Photo: Gumac.
“I was being praised for my success, and now I’ve failed. The fame made it hard for me to face the truth,” said Le Thanh Van, Founder of Gumac, as he shared his Covid-19 setback on his personal page.
Gumac was established in 2015, after Le Thanh Van, born in 1986, had sold clothes online for a while and bought a house. Starting with a 30m2 clothing store, Gumac quickly rose in the fashion industry and expanded rapidly.
According to their website, Gumac, a fashion retailer, experienced the fastest growth rate in Vietnam from 2015 to 2019 and became the top seller in the fashion category on e-commerce platforms like Tiki, Shopee, Lazada, and Sendo.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. While many businesses struggled and feared the impact of Covid, Le Thanh Van seized upon a quote from a billionaire: “Be greedy when others are fearful.”
“I went all in with whatever savings I had, opening a new office in the North, launching a string of new stores, and expanding our headcount to 650 people, a veritable army,” Van recalled.
“Eight months later, it all came crashing down, costing us tens of billions of dong and countless effort and trust… We had to close a lot of stores. Some stores were only a few months old, and the staff were all new.”
Van shared that Covid-19 was a significant turning point in his life. During that period, he had to let go of many hopes and dreams, and he lost 10kg.
“I was being praised for my success, and now I’ve failed. The fame made it hard for me to face the truth. It was also a haunting experience,” Van said.
Feeling lost, depressed, and trapped, Van considered handing over Gumac to someone else in May 2021. He even shaved his head and went to a monastery to become a monk. His wife, Minh Phuong, took over as CEO of Gumac from May 2021.
According to Van, he returned to Gumac after his spiritual awakening because he still had “unfinished business.”
Images of Van during a meditation retreat.
Recalling a friend’s recent decision to close their entire fashion store chain after 13 years, Van reflected: “I realize now how fortunate I was. The economy is still struggling, and 40 Gumac stores are all I can handle right now. If I had kept the 80 stores, we would’ve gone bankrupt by now. Deciding to close stores back then was difficult and painful. Now, if a store is unprofitable and inefficient, I close it without hesitation.”
“When I have to let go of something, I used to think of it as a loss or damage, but in reality, it’s a blessing.”
Positioned as “Fashion for Happiness,” Gumac has now stabilized with 40 stores. They have set two core goals for the 2023-2025 period: improving product quality and enhancing in-store experiences, preparing to accelerate and expand their market share in 2026.
