Germany's Vietnamese business community battles recession (Feature)

By Nguyen Yen Jul 15, 2009, 2:13 GMT

Berlin - Vietnamese immigrant Le Thu Hoai stands by the window looking out at the park in front of her fast food restaurant in Altlandsberg, a small town just outside Berlin.

Her husband, and only assistant at the establishment they have run for the past 15 years, plays cards with three German men on a nearby table.

If the recession pummeling Europe`s biggest economy has one silver lining it is that it has brought this couple more time to relax during the previously hectic working day - because business is down 50 per cent compared with this time last year.

Interestingly, customers seem to be cutting back, rather than cutting out eating out altogether.

'The number of customers to my restaurant has not been reduced markedly but the amount of money they have spent on their meals has dropped remarkably,' Hoai told the German Press Agency dpa.

'I love Vietnamese food because it is always delicious,' Berlin resident Peter Pruefert, 66, told dpa.

Despite the apparent popularity, Vietnamese restaurants are having to be resourceful to keep customers coming.

The Com Viet, located near Alexanderplatz in former East Berlin, attracts mostly tourists and office workers, and boasts of bargains such as Pho soup for 4 euros (5.6 dollars), cheaper than rival eateries.

Despite this, it has still seen a drop in both customers and revenue - although Com Viet owner, Pham Thanh Duong, declined to reveal the exact extent to which his business has been affected by the economic crisis.

By contrast, The Mango on downtown Mulack Street saw a 10-per-cent year-on-year rise in its revenue in the first five months of this year, according to owner Nong Quoc Khanh.

He admitted, however, that his waitresses are now being tipped less.

It is not only Vietnamese-run restaurants and businesses facing difficulties in Germany.

Famous restaurants such as Shiro Shiro, a favourite with film-stars during the recent Berlin Film Festival, have been forced to shut their doors.

In Berlin alone, restaurants have seen a year-on-year drop in revenue of around 16 per cent, according to industry associations. The future of several big German retailers, including Karstadt, is uncertain; others have gone insolvent.

Le Thi Bach Nga, an assistant at the Cochin, another Vietnamese-owned restaurant at the city's vibrant central Hackescher Markt area, said she was much busier during this time last year.

'Bad weather is one of the reasons affecting the number of our customers. But I think the main reason is that many people have to reduce their frequency of eating out to save money,' Nga said.

In order to beat off the recession, Nga has introduced promotional campaigns and slashed prices. Cochin`s special cheaper menu that offers a complimentary soup along with a main course, is changed every two days.

With discretionary spending being cut back by thrifty German consumers, times are lean time for florists and nail salons run by Vietnamese business people too.

Beauty therapist Nguyen Dat Thuy, 35, said her monthly wage in May was less than those in the previous months as clients numbers fell.

That picture is echoed by florist Vuong Thi Lan, 43, at the Angelika`s Blumenparadies on Holzmarkt Street near Alexanderplatz, who said her sales dropped by 40 per cent year-on-year last month.

The shop`s 10-euro bouquets, now no longer best sellers, have made way for smaller bouquets selling for half the price. 'I have to select cheaper accessories to lower the prices of bouquets,' Lan said.

Around 80,000 Vietnamese nationals legally reside in Germany, making it the country's largest group of resident foreigners from Asia.

Vietnamese nationals began arriving in Germany in significant numbers in the 1970s and 1980s as refugees, or 'boat people' and guest workers.

They feature prominently in the restaurant, cut flower, grocery and nail care business.