Vietnam’s ‘Coffee Queen’ to launch 1,000 King Coffee cafés

Le Hoang Diep Thao says they plan to open a thousand such establishments nationwide.

The 1,200 square meter cafe in Gia Lai Province is divided into two areas, one for appreciating the art of coffee and another to enjoy the beverage.

King Coffee is a brand launched by Thao’s Trung Nguyen International, the overseas branch of coffee giant Trung Nguyen.

Thao said the cafés, which would cater to different tastes, would be the stepping stones for Trung Nguyen International to conquer the domestic market and reach foreign markets like the U.S., China and Singapore through franchising.

Last month, the Trung Nguyen Group, co-founded by Thao and her husband Dang Le Nguyen Vu and currently headed by Vu, also launched a project to enhance its brand recognition, particularly its coffee houses.

The Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe on Alexandre de Rhodes Street in Ho Chi Minh City has became the project’s pilot venture. Its area has been expanded two or threefold and it has 50 employees now. A library with over 16,000 books and a reading space has been added and its furniture designed in the style of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945).

If successful, the new model will be applied to all 80 Trung Nguyen cafés, and by the end of this year, the company plans to have 100 coffee houses across the country.

Shortly after Vu and his wife’s marriage broke and divorce proceedings were launched, the husband disappeared from public view for several years.

He resurfaced earlier this year in an unexpected appearance at a company event and said that he’d spent a lot of time meditating in the mountains, and had found answers to everything.