Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the independent affiliate will implement Beiersdorf’s new global strategy entitled ‘Focus on Skincare. Closer to Markets’ within Vietnam.
Whilst hoping to 'expand sales in a targeted manner', the company’s overall goal is to double turnover in Vietnam by 2015.
“Our goal in Vietnam of continuing to grow significantly faster than the market will now be easier for us to reach," said James Wei, member of the Beiersdorf executive board of Asian operations.
“Nivea already holds leading positions in numerous product categories, and is the undisputed market leader for body care, deodorants and men’s care products. These market positions are a solid basis for further growth,” said Wei.
Adapting products to Vietnamese consumers
He added that Beiersdorf will now be able to adapt Nivea products to the precise needs of Vietnamese consumers whilst reacting faster to local market trends.
Beiersdorf claims that Vietnamese consumers consider brand trustworthiness, high product quality and skin-lightening effects as ‘the most important criteria’ within the cosmetics market.
A representative office of Beiersdorf has existed in Vietnam since 2004 and its Nivea products, imported from a plant in Thailand, are available in 40,000 outlets within the country.
Expansion in the region
Earlier this year, Beiersdorf reported organic sales growth in the Africa, Asia, Australia market of 6.1 per cent, after having opened a €18m Nivea factory in China in 2009.
At the time, Peter Kleinschmidt, member of Beiersdorf’s Executive Board said, “this new, powerful location allows us to systematically expand our market positions in the important Chinese market and in Asia as a whole.”
Beiersdorf also took the opening of the China factory as an opportunity to appoint Wei as an additional member of its executive board for Asia, who was previously responsible for the Asia Pacific region at Avon Cosmetics.