CEO of Banh Chung Nuong Bac tells the story of the company that stopped operating right after it was established, giving away 200 products for free to find the answer to whether to continue.

As a person who works without a plan and solves problems as they arise, CEO of Nuong Bac Banh Chung, Nguyen Hoai, trusts 100% in her companion. However, when the company was just born a few months ago, she did not expect that her partner in the same boat would suddenly "turn around". Nuong Bac is considered the dream and hope of the 9X female CEO. However, when she realized that she did not have the advantage and had to worry about food, clothing, and money, she decided to temporarily suspend the company when she could only serve one Tet season.

From an online business person, what milestones made you form Nuong Bac? After graduating from the Diplomatic Academy, I got married and had a baby right after that. To fit my time budget, I chose to do online business. Although this form was quite new in 2012-2013, I adapted very quickly. At first, I sold products for mothers and babies and beauty products for mothers after giving birth. After about 1 year, I started selling more food. Trying all kinds of food that I liked, I began to realize that there was an easy-to-sell product, which was banh chung. Because this is an indispensable cake during Tet. Meanwhile, most people in Hanoi choose to buy it instead of making it. At the beginning, on the 15th or 1st of the year, I only sold about 60-100 cakes. However, the number of cakes began to increase gradually over time. During the period of 2014-2016, the number of cakes sold reached hundreds on big full moon days. By Tet, I could sell 1,000 cakes. After a while of starting to sell, I realized that my main customers were businesses. They often asked me questions like whether I could issue red invoices or related documents. So if I wanted to work with businesses to get large orders, I had to be a business to be able to provide documents as required. Based on the needs of customers, I thought it was time to give this cake a name and appearance so that customers could confidently bring my products as gifts. At the end of 2016, Nuong Bac was officially formed.

When the company was officially established, Nuong Bac's banh chung still relied solely on imported sources from outside? I am not a child of the banh chung making village, nor was I born into a family with a family tradition of food business. I am even someone who does not like to cook. However, with the spirit of someone who likes business and wants to turn his idea into reality, I still started making Nuong Bac. The way I work is without a plan. I solve the difficulties right there. At the beginning, I still relied solely on the source of imported cakes from a friend in Dien Bien . Without a backup plan, 100% trusting the friend who accompanied me, I encountered the first stumble. Right after Nuong Bac officially entered the market, the friend who supplied me with cakes "turned around", cut off the source of cakes and stood aside to establish a similar brand.

How did you deal with this first setback? Realizing that I didn't have any strengths, I decided to temporarily stop the company. I returned to selling the products I had sold before. Luckily, I have a mother who loves me more than anyone else. During the 5 years of online business, my mother witnessed the whole journey from the first day I sold banh chung until I established Nuong Bac. So when she saw me like that, she couldn't bear it. At that time, my mother quietly returned to her hometown and learned from many people how to make banh chung. During the past 6 months, from someone who didn't know how to wrap banh chung, my mother was able to make a complete banh chung herself. I had absolutely no idea about this. Until one day, I received a text message without accents from my mother with the content: "Mom has succeeded". Not understanding what was going on, I immediately called back and my mother said, "Mom has successfully made banh chung". Regardless of whether the cake is right or not, I only know that while I am the one who created the brand, I quickly forget it. Meanwhile, my mother is a person who does not know how to wrap banh chung but can still make it. I realized that in reality, nothing is too difficult. There is no reason why I cannot do it again. I decided to take my mother to Hanoi to revive Nuong Bac. This milestone made me, from a person who does not know how to wrap banh chung, have to start learning and doing it again from the beginning.

From here, how was the process of making a Nuong Bac banh chung born? My mother and I spent 2 weeks staying in the famous banh chung making villages, Tranh Khuc (Hanoi) and Bo Dau ( Thai Nguyen ) to learn about how to make it. After coming up with the recipe according to the request, every week the village sent cakes to Hanoi for me to check. Around the 15th of August, I was able to score a satisfactory product. From here, Nuong Bac began to be able to master the cake making recipe with its own requirements. At this point, I was again stuck wondering whether I was copying previous products or not? To find the answer, I gave myself a challenge. I asked the staff to filter customer information to send them new products with the hope of receiving comments after trying them. With 200 cakes sent, luckily, right after trying them, the customer came back to buy them for the 15th of August. Only then did I confidently bring Nuong Bac back.

Selling a seasonal product like banh chung, how do you organize production so that the company can operate year-round?

During Tet, Nuong Bac can sell 30,000-35,000 banh chung. However, this number is not possible at other times of the year. Meanwhile, as a company, I have to survive during the low season and meet the demand when it increases. To solve this problem, I have to cooperate with craft villages. Not being a long-time practitioner, I am not conservative about the process of making banh chung. What I aim for is whether the product meets the requirements in terms of form and quality. In addition, when recruiting staff for the food industry, we need time for training. If training is done too long before Tet, there will be no cost. If we only recruit and instruct on how to make it close to Tet, we will not be able to take advantage of the staff. In addition, when doing seasonal product business, it is quite difficult to coordinate the number of staff because the peak season requires a large number of people but after that, it is no longer suitable. Currently, Nuong Bac's main staff is extremely lean, consisting of 10 people. However, they are all multi-taskers in all situations. During low season, they are flexible in handling many tasks. When customer demand increases, they need to play to their strengths and have the ability to assign tasks to part-time employees or freelancers.

