With Tet approaching, and the busy year-end work, time for shopping becomes more precious than ever. Feeling tired of the crowded traditional markets, where sellers are aggressive, or standing in long lines at supermarkets, many people choose the trend of online shopping.
The more online shopping demands increase, the heavier the workload of delivery companies becomes. Especially during peak seasons like the current Tet, the work can go on continuously from morning till late at night.
However, in recent days, it is easy to come across a situation where shops – those who seem to benefit from the peak season – when cooperating with Giao hang tiet kiem (GHTK), “cry” because their orders are frequently delayed, from receiving the goods to delivering them.
Overload, unavailability, suspension of routes, official farewell, what is happening, shops cry… are the things that the online community has been sharing in the past few days about the fact that many of their orders have not arrived on time. In various groups, many online businesses say that orders within the city sent through GHTK normally take only 1 – 2 days to be delivered, but now it could take up to a week or even more. Some people have planned to have their deliveries made on January 20th, but it has been more than 10 days and they haven’t received anything yet. Many people spread the information that 70% of GHTK staff have gone on strike, causing congestion in the flow of goods. A series of GHTK’s cargo trucks have gone on strike and lined up at the depot, causing delayed deliveries.
 Image of GHTK’s crowded orders widely shared on Facebook in recent days
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On social media, many delivery drivers admit that they are very discouraged, “going on strike is normal” because the Tet reward does not match their efforts in the past.
Post of an account owner believed to be working for GHTK
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 Post on Facebook receiving over a thousand interactions and hundreds of comments about the situation of GHTK “overwhelmed”
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In response to these situations, GHTK representatives stated that the high volume of goods in the last months of the year, due to the large shopping demands of people, led to congestion in operations. Therefore, the company had to temporarily stop receiving orders in certain areas to ensure the quality of operations.
GHTK also denied the strike of workers, as some social media sites have spread. At the same time, they promised to try to process the backlogged orders so that consumers can receive their goods before Tet holiday.
Who is behind GHTK?
Established in 2013, in just a few years, GHTK has quickly expanded its network to 63 provinces and over 11,000 districts and communes nationwide, with dozens of operation centers, over a thousand road trucks, and tens of thousands of employees.
GHTK’s precursor was Ecom Services Joint Stock Company. The company was established on May 21, 2013, with its address in Phuong Lien Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi. Its main business activities were other support services related to transportation, including sending goods, delivering goods, and other related activities such as packaging goods for the purpose of protecting goods during transportation, unloading goods, sampling, weighing goods.
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Posinvest Investment and Development of Commerce and Service Joint Stock Company (Posinvest) has Chairman of the Board of Directors cum legal representative Mr. Nguyen Tien Nam. The company was established on July 3, 2007. In the most recent registration change in March 2022, Posinvest has a charter capital of 6 billion VND, and the shareholder structure is not disclosed. Its main business activities have been changed from various construction to real estate business, ownership, and use rights for land belonging to ownership, possession, or lease. Its head office was also moved from No. 22, Alley 81, Truong Chinh Street, Khuong Mai Ward to Floor 8, No. 72 Vuong Thua Vu, Khuong Trung Ward, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi. |
With an initial charter capital of 500 million VND, and 4 founding shareholders including Posinvest Investment and Development of Commerce and Service Joint Stock Company and Mr. Pham Hong Quan each contributing 40%, Ms. Nguyen Nguyet Minh 15%, and Ms. Tong Thi Ngoc Anh 5%. Among them, Mr. Pham Hong Quan served as the Director cum legal representative.
In June 2017, the company changed its name to Giao Hang Tiet Kiem Joint Stock Company (GHTK) as it is known today, with its main office address located in O Cho Dua Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi.
In September of the same year, GHTK recognized a charter capital of 8.6 billion VND, in which Mr. Quan reduced his ownership to 24.58%, and Ms. Minh reduced hers to 7.733%. Later, the Company increased its capital to 12.9 billion VND, and these two founding shareholders did not change their capital contributions, so the ownership ratios decreased to 16.387% and 5.156% respectively, totaling more than 21.54%.
The remaining capital corresponds to a ratio of 78.46%, although not disclosed but it is believed to be participated by Sea Group – a Singaporean conglomerate that is also behind other well-known names such as Garena, Shopee, and ShopeePay. According to information gathered from Sea’s 2019 annual report, they have a 78.46% ownership stake in an undisclosed company in Vietnam.
 Sea Group owns 78.46% of a company in Vietnam as of 2019. Source: Sea Group
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In mid-2019, GHTK moved to a new address at the VTV Building, No. 8 Pham Hung Street, Me Tri Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi.
In mid-2020, there was a significant change in the shareholder structure with the appearance of a foreign shareholder named Parcel Delivery Service Pte Ltd from Singapore that owned a 42% stake in GHTK.
According to data from the annual report of Kerry Logistics – a Hong Kong-based logistics company, indirectly holding a 42% stake in GHTK since 2020. According to the 2022 annual report, Kerry Logistics still maintains this ownership ratio.
Kerry Logistics indirectly owns 42% of GHTK since 2020. Source: Kerry Logistics
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In March 2022, at the time the company declared that it had just reached 1 billion shipped orders through its system after 9 years of operation, DealStreetAsia reported that GHTK was planning an IPO with a valuation of up to $1 billion, while the valuation at that time was about $900 million according to some sources.
Also related to the IPO deal, Tech in Asia said that GHTK is selling about 23% of its shares, of which Sea Group is the investor who wants to sell about 20% of GHTK’s shares.
Therefore, Sea Group and Kerry Logistics are the two largest foreign shareholders of GHTK.
Currently, GHTK is known as one of the “giants” in the freight transportation industry in Vietnam, specializing in providing services such as Door to door delivery (national delivery, express delivery), inner-city express delivery, large bulk delivery, mail delivery, fulfillment services, and other value-added services. According to information on the website, GHTK has a service network with over 1.5 billion orders, 4.5 million online retailers, and 80 million online shoppers. Its operations are distributed across 63 provinces and cities with more than 30 thousand employees, over 1,500 warehouses, and more than 2,500 trucks.
As for Mr. Pham Hong Quan, the founder and CEO of GHTK, born in 1987, graduated from Hanoi University of Water Resources with a degree in infrastructure engineering (drainage and sewerage). After graduating, he worked as a product specialist at an e-commerce platform of VCCorp – Zamba (now defunct).
During that time was also when the idea of establishing a delivery company with better quality came to mind.
 Mr. Pham Hong Quan – Founder and CEO of Giao Hang Tiet Kiem
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