Highlands Coffee builds $21 mln roasting factory in southern Vietnam

Cao Nguyen Coffee Service JSC has held a groundbreaking ceremony to build its VND500 billion ($20.5 million) Cao Nguyen coffee roasting factory project in Phu My II Industrial Park, Vung Tau province, despite continuous fluctuations in business profits.

Volatile profits

Research firm Vietdata's latest report shows that the Vietnamese coffee chain market has seen continuously fluctuating after-tax profit in the last three years, despite still earning huge revenues. Highlands Coffee's revenue and profit after tax was a prime example.

In 2020, the brand's revenue reached nearly VND2.15 trillion ($88.17 million), while profit after tax was nearly VND80 billion ($3.28 million).

The respective figures for 2021 were about VND1.7 trillion ($69.72 million) and negative VND85 billion ($3.49 million).

In 2022, Highlands Coffee's revenue doubled to VND3.57 btrillion ($146.36 million), and profit after tax hit more than VND265 billion ($10.97 million), a sharp increase compared to the loss in 2021.

As of December 31, 2022, it had had short-term loans of VND228 billion ($9.35 million) and long-term loans of VND285 billion ($11.69 million).

By September 2023, the number of Highlands Coffee stores had reached nearly 700 in Vietnam and more than 50 in the Philippines.

Roasting factory investment

In order to improve production capacity, Highlands Coffee has invested $20.5 million to build a coffee roasting factory in Phu My II Industrial Park in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, southern Vietnam.

With an area of nearly 24,000 m2, the factory has a capacity of 10,000 tons of coffee per year in the first phase. In the next stages, the tally could reach 75,000 tons per year. This will be a leading large-scale coffee roasting factory in Vietnam.

The factory has a modern, closed production line according to food safety system standards FSSC 22000, ISO 22000, and HACCP.

Highlands Coffee said its pioneering position in the field of producing Vietnamese-style roasted coffee as well as meeting world standards are strategic steps for the brand in the race to compete directly with global rivals.

The factory has been equipped with solar energy equipment using Japanese and Swiss technology to minimize costs and reduce load on the national power grid. This is one of the largest factories in Vietnam participating in the sustainable coffee project from harvest to finished product (Global Coffee Platform).