Portugal Colonial - Flags and pho on show as jeweller opens huge Vietnam plant

Danish company Pandora said the $150 million plant outside Ho Chi Minh City would create 7,000 local jobs and become the world's largest crafting facility for fine jewellery.

The site will be able to produce up to 60 million pieces each year -- increasing the company's capacity by 50 percent, Pandora said.

The Copenhagen-headquartered firm has been manufacturing in Thailand for almost four decades and has three plants there.

The Vietnam factory was intended to make the company "less dependent on one single point of manufacturing", chief executive Berta de Pablos-Barbier told AFP.

The Southeast Asian country had a "stable environment and a good economy", and crucially, "access to a lot of artisans", she added.

During a media tour, AFP reporters saw a group of mostly female staff using moulds to make jewellery pieces designed elsewhere.

The firm, which employs 39,000 people worldwide, reported below-target growth and a slight drop in net profits last year, in part because of US tariffs.

US President Donald Trump initially threatened levies of 36 percent on Thailand before settling on 19 percent, similar to Vietnam's 20-percent rate.

One third of Pandora's revenues come from the United States and Canada.

Pandora was also hit by a more than doubling of the price of silver in 2025, in response to which it boosted its use of platinum-plated jewellery, including in Vietnam.

X.Matos--PC