Samhwa Paints announced on October 20, 2010, that the company had set up a local subsidiary in an industrial park near Tan Hong-Hoan Son Industrial Park in Bac Ninh, Vietnam.
The company will be put in charge of producing approximately 500 tons of paints for plastic surfaces (such as those on smartphones and vacuum machines) and for high-end real estate properties that are then to be distributed to local businesses in Vietnam. Samhwa had been analyzing the Vietnamese market and business environment in the last couple of years and has finally obtained authorization from the Vietnamese government.
Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world today, alongside China and India, and has been growing at seven to eight percent a year—significantly higher than the average annual growth rates for the six main member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The influx of foreign capital has been accelerating growth of manufacturing and construction in the country as well.
Having seized early upon the growth potential of the Chinese economy, Samhwa has established two local manufacturing plants and one trading company in China, including the one in Weihai, since April 2000. Samhwa’s Chinese operations together reached their break-even point last year, and continue to expand their market presence with increasing revenues.
Success on the Chinese market has given Samhwa a newfound sense of confidence, with the company now eager to increase its share of the Vietnamese market by quickly forming local relationships and launching aggressive marketing campaigns. Samhwa intends to establish a local system of response to maximize paint sales for mobile devices, planning to use the impetus from mobile devices to catapult the sales of its other paints in Vietnam into fast growth.