Myanmar Golden Star Co. is one of the country’s leading corporate
conglomerates. Incorporated in 1989, its objective is to expand its
activities and transform from a small trading base to an internationally
competitive venture. The group’s focus is on consumer products such as
soft drinks, condensed milk and cigarettes.
Thein Tun was born on 26 March 1937 in Wakema, a small town in the
Irrawaddy Division in the south of Myanmar. He was the second child in a
family of three sons and three daughters.
"In fact, I was the only
child to receive a high school education", he said.
"My father was born and raised in Sinpyugyun Tanyaung in northern
Burma, but seeking more opportunities, he moved to the south. The area
in which we lived was famous for its rice production and my father
became quite a successful rice trader. However, when I was four, my
father – fearing for his young family – relocated us to his village in
the north when the Japanese occupied our country in 1942."
Although he was only a young boy, Thein Tun remembers very clearly
the journey to Sinpyugyun Tanyaung. His father bought a large rice barge
capable of carrying 500-700 bags and the family travelled for almost a
month along the Irrawaddy River to the village. He can remember the
sights, sounds and smells of the trip as the boat moved northwards along
the river past famous cities such as Pagan and through the dry zone.
"The journey took 21 days and it was filled with danger and excitement. I thought it was a great adventure", Thein Tun said.
His father’s hunch about the north’s safety paid off and Thein Tun
has very happy memories of childhood there, in particular of riding
horses throughout the countryside, visiting pagodas and monasteries.
What was going to be a short stay turned into ten years and it was
not until 1952 when he was fifteen years old that Thein Tun left his
father’s village to return to Rangoon and study at a small private high
school known as AWA Private School.
When he completed school in 1954 he started to work as an assistant
accountant at the Electricity Supply Board. His family was unable to
afford a university education so, he remained with the Board for six
years.
In 1961 he founded an import and export company called Aung Nyunt Swe
Co. which, loosely translated, means "golden victory". Like a number of
South East Asian entrepreneurs, Thein Tun has some faith in astrology
and the name of his company was chosen by a leading astrologer of that
time. This import and export business enabled him to travel to Japan,
Hong Kong, India, Thailand and other destinations in Asia. He quickly
acquired business contacts and was able to form strong partnerships.
By 1965, with the introduction of General Ne Win’s Burmese path to
Socialism, the government nationalised all businesses and his company
was closed down. The only possibility for entrepreneurs like him was to
own and operate small family-owned businesses so he returned to his
father’s village where he built a mill to produce edible oils from
sesame seed and peanuts.
"The socialist system at that time did not
allow us to have companies but I acted as a sole trader selling ten
barrels of edible oil a day", he said. After three or four years he was
able to expand the business slightly into transporting products as well.
"In 1976, I learnt I could re-enter the import and export business by
acting as an individual agent for foreign companies. Given all the
contacts I had developed in the early ‘60s, I thought I had a great
opportunity to represent foreign companies in Myanmar. I returned to
Yangon from 1976 to 1989 and worked hard to develop a successful agency
business."
He believes these years were extremely important as he learnt a
tremendous amount from his international principals and developed an
extensive network which enabled him to move quickly to establish joint
ventures with foreign partners when the government allowed a market
economy to re-emerge in 1988.
"In 1989 out of a population of 46 million I believe there were
probably only 200 individuals operating agency businesses like me." He
was, in fact, surprised when the government moved from a socialist to a
market economy.
"I didn’t think the system would change. I developed
joint ventures with foreign investors easily because I had a lot more
connections with foreign firms compared to most people", Thein Tun
explained.
It was around this time that fate also played a hand, enabling him to
expand even more quickly. In 1987 he fell ill and the government gave
him permission to go to England for medical treatment. While he was
there waiting for the doctor’s appointment, "paying £370 rent per week"
as he tells me, he watched television every day and studied the
companies that survived the stock market crash of Black Friday in
October 1987.
"I noticed it was mainly consumer products which survived
the crisis and I told my sons who had joined me that, if Myanmar ever
moved to a market economy, we should concentrate on developing the
consumer products business."
