As a businesswoman, Thai Huong holds a list of titles across a handful of organisations.
The 67-year-old is founder and chairwoman of the strategic council of the privately owned TH Group, a Vietnamese food and beverage giant; she is also vice chair and general director of North Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank, also known as Bac A Bank; chairwoman of the Vietnam Association for Women Entrepreneurs; and chairwoman of the Association of Advanced Technology Enterprise in Agriculture.
Thai can also claim the title of feeding Vietnam’s populace. In 2008, she pioneered a complex dairy farming and production project with a herd of close to 70,000 cows, thus launching the group’s business in producing fresh milk and milk-based products.
Thai says she was born into a typical Vietnamese family. Her father was a teacher, and she worked on the farm with her parents and siblings. “That was how we got through the hardships, although I always felt I had a beautiful childhood. Those days nurtured my dreams and the burning ambition in my soul.”
Moved by milk scandal
Years later, Thai would notice an “increasing prevalence” of unsafe foods, culminating in a turning point in the late 2000s. “The incident that led me to a daring decision was the 2008 Chinese milk scandal, in which melamine-contaminated milk might have caused kidney damage to millions of children. I felt as if my heart was bleeding when I heard the news. The following morning, I convened an urgent meeting to produce fresh milk right in my homeland.”
That was how the dairy business — True Milk — was born. Back then, only 8% of Vietnam’s milk market was fresh milk, while 92% consisted of reconstituted milk powder.
In 2008, Thai founded TH True Milk with a herd of 45,000 cows, with the mission to bring Vietnamese children fresh and natural milk.
Under her leadership, TH True Milk became the first company in Vietnam approved to label the product as “clean fresh milk”.
Thai also took the lead in initiating and building a nationwide-scale project called “Nutrition for Vietnamese people”, which introduces solutions to improve the nutrition of Vietnamese people of all ages.
Last year, TH Group’s dairy business was ranked second in Vietnam with a volume of clean and fresh milk close to 350 million litres. The group’s herd comprises 200,000 cows, including 70,000 dairy cows, spanning 37,000ha of land and capable of producing 500 million litres per year.
The group was named the world’s largest centralised dairy farming and processing complex in 2020, and its product portfolio goes beyond just fresh and pasteurised milk; it also includes yoghurt, ice cream, nut and oat milk, fruit milk and rice milk, tea, cake, sausage, bacon and kimchi, fresh fruits and vegetables, cane sugar, antibiotics and health supplements.
Currently, the key market for the group’s products is Vietnam, distributed through its own TH True Mart chain of close to 400 stores as well as e-commerce platforms. The group also exports products like fresh milk, fruit juice and tea to Asean countries, including Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia. Beyond Asean, export markets include China and Japan.
For her contributions to the nutrition of the region, Thai received the EY-Bank of Singapore Asean Entrepreneurial Excellence award at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Singapore Awards, held on Oct 17 in Singapore.
The EY-Bank of Singapore Asean Entrepreneurial Excellence Award honours individuals and enterprises across Asean who have made outstanding contributions not only to business performance but also to social impact, innovation and sustainable development.
Honorees must meet rigorous evaluation criteria, including entrepreneurial spirit, regional vision, community impact, sustainability and international reputation.
Liew Nam Soon, EY Asia East deputy regional managing partner, says: “Mrs Thai Huong’s aspiration to provide people with safe, healthy food products and high-quality healthcare and education services is truly inspiring. Guided by a steadfast belief in sustainable development, TH Group’s investment projects have become a model of integrating technology and management science to achieve the highest productivity, optimal cost efficiency and international product quality.”
Nguyen Duc Thanh, first secretary to the chairwoman of the strategic council, receives the Asean Entrepreneurial Excellence Award 2025 on behalf of Thai Huong
Business ecosystem
TH Group’s investment projects focus on applying advanced technologies, integrated with technical and management science, to produce high-quality agricultural products. According to the group, it now runs a business ecosystem that also spans herbal beverages, sugarcane, pharmaceuticals, education, research and packaged meat, vegetables and grains.
TH Group also owns three beef farms in Australia. As of 2024, the group’s combined revenue (non-consolidated) was close to US$800 million ($1.04 billion), with net profit before tax of approximately 10%.
According to TH Group, its y-o-y growth for the past five years is estimated to be around 20%.
The group’s businesses have been operating in a circular economy model, employing more than 10,000 staff. It also owns a foundation for nourishing talent in her home country, as well as a “school milk” programme.
TH School Milk is the first product on the Vietnamese market to meet the standards and requirements for fresh milk as specified by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health.
“Studies show that children from 0 to 12 years of age grow up to 86% of their physical and mental potential, but for certain reasons, some mothers do not pay proper attention to nutrition for their children, including milk consumption,” says Thai. “Being aware of the necessity of the school milk programme, TH Group has proposed supportive mechanisms and called for the community’s involvement to implement the programme immediately.”
TH Group has even ventured into education itself. In this first phase, TH School in Hanoi is envisioned as a multi-level school for some 2,000 children from two years old to the end of high school, or around 18 years old; while TH School Project at Hoa Lac Hi-tech zone is designed as a semi-boarding training school for some 3,000 students aged 10 to 18.
In the four years since launch, the two schools now have nearly 700 students.
“TH Group is a collection of hearts and minds sharing the same faith, desire and enthusiasm,” reads the group’s sustainability report. “We are a world-class team of international and domestic leaders with extensive knowledge of world-class technology and management science. That’s why TH Group has made a difference in bringing true happiness to the community as well as prosperity to the group.”
Photos: EY
