During a meeting in Ninh Giang district, Hai Duong Newspaper reporter interviewed Mr. Bui Trong Tan, Chairman and General Director of KLB Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Hanoi) about the company's development situation and the journey of successfully "surpassing the waves" in 2023.
Mr. Tan is a native of Hong Phong commune (Ninh Giang). In 2022, he and the company's leaders decided to invest 10 billion VND from social security funds in Hong Phong commune with 3 projects: Commune Health Station, Quang Ruc Village Cultural House and Hong Phong Commune Kindergarten Dome; supporting the "Repaying Gratitude" Fund of Ninh Giang district with 2 billion VND.
Sir, 2023 is a very difficult year for real estate businesses. What has your business done to overcome these pressures?
- I think that the biggest concern of sellers is always product quality. Our motto is that building houses for others must be better than building houses for ourselves. Therefore, in the past year, the KLB Joint Stock Company and contractors have made constant efforts to speed up the apartment handover progress; continuously improve and enhance the quality of the project; create synchronization in the quality of infrastructure - services to create a livable space for residents. To achieve that, we really had to work 5 or 10 times harder than we did in previous years.
Can you share specifically about the challenges that the company must overcome in 2023?
- 2 years ago, the project construction was almost completely halted due to compliance with isolation and disease prevention measures. During times when social isolation was not required, there were no workers working because they were afraid to return to Hanoi or were restricted because they had to meet requirements for vaccination or travel documents... As a result, the project was behind schedule compared to the plan, and at the same time, it led to many other consequences that had to be dealt with such as financial problems for the contractor due to the project being extended and the credit tightening policy; having to support the contractor to pay for materials and labor; having to negotiate with customers to delay the delivery schedule... Not stopping there, the Zero Covid policy applied by China and many countries in the world also severely affected the import of machinery, equipment, and raw materials for the project. For example, normally it only takes us 3-4 months to import a batch of Hitachi elevators to Vietnam, but due to the above reasons, the time was extended to nearly 1 year. When things returned to normal, the work piled up like a mountain. At this point, we had no choice but to try our best to stand firm and resolve everything properly.
The above difficulties are faced by most real estate businesses. So what is the secret that helps your business “survive the wave” and bring the Feliz Homes Project to the finish line?
-Each business has its own way of operating. KLB Corporation's strategy is to adapt and control risks. Last year, real estate businesses faced many difficulties, especially the tight financial policy that greatly affected the progress and cash flow of the business. The reason we overcame them was because right from the stage of building strategies and implementing projects, those difficulties were taken into account and contingency plans were proposed. Therefore, when there was a risk of risk, we were not shocked, but completely adapted and handled it. I also pay special attention to controlling the project implementation process. The more difficult it is, the more effective the tight control is. For example, during the construction of the Feliz Homes Project, although we paid the contractor in full, if they did not meet the progress, we had an immediate solution to make sure the progress was prioritized even though the company would spend more money to bring in another contractor. Thanks to this, almost every problem is under control.
In 2024, will your business continue to promote its strengths in the real estate sector or will it expand into other fields?
- In addition to the main real estate, we also aim to develop many other areas such as: Trade - Services, resort tourism, medical and health care. KLB Joint Stock Company will continue to develop deeper and wider in the areas where it has strengths to create a new internal force with increasingly better quality and efficiency.
Thank you very much!