Mothers and babies sector booming in VN

The retail market of products for mothers and babies is booming as interest in health is increasing, especially for vulnerable groups such as families with infants and children.

The trend to go to specialised supermarkets for mothers and babies has become popular in large centres such as Ha Noi and HCM City and has spread to many cities across the country.

Increasingly, modern life makes the demand for shopping in the mothers and babies sector rise.

It is not difficult to find baby supermarkets anywhere, such as Con Cung, Bibomart, Kids Plaza, Shop Tre Tho, Tuti care and more.

Even nursing mothers do not need to go out but can order products of authorised brands in the market on reputable online sales sites such as Shopee, Tiki, and Lazada so as not to waste time travelling.

The attractiveness of the new shopping trend for breastfeeding mothers, along with the large market size, up to billions of U.S. dollars, has lured many large domestic and foreign corporations to pour money into the field.

Early this year, international newspapers reported that Quadria Capital, headquartered in Indonesia, completed an investment of $90 million in Con Cung to help the mother and baby retail chain open 2,000 more stores by 2025.

Before Quadria Capital, two organisations related to SSI Securities, SSI Asset Management Co., Ltd. (SSIAM) and DAIWA-SSIAM Viet Nam Growth Fund II L.P., also invested in the Con Cung chain.

SSI Securities also supported Con Cung Investment Corporation, which owns the Con Cung chain, to mobilise bonds for expansion.

In addition, many large domestic organisations also target this potential and very large-scale business. Mobile World Investment Corporation (MWG) had its first experiments with the retail chain of goods for mothers and babies, AVA Kids, at the end of last year. They opened 20 stores by the end of April this year.

MWG was estimated to have 50 stores last month and is expected to continue to grow this year and in the following years.

It is estimated that the brand’s mother and the baby chain has reached more than 1,000 stores in Viet Nam.

MWG expressed its ambition to be at the top of the market for mother and baby products, with the number of stores reaching 1,000 or more, with revenue contributing VND1-1.5 billion per store, equivalent to VND1-1.5 trillion in total revenue.

The attraction of the Vietnamese mother and baby market is huge. According to Quadria Capital, the growth rate of this field is up to 30-40 per cent per year.

Over the past four years, Con Cung has grown exponentially at a compound annual growth rate of 70 per cent.

The middle class in Viet Nam is on the rise. According to World Data Lab, it is expected that the Vietnamese class will have more than 23 million by 2030.

This is the driving force in promoting consumption, including the mother and baby industry.

In an announcement early this year, Quadria Capital said that this group would support the chain to develop an “all-in-one” super app that provides personalised products and services for about 5 million Vietnamese mothers.

The number of Con Cung stores at that time was 600. It was 658 as of June 8. — VNS