CEO multiplies value of Vietnamese coffee

Founder and CEO of King Coffee Le Hoang Diep Thao has a passion for promoting Vietnamese coffee on the global market.

Her King Coffee brand is now available in more than 120 overseas markets. Despite the ups and downs in her life and market challenges, Thao is still able to navigate the brand through rough seas so that more and more people can experience and enjoy her products.

Love from childhood

Thao was born in 1973 in Gia Lai province, part of the Central Highlands - Vietnam’s coffee hub. Her love for coffee stemmed from early life, and she was soon aware of the benefits and value the trees could bring.

The businesswoman’s first job after college graduation was to work at the Gia Lai provincial post office for its “108” switchboard information service. This was a great opportunity for Thao to get to know more about coffee, one of the world's most widely consumed beverages, because during those five years, she kept answering phone calls and providing information on coffee, among others. She noted that the majority of calls to the service were inquiries about the local coffee industry, which in turn became her life’s passion.

Seeing coffee farmers suffering while crops were abundant but prices were too low, she kept thinking over how to help them out of this hardship. She was also aware that Vietnamese coffee had a small footprint in the whole value chain worldwide.

"At that time, I also got to know that Sweden, the U.S. and other countries did not grow the trees but had many famous coffee brands. I asked myself why they do that but I couldn't," Thao said, adding that the question made her engage in the coffee industry.

Going global

Pausing to enjoy a cup of King Coffee, Thao then went on. During her time at the Gia Lai provincial post office, she witnessed a cup of espresso sold for $5, but a kilo of Vietnamese coffee beans was just VND5,000.

That gave her more strength on the journey to narrow the gaps in the industry’s value chain to help Vietnamese coffee farmers.

She decided to set up a company in 1998 with a large-scale coffee chain able to help others start successful businesses and multiplying coffee consumption in the Vietnamese market, and she has achieved her goal.

After almost three decades, Trung Nguyen ground and roasted coffee as well as instant coffee now hold a lion's share in Vietnam, up to 20-30% in supermarkets.

"In the global coffee industry, there seems to be an underground law of not mentioning Vietnam’s Robusta coffee, but in fact, every cup of coffee worldwide contains this coffee bean," Thao said. "Therefore, I focus on promoting Robusta with the hope that its true value must be recognized so that international partners will buy it at prices it deserves."

However, her lifetime incident came to her later so she decided to set up a new brand, King Coffee in 2017. With the new brand, she continued to develop what she had accumulated over 25 years. The name of the brand illustrates her passion: the king of coffee.

She did not introduce her new brand in Vietnam that year, but in the U.S. instead. From the U.S. market as the foundation, King Coffee continued to expand worldwide, including the Vietnamese market.

To date, King Coffee is present in more than 120 markets, including fastidious ones like the U.S., Japan, Russia, South Korea, China, Singapore, and the Middle East. The products are already on the shelves of the world's largest supermarkets such as Walmart, Cosco, Carrefour, and even in the Lulu Hypermarket chain in the Middle East. King Coffee packages have also appeared on the world's leading e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Tmall as one of the best-selling items.

In 2020, King Coffee became the only brand representing Vietnam at the world's largest exhibition, Expo 2020, held in Dubai, UAE. The Dubai Expo has a history of more than 170 years, held every five years. Joining the huge event as a Vietnamese representative confirmed the brand’s success and position internationally.

In the same year, King Coffee was also voted by the UK's Global Brands Magazine as "the fastest-growing coffee brand in the international market".

By the end of 2021, King Coffee had helped Vietnam cement its position as the world's largest Robusta coffee producer in terms of both output and productivity, recognized by the World Records Union. This was seen as a trophy for the Vietnamese coffee industry in general and King Coffee in particular, making the position of Vietnamese coffee bolder on the world coffee map.

In mid-2022, King Coffee was voted by Global Business Reviews as the fastest-growing coffee brand in the UAE.

Every time, everywhere

King Coffee's development strategy in the coming period is just "Every time, everywhere".

The businesswoman said current fluctuations in the world may lead to an increase in demand for food and foodstuff in the near future. That is also a great opportunity that Vietnamese businesses need to prepare for to take advantage of the situation.

“Therefore, our goal is to make coffee available anywhere at any time for all consumers. Where there is the internet, we have coffee there," she said.

According to her, there are opportunities at every moment. "If you look at a small piece of the cake, you see the opportunity is very small and many people are competing. So, don't just look at domestic opportunities but globally, just reach out to the world to grab much greater opportunities. Key to this is to seize opportunities, determine their own way, place prestige above all, build up your business persistently, overcome each challenge, and get ahead and reach your destination."