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LIFESTYLE
D
oan Dinh Hoang, the Passio founder, used to work for leading
Vietnamese coffee company, Trung Nguyen. He said good-
bye to Trung Nguyen in 2003 to pursue his own passion for
coffee chain development, hence the name of his business.
Ho Chi Minh City is now home to 12 Passio shops, mostly in the
central business district, while Hanoi has four. However, Hoang still
manages to work as a lecturer at the Faculty of Business Administra-
tion, Agriculture Management School, and PACE Business People
Training School. Lecturing thousands of business managers and direc-
tors at PACE ensures he is always up-to-date, which, in turn, helps him
do his third job – business consulting.
Hoang actually now owns just one of the 16 stores – the first
that opened back in 2006, three years after he left his sales and
marketing director post at Trung Nguyen.
“The other shops are franchise deals,” he says. “My company
gets 10 per cent of the revenue. Quality control is key to success in
franchising, and we have no compromises on that,” he adds.
Passio focuses on takeout coffee and food as it targets busy
people, the younger generation who want a modern coffee, and
foreigners who enjoy take-away drinks. As Passio outlets are
small, the overheads can be kept to a minimum. The average
cost to open one is about VND1 billion, or about $48,000. If
the owner fails to break-even after two years, they may sell it
to Passio; however, this has not happened thus far.
Although Passio does not offer comfortable seats, cus-
tomers can sit as they would at any street style coffee shop
on any corner in Saigon. Passio serves latte and cappu-
cino, as well as many blended drinks.
Hoang hopes to develop Passio into the largest cof-
fee chain in Vietnam in terms of shop number. Also,
he and his team hope to successfully compete against
globally strong opponents like Starbucks by using lo-
cally grown beans. He is confident about local prod-
ucts, as market experts say Vietnamese people prefer
filtered robusta and many are reluctant to switch to
mild, Western coffee.
This year, Hoang has plans to open Passio shops
in Hai Phong, Danang and Can Tho. He is also prepar-
ing for export.
Nguyen Tuong
PASSIO
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