Tasting french ice cream
People can now enjoy the French Fanny fruit ice cream in HCM City
In 1994, Nguyen Cong
Xien, who is a retired military officer, planned to produce French
ice cream in Vietnam. The business circle in Hanoi thought that
Xien was mad, as few people would have ice cream during long
winters in the capital city. At a trade fair introducing French and
Italian ice cream production technology in Hanoi, Xien met
Jean Marc Bruno, a French ice cream expert. After the trade fair,
Xien imported French and Italian ice cream production lines.
Helped by Bruno, the Viet-Phap Ice Cream Co. was established
with its products bearing the brand name of Fanny (Fanny is the
name of a film shot in Marseille, France, Bruno's hometown).
From Vietnamese fruit juice such as mango, lemon, litchi and
strawberry, Viet-Phap Ice Cream produces fruit ice
cream in accordance with a strict computer-controlled hygienic process.
The company
also imports vanilla from Madagascar, chocolate from Belgium and rum from France.
"We don't use artificial colorant and sugar in making ice cream," says Nguyen Nhu
Cong, head of the HCM City branch of Viet-Phap Ice Cream Co. He asserts the purity of
Fanny ice cream, which has been recognized by the Hanoi Preventive Health Center.
However, Fanny ice cream did not win the heart of consumers in the first two years after
having been marketed, as many people did not believe that there was real and pure fruit
ice cream. To date, there are three big shops serving Fanny ice cream in Hanoi,
Danang and HCM City. It has also been wholesaled to hotels and restaurants in HCM,
Nha Trang and Phan Thiet cities.
HCM City was a fastidious market for Fanny ice cream as well as a new bachelor of
economics like Nguyen Nhu Cong. In 1999, after graduating from university, Cong
decided to contribute capital to his uncle's Viet-Phap Ice Cream Co. to do his own
business instead of conducting market research for a foreign company. Fanny ice cream
has entered HCM City with the opening of a shop at 29-31 Ton That Thiep Street, District
1.
Creating a new taste.
Cong designed the Fanny ice cream shop in HCM City in a
style that is completely different from other ice cream shops in the city. He rented an
ancient French architecture house covering 330 square meters in a quiet area in the city
downtown. He spent hundreds of millions of dong repairing and decorating the house in
old French styles to serve clients in soft classical music.
"There are enough rooms in HCM City for ice cream producers. Though there are many
local and foreign ice cream brands in the city, none of them has held a dominant market
share," Cong says, adding that he is not discouraged though Fanny market share is still
modest. Cong's analysis, which partly expresses his venture, is simple. He says 30% of
the local population are young people, the major consumers and the main target for
Fanny ice cream. "Only a small number of young people aged between 15 and 20 visit
our ice cream shop at
present," Cong says. "If we succeed in creating
a new taste, I hope that Fanny ice cream will win
the heart of customers in the next few years."
With better and better living standards, more and
more families will visit our ice cream shop on
weekends, he says.
Fanny ice cream has been distributed to more
than 30 hotels and restaurants in the city. One of
Cong's ambitions is to open an ice cream shop
in an inner district of the city from now to 2006.
Investments will be fairly large for the 25-year-old
businessman.
By Hong Van - The Saigon Times Weekly - November 16, 2002.
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