When the demand for banh chung is low, what does Nuong Bac do to generate revenue? I used to put all my efforts into educating customers about using banh chung in the summer instead of focusing only on the last months of the year. However, this is a difficult problem. I need money to cover expenses, I cannot just do it at the end of the year and spread it out to the other months. That way, business is not profitable. At this time, I realized that Nuong Bac should not just limit itself to banh chung. Just like not only Tet Nguyen Dan, Vietnamese people also have 3 other big Tet holidays in the year, Han Thuc, Doan Ngo, and Trung Thu. Our job is to find typical products for that Tet season to sell. For Han Thuc Tet, we focus on banh troi and banh chay. For Doan Ngo Tet, it is sticky rice wine and banh gio. For Trung Thu Tet, Nuong Bac switched to selling baked cakes and sticky rice cakes. Thanks to that, not only banh chung, Nuong Bac is remembered by customers as a place to elevate traditional products. With this form of rolling business, I need to know how to give up to prioritize products that are consumed strongly at each time. Without much professional skills, but from one cake season to another lasting up to 3 months, we have time to practice, organize and prepare to launch products on each Tet occasion.

Besides the appearance, what makes the difference in Nuong Bac products? Just like cooking everyday dishes with the same spices, some cook well, some cook badly. Nuong Bac's banh chung recipe does not have any secret. However, after 5 years of forming Nuong Bac, we still keep the same feelings and love for our cake. It is not simply business, in fact, Nuong Bac's team has put a lot of heart into their products. Just like cooking a meal, if you just make it to finish and make it with all your love to give to someone you love, the taste is completely different. So to describe in detail what is different about Nuong Bac's banh chung, I cannot say. This depends on the customer's feelings when using the product.

With boxes of banh chung costing up to nearly 600,000 VND/2 pieces, what makes the price so high? The difference in appearance is something everyone can see. However, not only that, with the high-end product line, the ingredients and cake criteria are more highly regarded. With high-end products, Nuong Bac uses the best rice, which is sticky rice. With banh chung made from this type of rice, you will not have a hot throat or heartburn when using it. The type of meat used for the high-end cake line is also of better quality. The ratio of rice, meat, and beans also determines the price of the cake. With the high-end cake line, the ratio of meat and beans is measured more. This is how we create cakes with higher prices than the regular type.

What do you think when Nuong Bac is always associated with the most expensive tag name in Vietnam? In fact, no product can meet everyone's needs. The important thing is who the customers are. With Nuong Bac, we focus on modern customers with high demands in both product quality and packaging. This tag name can make many people know about Nuong Bac. However, what makes them decide to buy our products depends a lot on what Nuong Bac brings to customers. Therefore, in the food business, conflicting opinions are inevitable. The important thing is not to worry about what the market says and run after it to solve it. What you need to care about is who your customers are and whether it really affects the purchasing behavior of the customers you want to target?

Looking back at 2022, what has Nuong Bac done that makes you proud?

The development of a business is like a child. In the early days, the child only needs to be fed, which means the business needs money to maintain. Once you have lived, you need to learn to develop yourself. After the period of ensuring jobs and income for employees, in 2022, I returned to develop my team to prepare for new milestones, to develop more strongly. Not only developing skills, building a team here is also how to make you have more faith in the path Nuong Bac is taking, join hands with me to realize a common dream. In terms of business, in 2022, Nuong Bac became a partner of large corporations such as Vinpearl, Golden Gate... This shows that the size of Nuong Bac and our capabilities have been recognized.

What is the dream you want to realize with Nuong Bac here? I want Nuong Bac to be a place to elevate traditional products. Not only do customers buy a beautiful, delicious product to enjoy or give as a gift, but they also have the opportunity to access traditional culture through the way Nuong Bac makes the product. When mentioning banh chung on Tet, many people often remember the scene of the whole family gathering to wrap banh chung. To evoke this in their customers, Nuong Bac has ingredient sets so you can wrap banh chung at home. I don't want my children or the next generation to just think that Tet is here, go buy banh chung to eat and that's it. In fact, when they wrap and boil the cakes themselves, children will understand more about the traditional cake of the nation. In addition, every detail on each box of Nuong Bac has a hidden meaning. The first banh chung gift box I launched was designed in a 2-tiered form inspired by terraced fields stacked on top of each other. Naming the cake set Lang Lieu is also a way to help customers evoke the story of the birth of the banh chung. Because with today's hectic life, it is difficult for you to tell your children this story. With the appearance of details on Nuong Bac's products, they are like a thread for people to easily tell each other stories about traditional products.

What is your plan in 2023 to continue the journey to realize this dream? In 2023, I identified my target customers as companies and organizations with higher standards and the desire to conquer demanding markets. To meet this next year, we are planning to raise standards from the factory to the staff. According to forecasts, 2023 is considered a year with many challenges for business people. With this situation, this is also the time for Nuong Bac to look back at itself in order to develop from within so that when there is an opportunity, we can seize it. Thank you for sharing!

According to Market Pulse