Quadria backs Vietnam mother-and-baby chain

The fund will be used to support Con Cung’s ambition to launch 2,000 local stores by 2025, expand its product portfolio, and develop an all-in-one super app that provides personalised products and services for over 5m Vietnamese mothers. The plan is to open 1,000 stores by the end of the year.

Founded in 2011, Con Cung is a household name in this space with more than 600 wholly-owned stores across 45 provinces and cities in Vietnam. It sells more than 2,000 stock-keeping units across milk powder, diapers, bottled nutrition and vitamins, equipment, and baby fashion.

The company holds exclusive distribution rights for brands in Japan, the US, Australia, and South Korea, and collaborates with factories across Asia to develop and manufacture private-label affordable childcare products. It claims to have grown 70% a year for the past four years.

“While traditional offline trade still occupies an important part of commerce in Vietnam, digitalisation is fast-changing consumer preferences and many Vietnamese mothers are shifting part of their spending towards e-commerce,” Minh Nguyen, chairman and co-founder of Con Cung, said in a statement.

“We aim to be the one-stop destination for mothers to fulfil their maternity and baby-care needs in a convenient and safe environment. To do so, we recognise the need to expand our retail channels, both online and offline, and create a holistic ecosystem to support mothers and families.”

Con Cung launched its first app in 2019 in response to an upsurge in mobile-based purchases and succeeded in doubling its store footprint between 2019 and 2021. It will also launch its first-ever 2,000-square-metre “supercenter” this month.

This store will feature all Con Cung products, a coffee shop, an integrated playground area and one dedicated floor for infant care, nutrition, and obstetrician-gynaecologist consulting services provided by leading doctors and healthcare professionals.

“We plan to open one supercenter per month with a target to reach 200-300 of such stores across Vietnam. While the COVID pandemic brought many challenges, we believe it has also presented opportunities for us to transform our store concept to better serve the ever-changing demands of young Vietnamese parents,” said Tien Luu, CEO and co-founder of Con Cung.

Quadria is investing via its second fund for India and Southeast Asia, which closed at USD 595m in 2020. The private equity firm will support Con Cung by engaging Robert Willett a leading global retail expert who is deeply familiar with Vietnam. Willett noted the mother-and-baby sector would benefit from personalised customer-centric omnichannel experiences and artificial technology.

Quadria’s previous investment experience in Vietnam includes FV Hospital. It backed the tertiary care provider in 2017 with a view to helping it build out a network of diagnostic and treatment centres across central and southern Vietnam.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Healthcare
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Vietnam
• Quadria Capital