With the spirit of "Stronger Together" for this year’s Tet, SABECO is honoured to collaborate with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VCGL) and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU) to roll out the “Together We Make Tet” programme, which is part of its Bia Saigon Tet campaign.

The initiative will assist selected communities by allowing them to return to their respective hometowns to celebrate with their relatives and welcome in 2023. The programme not only intends to help struggling localities but also to recognise those who have helped the government and the people of Vietnam to recover from the economic downturn.

SABECO collaborates with VCGL and HCYU to roll out the “Together We Make Tet” programme

SABECO believes that the success of each person contributes to the general success of the company and the country. They make great changes to the surrounding community and themselves via their perseverance and unwavering efforts.

This is not the first such initiative for SABECO, as providing assistance to young people, students, and workers in difficult situations so that they can return home to celebrate the Lunar New Year has become an annual activity that strengthens the spirit of cooperation for a thriving Vietnam.

In the lead-up to the Lunar New Year, general director of SABECO Bennett Neo said, “Through this programme, we would like to honour the contribution of our workforce to the socioeconomic development of Vietnam. They make one of the greatest contributions to Vietnam’s economic development, but are sadly also the most vulnerable – being hardest hit when the pandemic happened.”

The 8,000 Tet gifts from this programme, which amounted to almost $243,500, are meant to not only help lessen the workers’ financial burden during the Tet celebrations but represent the company's best wishes for a new year with good health, fortune, and prosperity while spreading the positive spirit of togetherness during Tet.

Since mid-2018, the brewer has repositioned its brand and restructured its business with the goal of building the company into a globally competitive enterprise that Vietnamese people can be proud of.

It has built a sustainable development model focusing on consumption, conservation, country, and culture. As part of this, “Together We Make Tet" is built as a programme combining aspects of culture and togetherness.

Vietnam’s economic recovery accelerated over the last six months on the back of resilient manufacturing and a robust rebound in services. GDP growth is forecast to surge from an estimated 2.6 per cent in 2021 to 7.5 per cent in 2022, while inflation is projected to average 3.8 per cent over the year – as stated in a World Bank economic update for Vietnam released in August.

However, this positive outlook is subject to heightened risks that threaten recovery prospects. Risks include growth slowdown or stagnation in main export markets, further commodity price shocks, continued disruption of global supply chains, or the emergence of new COVID-19 variants.

Phan Van Anh, vice president of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour said, “In 2022, the post-COVID-19 socio-economic recovery is progressing well despite many challenges and difficulties. As the year comes to a close, political instability on many global regions, inflation pressure, wildly fluctuating raw material costs have led to the reduction of many orders from abroad, and making 500.000 people underemployed and 42.000 people lose their jobs."

Anh added the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour sincerely thanks Bia Sai Gon for initiating the program “Together We Make Tet”, which joins hands with the Confederation in taking care of union members and laborers, helping struggling workers enjoy a more complete Tet. Alongside this program, the Confederation is also organizing many other activities to look after the workers. I hope that, with the solidarity of other companies like SABECO, struggling workers will be able to celebrate a warm and fulfilling Lunar New Year.

“In that context, activities to take care of Tet and offer support are being carried out earlier by the authorities, focusing on workers in difficult situations, those who have lost their jobs, and staff with reduced working hours,” said Anh.

Through the programme, the Central Youth Union aims to keep spreading the message that “no one is left behind”

Neo added, “The company will further reduce its costs and commit to accompanying its workforce. In the future, management expects gross margins to continue to recover as the company still has room to cut costs across many activities.”

For instance, the consumption of raw materials and energy in the brewing process has fallen continuously. At the same time, the cost of electricity and water also fell over the years.

"Currently, we have nine factories that have installed solar panels, which not only help us financially but also in terms of sustainability," said Neo, adding that despite inflation, we have tried to maintain workers' wages and boost Vietnamese pride.

Human resources are a key aspect that adds to SABECO's resilience. The company is delighted to have developed a talented, professional, and motivated workforce capable of adapting to changing production patterns. As a result, business continuity planning was engaged system-wide only when it was required to assure operations and keep personnel employed.

Over the years, Bia Saigon has initiated various meaningful community programs including supporting struggling workers travel tickets to return home in the previous TET for 4 years, and last year specifically, both HYUC and Bia Saigon kicked off “Tet One Home” community program, contributing 1,530 bus tickets, 270 plane tickets, 200 train tickets, and 800 Tet gifts to the workers and youth union members.

In addition to this, SABECO and Bia Saigon have also accompanied the HCYU to carry out several other activities this year to contribute to the development of the community, such as Luong Dinh Cua Awards, National Outstanding Workers Awards, Power of Innovation coaching session, Light Up The Rural, Fostering Sports, among others.

With relentless efforts and commitment to sustainability, SABECO was honored in Vietnam’s Glory Awards organised by the VGCL, and Excellent Business Awards organised by the APEA.

With 147 years of brewing history, SABECO has established itself as one of Vietnam’s leading companies. It includes 26 breweries and 11 trading subsidiaries and has a distribution network of thousands of retailers nationwide. Its brands in Vietnam include Bia Lac Viet, Bia Saigon Chill, Bia 333, Bia Saigon Special, Bia Saigon Export, Bia Saigon Lager, and Bia Saigon Gold.