If one looks at the businesses in which Thein Tun is involved today
it is clear he has implemented his 1997 vision. Major products produced
by the group include condensed milk, tetropack, detergent powder and
mineral water from his reconfigured PepsiCola plant. It is, in fact, his
joint venture with PepsiCola which brought him to international
recognition, particularly in the United States. The venture proved
enormously successful but then politics intervened leading to
PepsiCola’s withdrawing from the Myanmar market.
Thein Tun purchased the Pepsi shareholding and now produces mineral
water and other soft drinks from the factory. Many business-men would
have been emotionally destroyed by the break-up of this joint venture,
particularly as it was going so well and Coca Cola had not entered the
market.
However, Thein Tun is philosophical and said,
"It was the right
business decision for both Pepsi and ourselves to establish this venture
and, of course, I am sad that political pressure in the United States
forced Pepsi to withdraw. However, that is life and there was nothing
either of us could really have done to change the outcome. With the
decision made, what was most important for me was to focus on the
future, not the past".
The group’s trading activities are also profitable and so is the
wholly owned wood products company, Pioneer Venture Limited. It produces
10-15 tonnes of semi-finished wood products a day. Another wood-based
subsidiary, Myanmar Development International Company Limited, which is
46 per cent owned by a Singapore-based company, specialises in
processing rubberwood and other kinds of wood.
Trading activities include the distribution of such luxury goods as
Chivas Regal, consumer items from Proctor and Gamble and motor vehicles.
At the group’s condensed milk plant, which is 49 per cent owned by the
government, renovation work is underway to upgrade the production line
with Dutch made machinery to increase capacity. Thein Tun is also
Chairman of a company dealing in stationery and office supplies, a
Director of Myanmar Citizen Bank and Myanmar Forest Products Corporation
and the Chairman of the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce.
Thein Tun has three sons and two daughters but, unlike many of the
other subjects in this book, he has placed no obligations on his
children to enter the family businesses. His eldest son has sadly passed
away and, of his other children, only his third son currently works
full-time for his business.
"My second son is employed by the Sofitel
Hotel Group in Yangon where I am a small shareholder. My younger
daughter, Kyi Kyi Khaing, is still at school and my elder daughter works
for Myanmar Goldstar", he said.
As indicated earlier, Thein Tun to some extent believes in and
consults astrologers. "I am sure there are some people who can tell the
future", he said. "However, I do not consult astrologers so much for
business decisions as for issues of health and family."
Not surprisingly, for someone with his beliefs, he thinks luck plays a
50 per cent role in one’s success or failure. The other ingredients
are, in his opinion, vision, opportunity, timing, hard work, team work
and decision-making.
"Even if you knew everything there was to know about a particular
business you must have timing on your side. To succeed as an
entrepreneur one has to learn how to earn money, then make money and
finally to use the skills and experience of highly qualified people to
make money with and for you", he said.
In a country which is 90 per cent Buddhist, it is not surprising to
find that Thein Tun is a strict Buddhist and meditates half an hour to
an hour each day.
"Over the last nine years I have become even stricter
in my Buddhist regime and now eat no pork or beef and only allow myself a
small glass of wine from time to time."
While Thein Tun is an entrepreneur to the core, he has already
achieved a level of financial independence so in the remainder of his
business career he wants to concentrate on more philanthropic endeavours
and to leave the running of his businesses to professionals.
"Three
years ago I established the Tun Foundation Bank, the charter of which is
that 100 per cent of its profits will go to charitable objectives –
religious, educational, health and social."
As I left Thein Tun, the impression which stayed with me was of
someone who was, as we say in the west,
"comfortable in his skin" and
for whom business is an activity to be enjoyed. I think the most telling
point he made was that you cannot beat "the market" and that timing is
of critical importance to success. The demise of his joint venture with
PepsiCola is testimony to both these points.
Wrote in 1999 Subtitle The Life Stories of Leading South East Asian Business People @
http://www.afgventuregroup.com
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