We started our day going out to visit Coherent. This confused me because we did summary presentations of all of the companies we were planning on visiting while still in school before leaving and we had done a presentation on II-VI, not Coherent. As it turns out, II-VI had bought Coherent and rebranded into that name because it eliminated the need to explain II-VI was referencing columns 2 and 6 of the periodic table, which were special because those columns house the elements that were used in some of the first materials made by the company.
This company is headquartered near Pittsburgh but they have some of their manufacturing plants here in Vietnam. This is because they said they are vertically integrated, so they are putting their plants where it makes the most economical sense. As they have grown out in their current industrial park, they need more space here to produce their lens caps. These are one of the main products made by them and are single use coverings for all LASIK surgeries as well as things like tattoo removal.
To continue producing to their need, they are moving into a park as it is built and plan to go from 1500 employees to 5000 by 2028. I feel like they have the size to do this and the demand. They are a global company and they are bringing Vietnam into that fold and finding it to be very effective. This expansion doesn’t feel too rapid, they are a company with 26,000 employees across 24 countries, so this feels like just adding another branch.
The visit to Saigon High tech park is where we went next. I think the part about this place that amazed me the most was their budget for research and development. I guess I didn’t know what a high tech park was but this is a place for companies to spend most of their budget for the location on R&D. I also think it goes hand in hand to partner with a technical university so students can get a grasp of what is happening related to their sector.
Also, there were puppies at the high tech park so that was really cool.
