Our client operates in the intralogistics industry, providing integrated and fully automated logistics solutions for warehouses and distribution centers. The company serves the European, North American, and Asian markets and recognizes, that the Asian market has been showing potential for automation over the last years and seeks to explore the possibility of entering new markets in the region, namely Vietnam. For this purpose, the FHNW project team has been tasked with conducting further research, especially in our client’s target sectors of pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and retail.

The project team undertook a research approach to gather primary and secondary data. For the former, a number of industry experts were interviewed using appropriate virtual tools. The latter was collected from scientific online literature. Furthermore, the project team complemented their research with scientific methods and frameworks, namely PESTEL, SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, and PUV, in order to meet our client’s requirements and objectives. Finaly, a consolidation of the analyses resulted in a suitable market entry strategy for the Vietnamese intralogistics market.

The project findings include information on competitors active in the Vietnamese market, some of whom had not been previously identified from other published sources. The report also features valuable information and insights into the client’s targeted industries, including details pertaining to the prevalence of automation. The specific target industries show different levels of and potential for automation. The consolidated findings enabled the project team to conclude the following: Under consideration of risk and financial investment, the establishment of a representative office is the most promising entry mode. The second part of the results consists of a size estimation for the automated material handling market, which was found to be currently in its early stages of development. This further underscores the validity and applicability of the recommended market entry mode. The information presented in the report provides the client with guidance and assistance in making informed and effective decisions as to which market entry strategy should be pursued.