Fast food. The global perspective. From today's Wall Street Journal:
Homegrown Vietnamese fast-food companies are using Western branding techniques to grab a chunk of the country's fast-growing consumer market before U.S. heavyweights like McDonald's Corp. can sink their teeth into it.
After North Vietnamese troops marched into this city in 1975, then-21-year-old Tran Kim Thanh was ordered from his family's baking-supplies store. He was sent to work kneading buns and baguettes for the newly united Communist country at a state-owned bakery. Today, Vietnam is racing to embrace capitalism, and Mr. Thanh's Kinh Do Foods Corp. has become one of the country's biggest consumer companies, with a market capitalization of around $400 million. The company, which is publicly traded on Vietnam's stock exchange, is backed by investors including Citigroup Inc., Britain's Prudential Insurance PLC and one of Singapore's sovereign-wealth funds.
Kinh Do's distinctive red and yellow stores -- which sell specialties like dried-squid buns -- have become iconic symbols of the commercialization of everyday life in modern Vietnam.
"Vietnam is integrating with the rest of the world, and we have a very short learning curve to climb if we are to be ready to compete with foreign companies when they come here," says Mr. Thanh, who also goes by the name of Paul Tan. Since launching his fast-food chain in 1993, he has expanded his empire to include shopping malls. Soon, he plans to start a business offering consumer loans for household appliances and motorcycles...
Dried-squid buns and motorcycles. Two great tastes that taste great together.
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