“Quality is a benchmark of success,” asserted Le Hoang Khanh Nhut, General Director of Da Nang Rubber Joint Stock Company (DRC). Since its inception, DRC has been committed to establishing itself as a leading tire and tube manufacturer in Vietnam. As part of its ongoing mission to create sustainable value, DRC aims to continue setting industry standards by focusing on production excellence, advancing scientific and technological innovation, and continuously enhancing product quality.
“Whatever the world has, so does DRC”
DRC is working hard to achieve outstanding growth and follow the determination “Whatever the world has, so does DRC”. “The company's direction will be kept through all ups and downs.” Business achievements are the clearest proof of its success. In four years from 2020 to 2023, DRC's revenue still increased steadily, specifically nearly VND4,000 billion in 2020, nearly VND4,700 billion in 2021, nearly VND5,500 billion in 2022, and roughly nearly VND5,000 billion in 2023. In 2024, the company was expected to rake in nearly VND6,000 billion of revenue, of which exports account for nearly 60%.
DRC and Oceanside One Trading Company from Brazil enter into an agreement to distribute DRC auto tires in Brazil and the United States
To achieve today's success, DRC has gone through five memorable milestones, especially its investment for modern infrastructure and equipment, said Nhut. In 2010, the company expanded the factory output to 600,000 tires a year. In 2017, two Radial tire factories were completed. In 2022, the company scaled up its output capacity to 1 million tires a year, demonstrating its success in Radial truck tire production technology. This was a timely and strategic direction for DRC to become a strong brand in both scale and quality. In 2023, DRC started to make sedan tires. From 2024, DRC will have to make a series of investments to ensure quality and create a solid reputation.
Particularly, after going public, in addition to maintaining and expanding domestic consumption, DRC also determined to focus on export markets. To date, 65-70% of its output is exported to many markets in the world, such as Asia (e.g. Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore), Americas (e.g. Brazil, the USA, Bolivia and Peru), Europe (e.g. Czech Republic and Greece), and Africa (e.g. Ghana, Morocco and Mali). Currently, DRC has gradually asserted its position with the business presence in more than 40 countries and territories in the world and this figure will certainly not stop.
DRC determines that, in all activities, to equalize the value balance it is aiming for, DRC always takes quality and quantity as important measures. The company concentrates on developing strategic tire product lines such as TBR all-steel tires and PCR passenger vehicle tires, heavy-duty, light-duty Bias tires, agricultural machine tires, tires for special purposes, bicycle and motorbike tires, technical rubber products, tubes and rim linings of all kinds. Among them, the ley exports are TBR tires and PCR tires.
To date, DRC is also the first and only company in Southeast Asia to successfully make tires for heavy-duty off the road (OTR) trucks in mining and seaport industries and tires for large tractors in the agriculture and forestry to replace imported alternatives. At the same time, DRC is one of the largest taxpayers in Da Nang City, honored by the General Department of Taxation as a Top 1,000 taxpayers in Vietnam.
In addition to its business prestige, DRC always upholds “kindness” and “passion” to its distributors, increases benefits for agents to strengthen their confidence and promote their roles. That is an important foundation for a lasting relationship that DRC always respects and protects.
“Of course, in addition to the asserted product quality, the consensus and responsibility of employees at all job positions is the core factor for DRC to maintain its position and develop further. Each employee is an important link in a chain to create the current DRC brand,” he emphasized.
Focus on exports
The continuous and sustainable development of SDN has contributed to the overall development of Vietnam Chemical Industry Group while increasing the added value in Vietnam's rubber industry, maximizing the use of domestic natural rubber resources and minimizing the export of raw materials as expected by the Government.
However, DRC is facing the biggest challenge from the stiff competition from foreign brands, especially cheap products that target the short-term benefits of consumers. While raw material prices are rising, balancing product quality and competitive prices is not simple. In addition, an issue to be cared about is stabilizing and maximizing the value of human resources in the new development period and applying digital technologies to optimize business management.
Since Vietnam joined ASEAN and opened its economy to the world, more investment capital is flowed into Vietnam and much more opportunities have come. Although it possesses a lot of great advantages, DRC is also aware that it cannot compete with giant peers with their own strong advantages in transforming and adapting to this potential market. Coping with hardships is not easy. So, while taking quality as a core value, DRC will offer strong products to accompany and survive with the market. The company will continue to identify and look for investment opportunities to expand the production scale in the future.
“There are many opportunities ahead for DRC's plans to go further and enter demanding markets. We believe that the DRC leadership and all employees will be determined to join forces to realize its goals most effectively. Then, the company will play a better part in the faster, stronger and firmer development of Da Nang City. Sweet fruits will come from days of wholehearted work with passion,” Nhut expected.n
Han Luong (Vietnam Business Forum)
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi