The market leader’s links to Disney have added to its prestige. TWM Senior Editor Helen Morris spoke to Ken Kimura, Chief Operating Officer.
“Bless you. À la vie!” (“To life”, or, “for life!”)
Saigon Paper’s high-end ‘Bless you’ branded products
Established in 1997, Saigon Paper Corporation’s memorable and high-end ‘Bless You’ brand and its premier segment ‘Saigon’ brand have helped the business take the leading position in Vietnam’s tissue market.
TWM first visited the company’s impressive My Xuan A Industrial Park-based facility, a 40km drive east from Ho Chi Minh City, in 2016. The in-depth interview with the company’s Founder and Chief Executive, Cao Tien Vi, detailed the recently completed paper mill expansion, built to capture Vietnam’s growing paper demand. At that time, per capita consumption of tissue was just 1kg – compared to the world average of 4.2kg. Revenues were forecasted to increase by 260% over the next five years.
Mr. Tien Vi had said the quality of the company’s products was “a competitive advantage”: “We are actively growing our export customer base, and Saigon Paper’s products are expanding in to? Asia, Europe, and American. We are confident to conquer new markets.”
Shortly after that Saigon Paper has been acquired by Japan’s Sojitz Corporation in June 2018. Now in June 2025, and speaking in excellent English over a Teams call, Ken Kimura, Chief Operating Officer at Saigon Paper Corporation discusses just how successful that competitive advantage has been in the proceeding decade.
Born in Tokyo, and having spent a decade of his youth living in Long Island, New York, Kimura moved into the tissue industry in 2021 – “during the middle of Covid” – when he moved to Ho Chi Minh City to work at Saigon Paper. At his first role at a paper mill, he started his career in charge of sales in the domestic market, having been working on brands and product developments. The move, he says, was “quite easy to adapt to.” “Japanese people have a lot of things in common with the culture of Vietnam. I just miss the four seasons!”
Kimura is keen to emphasise how the tissue market has matured since TWM’s visit in 2016. Up from 1.0kg per capita per person in 2016, he estimates that per capita consumption is now around 2 – 2.5kg per person: “Consumption here has certainly increased, it has become more of a habit for people,” he says. “But sales have been limited to selected areas across Vietnam. In rural areas, for example, people are still not used to using these products. But in the cities, it’s very common, and their lifestyle is becoming increasingly sophisticated.”
The use of virgin pulp tissue is more common in Northern Vietnam, whereas the Southern area are more familiar with using recycled tissue: “Consumption in the cities is not much different between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but one thing we have seen over the years is that many mills from China were coming to the North. Since your visit in 2016, Saigon Paper has been one of the largest tissue mill here in Vietnam, and we have been actively cultivating the domestic market.”
With changes in the domestic café and restaurant culture in Vietnam, Kimura sees potential for that 2 – 2.5kg per capita consumption to increase substantially: “It has strong potential, and the statistics do show higher volume. The correlation between per capita and GDP, or per capita income, and consumption of tissue, has a strong correlation. So, statistically speaking, areas of Vietnam should be reaching 6 or 8kg per capita. I do expect the domestic market to grow and develop as we are seeing changes in lifestyles, changing habits.”
Vietnam’s tissue manufacturers certainly seem to have anticipated a tissue boom. TWM’s Projects Survey – published in April 2025 noted that Shunfa Paper had plans to start-up two Baosuo-supplied TM at its site in Ninhbinh in 2025, Xuong Giang had started-up an Andritz-supplied line in 2024, and Xuan Mai Paper had also started up an Andritz-supplied TM in 2024.
Kimura notes that its competitors remain “quite aggressive” in making machinery investments. Does Saigon Paper have plans in the next year or two to increase its current 35,000tpy of tissue capacity? “There is nothing definite yet, but we do see an increase in tissue demand from our customers. So yes, we are looking forward to finding new opportunities.”
The company’s competitors are mainly Vietnam’s domestic players, and while the business has seen some Chinese mills coming into the country, they’re mainly in the carton board business: “We see tissue products from China being imported, but I think they are more busy investing in their own lines in China.”
Saigon Paper currently runs six tissue machines at its plant, supported by over 10 converting lines. Crucially, export has offered up a significant opportunity for the business. In 2016, the company was exporting 30% of its production, and now Kimura says that has increased: “It’s consumer and industrial, and we manufacturer both private label and brands. For the export market, our main volume is in jumbo rolls, and we do also have some OEM/private labels that we make up to toilet paper and towels and then export it as finished goods. In the domestic market we are 100% finished products. We sell our own brand, and we don’t have many private labels.”
As of June 2025 however, the elephant in the room is President Donald Trump: “With regards to our exports, the downturn right now due to the US tariff issue,” he says. “Vietnam is an exporting country. Unitl April 2025, the tariff for exporting to America was 0%, but now it’s 10%, and as of July 2025 this could even increase further to 46%. We haven’t been hit with it yet, our country is still negotiating, and we haven’t had a decision on what’s going to be applied from July. Everyone is waiting. Fingers crossed!”
Another difficulty for the export market is the differences between pulp varieties. He says the price of virgin pulp is dropping: “It’s not difficult due to sourcing issues, but more the drop of virgin pulp affecting our recycled tissue products. The buyers are saying they can buy it at this price, and recycled paper at this price… But they are two completely different products. That’s the main difficulty we have in the export markets.”
Within the domestic Vietnamese market, Kimura explains that during the Covid years, as with many countries around the world, the AfH market disappeared: “The street food scene here was very plentiful in 2016. Street food is very popular with locals and tourists. Vietnam has a very strong AfH market. But the street food stalls completely collapsed under Covid.”
Now in 2025, he adds, the AfH scene has bounced back. “It has come back, and we have seen changes following the Vietnamese government’s crackdown on drinking and driving in Vietnam. Recently we’ve seen the government implementing stricter laws against drinking and driving. They’ve cracked down on this and enforced those regulations. This has meant that the food and beverage restaurants are having quite a difficult time right now as less people are sitting and drinking outside.”
An upside to this has been a boost to the country’s coffee culture: “On the other hand, coffee shops – which are everywhere – continue to increase and increase. A lot of coffee chains are starting-up and developing their brands. As a result, we are seeing a lot of very sophisticated coffee shops, even just over the last three years. These new branded coffee shops are trying to sell the atmosphere of the coffee shop itself, rather than just a coffee. So, in cities, we are seeing consumer demand evolving, and interest in those value-added environments increasing. We are also seeing a lot of foreigner visitors coming in and they are changing and developing the country’s tissue and towel habits.”
Supermarkets have also “substantially developed” over the years, he adds: “Compared to when you were last here in 2016, the supermarkets have certainly developed significantly, and many of our competitors have started production of private labels for the supermarkets. This sector has really started growing.”
With a strong domestic market, and with tissue companies across Vietnam investing in new capacity, what is the company’s strategy to differentiate itself from the competition? “Yes, the market here will become more crowded – a lot of Vietnamese companies are now investing in tissue, and we will see several investments coming up in a year or two. Our solution is that we try to differentiate ourselves and enforce our service and encourage our sales team to be close with our customers so we can understand how best to support them. In case of export, we try to learn what their real demand is, whether they’re converters or traders, they also need to know about the consumers. It is fortunate that we are strong in the domestic market here in Vietnam, so we try to have communication with the customers, try to give them insights into what the next trends might be. This is where we can differentiate ourselves from other mills.”
Product innovation continues to be key. In 2023, Kimura signed a licencing agreement with Disney, and the result has been a range of collectable, fun tissue products that help to encourage their early adoption in the next generation of young adults: “Our brand is already over 20 years old, so by collaborating with Disney, I have tried to attract more consumers at younger age, and have them recognise our brand. Collaborating with the 101-year-old Disney brand made sense, and by working with Disney we are also hopeful that this will increase our reliability with other buyers. They have a very strict code of conduct and audits, so partnering with them showcases not only the quality of the products but also our quality as a manufacturer of Disney products.”
A commitment to environmentally-friendly products is also growing in Vietnam. Over the past decade, the Vietnamese government has toughened its environmental regulations, with the target of zero emissions by 2050. Companies have had to either invest heavily to upgrade their production facilities or shut down their businesses. Saigon Paper has been one of the companies that has had the brands and scale to react and comply with the regulatory standards. Saigon Paper has built its own wastepaper collection and purchasing system. Its EIMCO wastewater treatment system is one of the largest and most advanced wastewater treatment systems among paper manufacturers in Vietnam.
Kimura adds the company has FSC certification, and tries to maintain the sustainability of its raw materials: “The consumer and also the government in Vietnam are very keen on the environment. Our mill, for example, is mostly using biomass to heat up our boilers. From next year we’re trying to change it to 100% biomass, so we can drastically reduce greenhouse gases.
“With the government aiming for zero emissions by 2050, as an individual company we have the target to reduce 35% of our emissions by 2030. We are following the roadmap to achieve this and make the whole supply chain more efficient. Most of the mills in Vietnam I believe are still running 100% coal, so we are one step ahead of that right now and we are trying to go one step further. I hope our customers will find it increasingly important to continue to prioritise environmentally-friendly products and production processes. Then they will see we are the best choice, for life!”
