Some opportunities come from the places you least expect. For me, it was an afternoon phone call — a few months after I had completed the purchase of the town of Buford, Wyoming, USA.
A Call from an Old Friend
On the other end of the line was Mr. Van Duc Muoi — then General Director of Vissan. We had known each other for a long time, but our paths had diverged for years without a chance to reconnect.
After catching up on all manner of things, he asked about my plans for the town of Buford. I turned the question around: “How is the Vissan market doing these days?”
He laughed proudly: “I have 10,000 points of sale nationwide.”
That was no small number. Vissan at the time was already Vietnam’s leading processed food brand — sausages, cold cuts, pork rolls — known to virtually everyone. Ten thousand points of sale is a network many businesses dream of.
But I told him honestly what I saw.
The Missing Piece
“You’ve built a formidable business. But you’re still missing one important piece.”
He fell silent, waiting for me to continue.
“Ten thousand wholesale points of sale are ten thousand passive relationships. You know you’re selling, but you don’t know who is buying, what they’re buying, how much, or how often. That’s the difference between having revenue and having a true distribution system.”
A genuine distribution system is more than a network of outlets. It is the ability to control complete market data — every customer, every region, every product — enabling precise decisions and controlled expansion.
He listened, then smiled: “So — can you do it?”
I answered without hesitation: “I can.”
Starting from Zero
And so my company became the general contractor for building Vissan’s northern distribution system — 28 provinces, excluding Hanoi.
Nothing was ready. We had to build everything from scratch:
Recruiting sales teams in every province. Opening distributors in key territories. Hiring supervisors, training processes, establishing sales routes. Deploying a reporting system so Vissan could see real numbers every day, from every province.
Each province was its own market with distinct consumer characteristics. From Lang Son down to Thanh Hoa, from Thai Nguyen across to Hai Phong — no single formula worked everywhere. Our team had to learn fast and adapt fast.
Eight Months — A Record
After just eight months, we completed all 28 northern provinces with 15,542 points of sale established and operational.
For the first time in its history, Vissan owned a clearly defined distribution system — professional, with full coverage, and most importantly: fully controllable. Who buys what, where, and in what quantity — all transparent within the system.
This was more than a sales figure. It was the foundation for Vissan to continue expanding in a controlled manner — into the Southeast, the Mekong Delta, the Central region, and the South — following the model proven in the North.
The Story Didn’t End There
With a solid distribution system in place, combined with the outstanding leadership of Mr. Van Duc Muoi, Vissan achieved a resoundingly successful UPCOM listing in 2017 — at a record valuation, drawing the attention of major strategic partners such as Masan and CJ.
A Vietnamese food brand standing firm, properly valued, and courted by major regional food industry names — that was the result of years of accumulated work, including the building of a true distribution system.
The Vissan story left me with one clear lesson: having revenue is not the same as having a system. A wide network of outlets is only the starting point — not the destination. A true distribution system is when you control the data, control the quality of service, and can expand or adjust at any time without depending on any single link in the chain.
That is the philosophy IDS carries into every distribution project — all the way to the very last point of sale in the system.
