Vietnam: Sabeco’s new R&D brewery to foster employee creativity

Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) last week inaugurated a cutting-edge SABECO Beer Research and Development Centre to help brewers and young engineers attain the best environment for the process of creating quality products, Vietnam Investment Review reported on November 25.

The centre, a fully automated miniature brewery with full production capabilities, is situated at Nguyen Chi Thanh Brewery in Ho Chi Minh City, the birthplace of the Bia Saigon brand in 1875. The facility enables brewing professionals to study and test new recipes and methods before implementing them in 26 breweries across the country.

To promote innovation, reduce dependence on foreign technology, and improve competitiveness, the staff of Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (SABECO) has for many years cherished the thought of establishing a research centre to unleash their creativity.

Up to now, if they wanted to test new products, brewers must carry out testing at one of the existing factories, causing various difficulties and costs in the process, while also limiting many young engineers who lack confidence to carry out such testing.

Therefore, with the experience of operating many breweries with the largest production scale in Vietnam, SABECO’s technical and beer production team has mastered technology from design and construction to supervision and operation to introduce the new centre. It is built with modern technology and superior quality compared to centres of the same scale, leaders say.

The investment cost is also only a fraction of that compared to other centres of the same scale, and it takes advantage of the domestic supply chain to help reduce investment costs.

The complex will be a fully automated centre, minimising human operations, thus controlling errors in production and at the same time being programmed to help produce consistent products during testing.

“SABECO’s production team has already found the key to improving quality,” said Lam Du An, deputy general director of SABECO in charge of Technology and Production. “We have received over 50 awards in the past five years, including five on product quality. To retain innovation to create new products and new tastes, the production department cannot test beer on a large-scale production tank of 40,000 beer barrels. We do it on small-scale production tanks, ensuring quality with 40 beer tanks daily.”

The establishment of the new centre will be the perfect place for brew masters to create more new recipes with high process and efficiency, bringing consumers high-quality beverage products and thereby realising the dream of developing the Vietnamese beverage industry to world-class levels, An added.

“People are the core in any industry, including the beer industry. Particularly, engineers in the beer industry, who have just graduated, often have little confidence because there is no environment for experience and creation,” An highlighted. “The establishment of the centre will be a favourable environment for young engineers to learn from previous brewers’ experience, as well as encourage creativity and confidence. This is the foundation for SABECO to look for talented people.”

Previously, SABECO sent numerous technical staff members to participate in brew master training courses in Germany to enhance their knowledge and gain experience. With the desire to fully master beer production technology and processes, including the most specialised and unique ones, the team collaborated with major domestic and international partners for nine months to build machinery and install the entire production line using the world’s most advanced technology.

After decades of development and being welcomed for its high-quality products, SABECO has built a set of criteria for producing quality beer with a harmonious balance of various flavours, smoothness, freshness, and aroma.

In the process of beer production, the new centre will help address the difficult aspect of cultivating yeast. Yeast is a microbial product that is cultured with the highest purity, and can make characteristic flavours from raw materials and mitigate headaches, fatigue, and thirst after drinking, if cultivated in a suitable environment.

On the contrary, if yeast is cultivated in an unsuitable environment, it can create aldehydes that cause these symptoms.

In addition to the new facility, SABECO is also operating a quality control process to ensure that outcomes of the centre will be quickly produced at all of the company’s factories, with the same quality and flavour.

As the oldest brewer in Vietnam with nearly 150 years of history and nationally acclaimed brands, SABECO now operates 26 breweries and 11 trading subsidiaries, supported by a distribution network of more than 200,000 retailers nationwide.

SABECO’s portfolio includes some of the most cherished beer brands in Vietnam, such as Bia Lac Viet, Bia Saigon Chill, 333 Pilsner, Bia Saigon Special, Bia Saigon Export, Bia Saigon Lager, and Bia Saigon Gold.

The brands’ outstanding quality has also gained recognition internationally, including seven honours at the World Beer Awards 2024 with Lac Viet named World’s Best Light Lager. The company has also come away with medals from the Beverage Testing Institute in 2023, Asia Beer Championship 2022, Monde Selection Awards 2021, the International Brewing Awards 2019, the International Beer Cup 2019, and many more.

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