Quang Vinh
Quang Vinh Ceramic Company Limited was established in 1994 as a leading ceramic company in the traditional ceramic village of Bat Trang in Hanoi. The company’s history goes back to the late 1980s, when a cooperative of ceramic makers was formed to supply products. as a subcontractor, to export companies. Today, the company has a production workshop in Bat Trang and a factory in Quang Ninh province. Its strategy is to focus on innovation solutions to develop high value, innovative, and technology-intensive products for high-end markets. Almost all (95 per cent) of its products are for export markets such as Japan, Australia, the United States, and the European Union.
The company employs more than 200 laborers (95 per cent are women) in its factory in Quang Ninh. All come from poor households. Each worker is paid VND 5-6 million per month ($200-250). In addition to paying a salary 5-7 per cent higher than other companies, Quang Vinh Ceramic has an excellent welfare system for its workers beyond government requirements, including social and health insurance, a learning promotion fund and vocational orientation for the workers’ children, summer vacation camps, and small loans (VND 3-20 million) with zero interest for housing repairs and family economic development, payable over many years. The company has a large female labour force (and suppliers), given that men usually work in better earning coal mines in Quang Ninh. The company also developed technological innovations and reformed production process to reduce the heavy workload for women (e.g. using lifting equipment for heavy objects, semi-automatic machinery, loading equipment, reducing smoke, dust and keeping the environment clean).