INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

Under the hot July sun in Hanoi, advertisement such as The ferment of success from Saigon Special Beer has increased the tighten in competition of brew market in Vietnam. According to Vietnamese beer industry, the total beer production on 2005 is 1.52 billion litres and will become 3.5 billion litres on 2010. In addition, the total investment from 2005 to 2010 is 31,809 billion VND. The Vietnamese beer market is an attractive market for any international brew Company. One of the first-mover into this lucrative market is Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). In October 1993, the Vietnam Brewery Ltd (VBL), a joint venture was founded between APBs parent company, Heineken and the Vietnamese state-owned Saigon Trading (SATRA) Group with 60:40 ratio (Doan 2007). By 1994, VBL had doubled its capacity from 300,000 hectolitres to 500,000 litres and plan to reach 900,000. It had also started brewing Heineken Beer locally, to international quality standards. Lets have a look about the APB background before discussing its operations in Vietnam. APB is a Singapore-based brew company, which is famous for its Tiger, Anchor, Larue Beer brand in Vietnam. In 1931, it was founded as Malayan Breweries by a joint venture of Heineken N.V. and Singapore-based Fraser and Neave Limited (F&N). The brewery was launched on 1932 and Tiger brand was introduced during the same year. Until the 1980s, the company mostly focused on Singapore market, supplemented by join ventures or acquisitions in other parts of Asia. In 1990, the company changed its name to APB, its present name to demonstrate the geographic ambition. In Vietnam, APB has expanded its brand by hundred million dollars in buying and acquiring many local brewers. The first APB plant in Vietnam was located in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2003, APB commissioned its second brewery by occupying a 30 hectares land area in Ha Tay province, this APBs wholly-owned brewery brews and sell Anchor, Heineken and Tiger Beer in Northern Vietnam. Next, in 2006, APB bought two more breweries in Vietnam one in Tien Giang in Southern Vietnam and the other in Da Nang in Central Vietnam. They make and distribute the Fosters Lager, Flag and Biere Larue brand. One year later, on January 2007, APB launched its fifth plant which is located in Quang Nam. This investment involves in the production, marketing and distribution of Larue and Lager beer brands and also promotes the APB's position in central Vietnam. On 2010, total production capacity of VBL Group of breweries in Vietnam reached 445 million litres (Quoc Hung 2011). On May 2011, Managing Director David Teng informed that the company will spend $68.1 million

over the next 12 months to boost the production from current 2.8 million hectolitres to 4.2 million hectolitres per year.

BUSINESS STRATEGIES
The essay will now move to discuss the selected article focussing on the strategies implemented by APB in Vietnam. According to the article, VBL Da nang opened its new line producing Larue beer at its factory in Central Vietnam with capacity of 50,000 bottles an hour. The APB company expand its production in order to meet the robust and surging beer demand of Vietnamese people. The regional director of Singapore-listed APB also stated that APB planned to invest 100 million dollars to expand the capacity of its breweries in Vietnam through its joint ventures and subsidiary. For about ten 10 years since it has been here, APB has implemented the joint venture and wholly-owned subsidiary to penetrate and expand its market all over Vietnam. Peace II JA and Robinson, Jr RB 2009 defines Joint venture as grand strategy in which companies create a co-owned business that operates for their mutual benefit. When it first operated in 1993, APB joint with Saigon Trading (SATRA) Group to form a venture Vietnam Brewery Ltd (VBL) with the 60:40 ratio respectively. The company also choose differentiation entry strategy, involve in introducing beer product with international standard to Vietnamese people, which is different from local Vietnamese beer product at that time. On 2007, the company also entered into an agreement with Quang Nam Electric Construction Company (QNEC) to create a joint venture firm, VBL Quang Nam Ltd. VBL invested 11 million USB into VBL Quang Nam for its 80%, while QNEC spent about US$2.75 million, for the remaining 20% stake. Moreover, APB also pays more than 100 million dollars to acquire wholly-owned subsidiary as Fosters company in Da Nang and Tien Giang to distribute its product in the central Vietnam. As APBs wholly owned subsidiary, those companies insist on full ownership of APB for reason of control and managerial efficiency (Peace II JA, Robinson, Jr RB 2009). The motivation for the business is Vietnam is one of the largest beer markets in Asia Pacific. Drinking beer is considered as habitual lifestyle for man in the world and also in this country. According to Huy Tuong 2011, Vietnamese people drink beer because it is linked to favouritism and patronage. Not only drink till drunk with family and friends, Vietnamese people also drink to ask favour from people that have power to grant it to you. The more beer is drunk, the difference between people is blurred, the better the chances your request will be accepted. Moreover, it does not matter how drunk you get, you can drive home and, if

