To elevate Vietnamese product position

Choosing Binh Duong Province as the place of career development, Mr. Tran Thanh Trong has been keeping in his mind to build up a strong company to create products of high competitiveness against importing products. As the matter of fact, by his management, Sang Ban Mai (the morning) Joint Stock Company in Ben Cat Town has soon emerged in strong development process.

Success gained in the new land

Mr. Tran Thanh Trong, born into a poor family in Tuy Phuoc District of Binh Dinh Province, an electro-mechanic graduate of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, chose the trading of power generators. Starting his career as a salesperson for major Vietnam-located foreign firms of power generators, he bought the power generators by his pocket money and disassembled to research and realized that power generators of large sizes can be produced in Vietnam with lower cost.

In 2001, Trong decided to move his company to My Phuoc Industrial Park 2 in Ben Cat Town to face up the common demands of domestic customers for products from abroad. In the face of this, he did not announce his factory and the products for being afraid that no one would buy. In the first step, as a result, he aimed for private and foreign investors in Vietnam as his targeted customers.

Upholding daring thoughts and actions, Mr. Tran Thanh Trong turns Sang Ban Mai JSC into leader producer of industrial power generators in Vietnam. Photo: K. Vinh       

The cornerstone of changes for the company, according to Trong, was trust of Binh Duong Provincial leaders in them, encouraging Sang Ban Mai JSC to become the tender of the VND 26 billion of supplying provisional power generating system for Binh Duong Provincial Administrative Center. The system includes 2 power generators of up to 2,500 KVA and synchronous 1,500 KVA which are beyond imagination of many about a Vietnamese corporation as the major supplier.

Sang Ban Mai JSC, then was entrusted to various domestic and foreign projects bringing up revenue of VND 120 billion in 2014 for the company. From the beginning of 2015, that number stood at VND 150 billion.

To elevate Vietnamese product position

Trong said that no one would think that industrial power generators can be produced in Vietnam. Domestic and foreign investors, on needing industrial power generators, are verged to costly importing products and it was so pity for Sang Ban Mai JSC to fail to tell them off the foreign product prioritization.

“When incorporated, we concurrently used the brand-name of SBMPOWER and worked as suppliers of importing power generators as 5 or 6 years backs no one would ever believe that power generators of hundreds of KVA can be produced in Vietnam,” Trong recalled.

However, the belief and yearning wish for modern production technology have driven Sang Ban Mai JSC to produce larger power generators. Starting with 500 KVA generators, now, the corporation can produce generators of up to 2,500 KVA in the long step forward in power generator technology owned by the corporation.

However, he would never stop being ambitious. In 2013, the corporation established its subsidiaries in Myanmar and Laos. In 2014, its subsidiary in Cambodia was open. For 2015, the corporation has decided to set up an assembly factory in Germany in its outreach for global markets.

Trong said: “We, Vietnamese, are at times afraid and dare not think of producing large industrial machines. However, when you engage into new fields and realize how simple they are. It is important to have daring thoughts and action. In couples of years, people advised us to take a foreign brand-name for easier competition with producers of G7. But if we do so, Vietnam would have no names of industrial machines. As the matter of fact, in the hardest time, I keep on and determine to produce and assemble power generators in Vietnam.”

Up to date, Sang Ban Mai JSC has not only dominated domestic market but also been present in countries of strong industrial development such as China, Singapore, and Arabian nations. The strong growth was not business evidence alone but the determination and creativities in daring thinking minds of Sang Ban Mai JSC under management of Tran Thanh Trong.

Reported by Khanh Vinh – Translated by Vi Bao