Hyosung, the one that brings the smiles back to Vietnamese citizens ‘Smile Searchers’

Hyosung's spandex production sites include China (Jiaxing, Nantong, Guangdong), Vietnam, Turkey, and Brazil. (Photo : Hyosung)

Korean Companies for Asia (1)

In Dong Nai, a province near Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, a lot of people that are sick do not receive medical attention. In most cases, a simple cough medicine requires a day’s labor for them or that there is no money to commute going to and from the hospital. For them, not only do they not receive basic welfare service because of the lack of the proper medical equipment and skills, but more often than not, it is the lack of knowledge on basic disease prevention that lags the province behind. However, from 2011, hope to change this has come to the province. The region houses the spandex and tire cord factories of Hyosung Group, and as such, the trainees of the company at the said factory provide continuous volunteer medical services to the people in the province. After receiving treatment, one patient said in a lively voice, “It’s so good to receive medical services here! Not only is it free, we can get bread, water and can eat free lunch, too!”

Since 2011, Hyosung Group has been providing free medical volunteer services in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam. With the help of the Vietnamese government, the company was able to continuously do volunteer work in Vietnam. (Photo : Hyosung)

Annually, with the goal of replacing the drawn faces of pain and agony with smiles, the Hyosung Group is managing the ‘Smile Searchers’ volunteer program. Smile Searchers is working with international relief and medical organizations, as well as with employees and volunteers based on the Vietnam business area to provide free medical services to citizens within the province. With the recommendation of the regional committee, the volunteer group visits a school and provides basic health check-ups, dental treatment, and distributes emergency kits as well. About 700 in 2011, 1000 in 2012, and 1500 in 2013 were provided with medical services. Apart from this, Hyosung Group, goes beyond providing monetary donation and manpower assistance by promoting CSEs (Creating Social Eco-system) by connecting the industry, civil society and government that shall enhance the sustainability of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices.

The employees of at Hyosung's spandex factory near Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, inspecting the quality of the product 'Creora' (Photo : Hyosung)

Production Expansion of Spandex Brand ‘Creora’

The special relationship of the Hyosung Group and Vietnam started with ‘Creora’. In 1992, the spandex brand ‘Creora’ by the Hyosung Group is the fourth in the world to be produced, and first among domestic companies. ‘Creora’ comes from the two words ‘creative’ and ‘ora’ which stands for its meaning: the best spandex that will open the world of creativity in the 21st century. The ‘semiconductor of textiles’, it goes without saying that its high value and functionality comes from it being a product of the right mixture between petroleum compound and polyurethane. Not only does it have the strength 3 times that of regular rubber, but its lightness and elasticity is outstanding as well. It is multifunctional in nature, may it be from women’s undergarments or swimwear, stockings, or even for children’s diapers—we are expecting a huge increase in the demand as possibly all textile will be utilizing this product in the near future.

Hyosung Group envisions an expansion of about 60 million US dollars (about 60 billion Korean won) of its spandex production to reach 10,000 tons and about 50,000 tons of Creora in size. This move is aligned with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as it comes into effect, where rapid increase in the demand for Vietnamese textiles will directly increase the demand for spandex as well. In order to meet the increasing demand from China, India and other Asian markets, increasing production competitiveness will be strengthened to become the world’s best.

Collaborative Research with Chinese Universities, Support for Fostering Future Talents

The outpost of Hyosung in China is active in contributing to social causes as well. In order to successfully expand to the China, having a deep understanding about Chinese culture and customs which deepens into trust is an important condition. To this end, one of the key activities for Hyosung to deepen trust with our Chinese partners is to play our part in corporate social responsibility.

Since 2007, the Jiaxing subsidiary has been active in forming university-industry cooperation in the area of textile technology research with projects such as scholarships for students of Donghua University in Shanghai, China to prominent universities in Korea. In the 2010 Shanghai Expo, scholarships were given to Jiaxing students and a Korean Language School was opened. Apart from this, Hyosung Group has been active in providing scholarship to students from surrounding schools from 2011.

In 2008, in the aftermath of the Sichuan Great Earthquake, not only did the three Hyosung subsidiaries of Nantong, Jiaxing and Guangdong donate 2 million Chinese yuan to the Chinese Red Cross, there were voluntary donations from the employees from the subsidiaries which amounted to 5 hundred thousand Chinese yuan. In addition, aid in form of financial support was given to employees whose families were affected. Consequently, in the following earthquake in the region, 6 hundred thousand Chinese yuan was donated from the subsidiaries, and one hundred thousand was collected from voluntary donations of the employees.

Apart from this, the company is active in the protection of cultural properties in China. Especially in 2007, the restoration of the residence of Kim Koo and the provisional government building of the Republic of Korea in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province was supported financially. For the production of polyester tire cord, the company has a record of having more than 40 percent of the world’s share, the largest in the world, even going beyond the share of the company for spandex production. In 2004, the plant for tire cord fabric factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province and the steel cord fabric factory in Qingdao were both completed. In 2011, in collaboration with the Japanese Sumitomo Chemicals, a steel cord factory in Nanjing, China and Rayong, Thailand was established and is currently in operation.

Prominent Emergence in the ATM Market of Indonesia

Going beyond production, marketing and purchasing, the bold decisions in recruiting local employees and the various corporate social responsibility ventures in China has successfully helped the company to become adopt in the domestic market, recording more than one trillion won in sales. Specially, after the establishment of the trading office in Beijing, has about 5,000 employees, reflecting the core role of the company in the world market.

With the continuous investments on facilities and equipment, the Chinese subsidiaries are currently handling 10 fully-functional manufacturing factories namely 3 spandex factories, 3 tire cord factories, 2 heavy duty transformer factories, nylon film factory among others. Hyosung will continue to hire excellent human resources and focus on cost competitiveness, and following the success from the Chinese market, the company plans to invest and expand on cutting-edge technologies on fabrics, tire stiffeners, and heavy electric machines. With a foothold on the Asian market, Hyosung takes-off to leap towards the world market.

Nautilus Hyosung, maker of Automatic Teller Machines (ATM), is one of the fastest growing companies in the ATM manufacturing industry of Indonesia. Indonesia’s ATM manufacturing industry produces 14,000 ATM units annually and the 8th largest producer in the world. As the hub of the ATM market in Southeast Asia, Nautilus Hyosung has strategic partnership with 4 major banks in Indonesia and is continuously increasing its sales.

Last year, the company has supplied 700 ATM machines to Bank Central Asia (BCA), one of Indonesia’s largest commercial banks and has received an order of 5000 ATM machines from Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), a state-owned bank. With this, the company is showing to hold about more than 40 percent of the shares in the ATM manufacturing market, and currently holds the top spot in sales. In April this year, BRI was able to obtain 1,500 units of withdrawal kiosks and 200 units of deposit kiosks.

Nautilus Hyosung is showing signs as well that it will continue to look at other channels to diversify revenue channels and increase market share. With this, the company has introduced self-service banking system for the young generation called ‘New Branch Solution to major banking corporations such as BCA and BRI.

Hyosung, through these activities, aims to improve the status of Korean businesses both in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia and will continue to target emerging markets. Translated by Rigoberto Banta Jr.