caught by the police, paying the fine is not such a big deal like in America and Western countries. As mentioned by Roland Pirmez, CEO of APB, given a sizeable population of 87 million people and rising affluence, particularly among the large young population, Vietnam's beer demand has been growing at a double digit rate. Next, this essay will discuss some of the challenges that APB faced when it opened in Vietnam. During the first few years operation, VBL faced threat from substitute products and rivalry among firms in the industry. Smuggled beers from Cambodia and local brewers show a tight competition due to their relatively low price than VBLs, as its taxes rate on beer based on production. Moreover, its advantage of a first mover to this market also was fleeted due to the quick jump into Vietnam of BGI from France and Carlsberg.

CONCLUSION
In summary, the strategy of APB for Vietnam market is a lesson for any foreign company in order to penetrate this country or any others in the world. They are successful in acquiring wholly owned subsidiary and joint venture which result in 5 factories located in three main area of Vietnam. It also promote entrepreneur to be risky in the business. At the time when it launched, VBL joint venture is the first project in Vietnamese brew market. Furthermore, creating a strategic alliances or joint venture might help the entrepreneur to understand the market and learn from experiences of partners. After researching about APB and its entry and expansion strategy in Vietnam, Ive learned many valuable lessons. Firstly, before launching a new venture, we need to create a good mission statement and vision to know what the organization will become. As Allen 2007 stated, great vision and mission statement are the beginning of all great strategic planning. A good vision and mission statement is a main factor for the success of the entrepreneur. Furthermore, through the success of APB in joint venture and wholly owned subsidiary, I realize that those two are appropriate strategies for foreign companies to penetrate and expand Vietnam market. Finally, the new enterprise must implement a proper entry strategy like differentiation strategy of APB. They usually pioneer research and develop new and different beer product for different consumers.

REFERENCES
Allen, K., 2007, Growing and managing a small business, 2nd edn, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Singh K, Nition P, Loizos H 2010, Business strategy in Asia: A case book, 3rd edn, Cengage Learning, Singapore. Pearce II JA, Robinson,Jr RB 2009, Strategic management: Formulation, implementation and control, 11th edn, McGraw-Hill, Singapore. Vietnams thirst for beer hard to quench, Tuoitrenews, August 30th 2010, viewed July 12th 2011, <http://tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/business/vietnam-s-thirst-for-beer-hard-toquench-1.10215> Hoang D 2007, Beer market, time for the players, Brandascend, August 7th 2007, viewed July 13th 2011, <http://www.brandascend.com/2007/08/th-trng-bia-thi-ca-tay-chi.html> Tuong, Huy 2011, Drinking in Vietnam, a proxy for favoritism, Tuoitrenews, June 9th, viewed July 13th 2011, <http://tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/city-diary/drinking-in-vietnam-a-proxy-forfavoritism-1.33653> Nelson L 2010, APB invests in Vietnam,Brewersguardian, August 27th 2010, viewed July 12th 2011, <http://www.brewersguardian.com/brewing-features/breweries/891.html> Hung Q 2011,Vietnam brewery to boost capacity by half, The Saigon Times Daily, May 17th, viewed July 14th 2011, <http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/Home/business/corporate/16943/> Sreenivasan, V 2006, APB expands Viet brewery capacity, The Business Times Singapore, 9th June. APB Vietnam Website, viewed July 11th 2011, http://www.apb.com.sg/vietnam.html