Branded goods king gets bogged down in Trang Tien Plaza

Johnathan Hanh Nguyen has become well known in Vietnam. Starting business in Vietnam in the 1990s, he has been enjoying business prosperity thanks to investments in many different business fields, especially duty-free shops at airports.

In Vietnam, he is dubbed ‘branded goods King’, simply because he is the president of IPP, the first company which brought the world’s luxury brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo and Cartier to Vietnam, displaying the branded goods at duty-free shops at Tan Son Nhat Airport and the central area of HCM City.

However, his name  better known in Vietnam after IPP began developing Trang Tien Plaza, the shopping mall located on the ‘golden land area’ at the center of Hanoi, near the legendary Hoan Kiem Lake.

Trang Tien Plaza is considered the most luxurious shopping center and amusement park in Hanoi has also been hurt by the economic crisis, though a bright prospect was projected for it on the day of opening.

Sources said that the IPP’s owner had to renew the appearance of Trang Tien Plaza and set up 20 stalls there, costing VND2 trillion.

The value of the land plot on which Trang Tien Plaza is located remains a secret. However, analysts believe that it must be tens of millions of dollars at least, comparing it with the land plots nearby, on less advantageous positions. 

Ocean Group had to spend VND500 billion to buy Kem Trang Tien, an ice-cream company located on the same street, just hundreds of meters away from Trang Tien Plaza. 

Meanwhile, Nguyen Duc Thuy, another famous businessman, had to spend VND1 trillion to buy stakes of Kim Lien Hotel JSC which owns 3.5 hectares of land, also in the central business district of Hanoi.

However, though Trang Tien Plaza is developed on the ‘golden land’, in the eyes of the public and business circle, the branded goods King seems to have become bogged down in ‘paradise’.

The narrow basement has with few places for car parking. 

Since the opening, Trang Tien Plaza cannot attract many buyers. People visit Trang Tien Plaza just to check a beautiful place in Hanoi, buy cheap ice cream at VND3,000 on the sixth floor and see the branded goods items displayed there. The stalls, though offering the discount rates of 10-40 percent, remain nearly deserted.