges”

Right from 2020, to cope with the pandemic’s complicated developments, Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro), a member of BRG Group, has established a Steering Committee for COVID-19 prevention and control.

By September 2020, Hapro has consolidated this Steering Committee for Emergency Situations, and established supporting forces for the committee including the Quick Response and Self-defense Forces.

Speaking to Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper, a Hapro representative said in "challenges" there is always "opportunities" and commented that the world economic situation will continue to be difficult in 2021, but it will be more positive from the second quarter and turn more brightly in 2022 onwards. Accordingly, there will be positive effects on export activities around the world, including Vietnam.

In the short term, in response to COVID-19, Hapro has restructured and boosted export activities towards streamlining, safety and efficiency. Specifically, it will exploit benefits from “new-generation” of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) such as CPTPP, EVFTA, combining with online trading methods to find customers and expand the market, etc, to promote export activities when the pandemic was not under control and travel between countries was still restricted.

Besides a number of essential products supplied by the member companies themselves, such as Hapro Dong Thap rice, Hafasco antibacterial cloth masks, Crystal Thuy Ta purified water...; Hapro Corporation and BRG Retail have actively worked with suppliers to increase the stockpile of essential goods by about 300%, focusing on 13 groups of items included in the Hanoi City's price stabilization program including rice, chicken, eggs, processed foods such as sausages, hams, cold meats, smoked hams, canned goods, frozen seafood, instant noodles, milk, and bottled water, cooking oil and vegetables.

Those activities have clearly shown the responsibility of BRG Group and Hapro to the community in stabilizing prices in the market, at the same time meeting the increasing and high demands of consumers during this time.

The representative said that Hapro is continuing to renovate, repair, upgrade and open new Haprofood/BRG stores at convenient locations to provide a full range of essential goods for local people with stable prices.

By the end of June 31, Hapro had completed upgrading and opening 64 new supermarkets and stores under the brand name BRGMart and Haprofood/BRGMart in Hanoi alone, and 13 supermarkets and stores in other cities across the country.

BRGMart and Haprofood/BRGMart systems also implement multi-channel selling methods such as receiving orders via the BRG shopping online App, hotline, fan page, and home delivery service.