For President Rita Vo, the biggest obsession was student dormitory toilets. Having experienced Kohler premium bathroom hygiene equipment, he decided to propose cooperation, gradually asserting his position in the market of building materials and furniture.

One day in mid-August, Mr. Vo Mau Quoc Ying — President of Rita Vo Company, sat down to review his 24-year career. Mr. Yung told the story of how he failed the first year of Polytechnic University and then studied Finance at HCMC University of Economics.

However, it was also the reason that brought Mr. Yung to the business path, founding Rita Vo — a large distribution system for building materials and furniture in Vietnam.

Convince American partners with a plan

Sixteen years ago, Rita Vo, while still a fledgling business, successfully convinced Kohler to become the official distributor of America's leading kitchen and bath brand.

Mr. Huong recalled that at that time, several furniture business units in Vietnam already had showrooms, and had experience working with foreign brands who also wanted to cooperate with Kohler. Rita Vo was just a small name on the market at the time.

“They asked me if I had a showroom, I said there wasn't yet. They asked me if I had a lot of money, and I told them I had very little. In university I studied Russian, and English was self-taught, so it was only audible. I frankly presented to them that I had knowledge and gave them a research report on the Vietnamese market written by myself,” Yung said.

For Mr. Yung, his biggest obsession was the toilet in his student dormitory. While working as a state enterprise manager after graduation, on a business trip abroad, he spent his own pocket money to stay in a 5-star hotel experience. As a result, he came to know the premium bathroom sanitary ware brand Kohler.

“At that time I saw how beautiful and beautiful Kohler products were, so later I sent a fax asking them to work with them. At the presentation with my partner, I talked about their plans to develop their brand in Vietnam. Finally, Rita Vo was chosen by Kohler as the exclusive distributor in Vietnam,” Mr. Yung recalled.

Partnering with Kohler became an important milestone in Mr. Yung's entrepreneurial journey. After 24 years of establishment, Rita Vo's system has grown to more than 30 centers with 8 different business segments.

“The Vietnamese market is so good that many foreign companies want to jump in. All of us Vietnamese want to save the land for our children and build their own dream house,” Mr. Yung said of the potential of the building materials and furniture market in Vietnam.

President Rita Vo is confident that she has built the system and standardized personnel for more than 20 years along with the position of exclusive distributor of many major brands. This is Rita Vo's competitive advantage that foreign enterprises, despite entering the Vietnamese market, are difficult to copy.

One thing that makes Mr. Yung proud is that while Kohler has thousands of distribution partners around the globe, many of them have learned from Rita Vo. Mr. Yung said to always develop the business with the two guiding words “integrity” and “quality”, not imitating anyone's model.

According to him, the secret to making Rita Vo particularly successful is convincing partners to produce products suitable for Vietnamese consumers. “Being a distributor is like setting out a dining table, to be successful you have to have dishes that are suitable for Vietnamese people,” Huong emphasized.

New ambitions

He is the highest-ranking leader of a multidisciplinary company with more than 1,500 employees, but Yung said he only entered the company twice a month. “The people I train are now better than I am. I have absolute confidence in my management team and empower them to make decisions. Thanks to this, I have time to think of new things, strategically orient the company and find more talented people,” said Rita Vo, president.

Mr. Yuen is excited about his intention to enter the real estate sector this year with a clean land fund that has been prepared in a prime location in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. “Rita Vo will redefine the concept of luxury apartments. A luxury apartment literally means that each brick, each type of material must be of high quality,” Mr. Yung said. In parallel, Rita Vo is also preparing to launch a 5-star hotel project in Phu Quoc.

While the real estate market is experiencing many challenges, Mr. Yuen is confident that his project will still succeed because everything Rita Vo has done adheres to the two words “integrity” and “quality”. For almost 20 years in the business of furniture and building materials from medium to high-end, Mr. Yung said the company has millions of high-income customers, loyal to the brand. That's the advantage many businesses dream of.

“I have cherished the real estate business for a long time, not a day after day. Twenty years ago, I told the general manager of the company that when Rita Vo develops a strong system of building materials and high-end furniture, we will make real estate,” said Mr. Yung.

Admitting a passion for real estate, founder Rita Vo stressed that this is only a complementary profession to the core business of building materials and high-end furniture. He insists that he always keeps the highest focus on the main sector and other business segments that play a complementary role so he will not get bogged down and dispersed resources when expanding horizontally.

Not only does it stop at distribution, Rita Vo is also looking to expand her production business in other areas. Yung also revealed that he had bought a factory producing aluminum and plastic doors Life Window, and renamed it Rita Vo Life Window, with the ambition to take the company beyond Vietnam's borders. “We will grow from retail to manufacturing,” Yung said.

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