ImplementationInformation
(Vietnam News Agency No. 5/2002)
At this time, Dien Quang brand has a solid position in the domestic market and accounts for more than 50% market share nationwide, pushing out imported products and bringing warm light to every family.
Investing in technological innovation
To have the famous Dien Quang brand in the domestic market as it is today is a whole process of investment, building creative labor of the entire staff. Especially in the last ten years, Dien Quang has really made a breakthrough to rise up.
Ms. Ho Thi Kim Thoa, General Director of the Company said: “The most memorable time was in 1993, when Dien Quang products were almost frozen and could not be sold, and the inventory of light bulbs reached millions of each type. The reason why the products could not be sold was because imported light bulbs flooded the domestic market (accounting for over 90%), which led to the Company having no operating capital and workers having no jobs”. This was the problem posed to the Company’s leadership, how to improve product quality and reduce costs to compete directly with imported goods?
“Difficulty forces wisdom”, but in the face of difficulties, Dien Quang has known how to promote internal strength and from here a series of collective strategies of the Company have been proposed. Dien Quang has determined that the first thing to do is to innovate technology and equipment. The Company's Board of Directors has boldly borrowed capital from the Bank to invest in purchasing a modern fluorescent lamp production line with a capacity of 6 million bulbs/year, with a total investment of 34 billion VND. Next, the Company invested in overhauling the glass furnace to increase the exploitation capacity from 5.5 tons/day to 9 tons/day with a total investment of 10 billion VND. And then in 1998, Dien Quang invested in the first 26mm energy-saving fluorescent lamp line in Vietnam. The new product increases brightness and life compared to conventional fluorescent lamps to 20% and saves 10% of electricity. In 1999, Dien Quang invested in a modern technological line to produce double-twisted filament round lamps with brighter efficiency than the 20% single-twisted filament bulb. In 2000, it invested in a modern Japanese neutral glass furnace and in 2001, it invested in a high-tech compact bulb production line, the product has a lifespan 10 times longer than normal bulbs, reducing the consumption rate by 5 times. Not stopping there, in 2002, Dien Quang also invested in a high-pressure bulb production line and a multi-function power socket production line. For high-pressure bulbs, Dien Quang is the pioneer in producing this product. Dien Quang's goal when launching this product is to gradually replace imported high-pressure bulbs. To date, the total investment has reached 100 billion VND and according to Ms. Thoa, thanks to the investment programs, Dien Quang has achieved remarkable growth. Compared to 1991, today, industrial production value has increased 6 times, average income of workers has increased 5 times (1.8 million VND/month/person), main products are fluorescent bulbs increased 12 times, incandescent bulbs increased 5 times and what is meaningful to consumers is that Dien Quang products have decreased 25 - 30 % depending on the type and quality equivalent to imported goods.
Ready for integration
According to the schedule, the import tax on electric bulbs will be reduced from the current 40% to 20% in 2003 and to 0-5 % in 2006. And Dien Quang has realized this and is gradually preparing for the integration. Although it is having to compete fiercely with dozens of domestic and foreign brands of light bulbs, the Dien Quang brand has "rooted" quite deeply in the domestic market. Not only stopping at the domestic market, since 1997 Dien Quang has started exporting light bulbs to the Korean market, followed by some countries in the region such as: Myanmar, Cambodia and some countries in the Middle East. Since the beginning of the year, the Company's light bulb export turnover has reached 300,000 USD, accounting for 10-15 % and this is one of the Company's goals being promoted.
Ms. Thoa said: The 3 solutions that Dien Quang has set out and are being gradually implemented are the goals for the Company's integration program. These are solutions for training and developing human resources, solutions for modern technology to improve quality and reduce product costs, and finally, applying the quality management system according to international standards ISO 9002 to reduce the consumption of materials and raw materials and increase labor productivity. Currently, all of Dien Quang's products have been standardized with Vietnamese codes and barcodes, and with careful preparation for integration, Dien Quang is confident in taking firm steps on its development path.
