Vietnamese companies King Coffee and renewable energy developer Tin Thanh Group are kicking off a strategic business partnership in the U.S. by building a tire recycling factory in South Carolina.
“The construction marks a key milestone in the strategic partnership of King Coffee and Tin Thanh Group in the U.S. King Coffee expects this cooperation to help us become more competitive in the market,” King Coffee founder and CEO Le Hoang Diep Thao said at the South Carolina plant’s groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.
The two Vietnamese companies’ tire recycling facility will be based in Fairfax, South Carolina. They did not disclose the investment capital for the plant, its capacity, and the schedule to start operations.
The VIPs at the ceremony included South Carolina governor Henry Dargan McMaster, Anthony Allen, business recruitment manager at the South Carolina Department of Commerce, and Nguyen Quoc Dung, Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S.
Kevin Nguyen, King Coffee's director in the U.S., said the Vietnamese firm’s coffee products are already available in around 120 markets worldwide. They have been present in the U.S. since 2016, available at and through retail chains like Cosco, Aldi, Amazon, and Walmart. In April 2021, King Coffee opened its first U.S. coffee shop at Anaheim GardenWalk near Disneyland in California.
King Coffee is about to start franchise deals in the U.S., he added.
Tin Thanh Group was established in 2009 and is a renewable energy developer in Vietnam and the U.S.