The company’s board recently sought shareholders’ permission to add nine new businesses to its portfolio, including beverage and food sales. It plans to open more Hi-Café outlets starting this year.

Hi-Café will come up against local brands Highlands Coffee, The Coffee House, Phuc Long, and Trung Nguyen, and foreign brand Starbucks, which together have hundreds of stores across the country.

Vinamilk, which has more than half of Vietnam’s dairy market, reported a 5.7 percent growth in revenues last year to VND59.6 trillion ($2.5 billion). Its pre-tax profit rose 1.6 percent to VND13 trillion ($558 million).