Ambitious Vietnamese entrepreneur bags export, domestic markets

Eco friendly startup

We heard about BlueSea Pack JSC and its high quality eco paper bag exports at a creative startup forum in e-commerce and logistics in Ha Long City in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh. We met the CEO of BlueSea Pack JSC Luu Thi Thu Huyen at the forum, and she gave us an appointment to meet again at the company’s head office, giving us an opportunity to learn about the fledgling but successful startup business.

Huyen warmly welcomed us. She told us about the company’s paper bags qualified for export to the US, Europe and Japan, including bag exports to the US and bags for leading foreign and domestic brands. BlueSea eco paper bags are made in compliance with the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) standards, and ISO 9001 and ISO 14000 quality management systems. “BlueSea is proud of becoming the first Vietnamese provider of paper bags for the world-leading brand Lacoste. Two leading foreign food producers in Vietnam have recently proposed that BlueSea become their main supplier of paper bags in northern Vietnam,” Huyen said.

Exporting paper bags is a new venture in Vietnam, and BlueSea is proud of being the first Vietnamese company to do so.

Huyen is an expert in the field of packaging, and she had more than 10 years of management experience in the printing industry before opening BlueSea. Although she had a stable job of which many would dream, Huyen decided to make a major change and challenge herself with the establishment of BlueSea in order to create green, environmentally friendly products.

A short time after its foundation, BlueSea procured professional machinery and equipment, developed a sale and distribution system and connected with the Vietnamese cross-border e-commerce platform Fado. Only two years after its founding, BlueSea officially exported its paper bags to the US and the Republic of Korea (RoK), with the main importers being international fashion and food brands. Meeting demand is not difficult, but lack of demand is, Huyen said. Market demand offers nosiness opportunities, the trick is how to take advantage of them, she added.

Market leadership ambitions

Huyen told us that BlueSea initially experienced many difficulties and challenges. In November 2018, it received the first two large orders from major US fashion companies. They required BlueSea to provide 1.2 million products per month, more than double the company’s production capacity (500,000 products per month). In addition, without export experience, the company encountered difficulties in on-time delivery, had to pay port-related cost compensation and found it difficult to implement payment with partners.

Talking about those problems, Huyen said that it would be much simpler if the company just did business inside Vietnam, as it could make the delivery in different shipments. Foreign trade or trade with foreign partners is a challenge, and late delivery means compensation. After that failure, BlueSea acknowledged the importance of professional import and export administration. BlueSea has since applied enterprise resource planning or ERP (the integrated management of main business processes) software in production management, and traded with foreign and international partners through Fado.

BlueSea considers 2020 an important year for its development, a year in which the company will prove its production capability and invest in advanced production technology and equipment. “The company is procuring machinery and equipment to improve its production capacity, minimize its dependence on human labor, and professionalize the manual process with a strategic connection system. Blue Sea will realize its plan to professionalize large-scale production of paper bags for instant food, shopping bags, and gift bags,” Huyen said.