Mr. DIY enters Vietnam

Mr. DIY has opened its first store in Vietnam, just four months after company officials announced that it was revisiting Southeast Asia with a foray into the country. The maiden outlet, which held its opening on 2 August, is located in District 7, a shopping and expat district in Ho Chi Minh City. This is Vietnam’s largest city and de facto business and financial hub, which still also goes by its old name of Saigon.

The opening signals Mr. DIY’s return to Southeast Asia after focusing its sights outside its home region over the last two years with ventures into Turkey and Spain. The Malaysian home improvement retailer’s arrival on unfamiliar shores came after it established a foothold in all but three of the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and in India. With the opening of the Ho Chi Minh store, only two ASEAN countries, Laos and Myanmar, now remain outside Mr. DIY’s orbit.

Vietnam is the eleventh market for the company, which owns all the eponymous stores it operates around the world. Started in Malaysia, Mr. DIY is also present in Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia. Indonesia and the Philippines as well as India, Turkey and Spain.

The opening of the District 7 branch comes on the heels of DIY International’s report that the retail company was in the thick of preparations for its entry into the country of 100 million people. Details of the company’s then imminent move can be found in the report in our DIY+ section.