A Vietnamese mogul known as the king of branded fashion is dipping his toes into the hi-tech retail sphere with the opening of an Apple Premium Reseller store in Ho Chi Minh City next week.

Jonathan Hanh Nguyen will be welcoming the very first customers to his Apple premium store in District 1 on September 10.

Nguyen, president of IPPG, fully known as Imex Pan Pacific Group, is dubbed ‘the king of hi-end fashion’ as his company currently distributes 38 leading fashion brands such as Burberry, Chanel, Versace, Calvin Klein, Salvatore and Ferragamo.

The new Apple Premium Reseller, located next to the Saigon Central Post Office in the city’s central business district, is still under construction as of Friday morning.

The venue appears to be named ‘eDiGi,’ according to the signage on its front.

eDiGi will be the first of its kind in Vietnam to function both as an Apple Premium Reseller (APR) and an Apple Service Provider (APS) at one same location, according to news website VnExpress.

The Southeast Asian country is already home to some APRs, including Futureworld and F.Studio, and Apple Authorized Reseller (AAR) such as iCenter.

APR and AAR are the two categories of stores that Apple set up to sell their products in countries where there aren't any flagship Apple Stores.

An APR sells only and only Apple products and is to be distinguished from AAR, which provide multiple products from multiple brands at the same stores.

As there’s yet to be any official Apple Store in Vietnam, an APR agent must meet Apple’s global standards for prime location in city center; the facility must be a separate unit, rather than a storefront, while its interior product layout must be licensed by the U.S. technology company.

AAR agents, on the other hand, can be flexibly located in small rooms of commercial buildings.

Vu Hoang Long, deputy general director in charge of IPPG’s investment, confirmed to Zing.vn about the Apple store opening and its two-in-one operation of retailing and after-sales services.

Nguyen, who also brought several fast-food brands such as Burger King, Popeyes Chicken, and Dunkin’ Donuts to Vietnam, has decided to jump in the new game at a time when many local companies find it hard to maintain and grow their businesses in the challenging retail environment of Apple authorized resellers.

IPPG’s penetration into the Apple authorized reseller and premium reseller business in Vietnam is said to fuel the stiff competition in the market as F.Studio has plans to open 20 more stores in 2018, and another 100 outlets within the next three years.

There have been modestly 15 authorized Apple stores in Vietnam, compared to 527 in Singapore and 480 in Thailand.

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