Pickleball, jokingly called a “hybrid” between table tennis and tennis, has become a favorite sport for many people. Putting aside the “scandals”, pickleball not only helps the human body become more flexible and agile, but is also a highly connected sport. Thanks to that, Pickleball is developing at an impressive rate in Vietnam, even becoming a “livelihood” for many businesses.
That is the story at Garmex Saigon Joint Stock Company (Garmex, stock code: GMC).
On February 19 this year, Garmex suddenly announced a resolution of the Board of Directors approving a transaction contract with an organization related to an insider regarding business cooperation in sports.
Specifically, Garmex cooperates with VinaPrint Joint Stock Company, an organization related to Mr. Bui Minh Tuan - Chairman of the Board of Directors and Legal Representative of VinaPrint Joint Stock Company. According to the cooperation between the two parties, Garmex will transfer a part of the land area managed by the company (minimum 1,000m2 and maximum 3,000m2, handover progress according to actual needs) to cooperate in business with VinaPrint in the field of sports education , Pickleball courts and other sports that are not prohibited by law.
VinaPrint self-manages and is responsible for all business activities according to the provisions of law. The cooperation term is 12 months from the date of signing the contract, with consideration for extension according to actual conditions.
The "timely" business move quickly brought results for Garmex.
According to the recently announced financial report for the second quarter of 2025, while the traditional garment sector continued to generate no revenue, Garmex recorded VND 508 million from its affiliated company VinaPrint.
Once a famous textile and garment enterprise in Saigon: More than 4,000 employees, revenue of thousands of billions per year
Previously, Garmex was known as a famous garment enterprise in Saigon with more than 20 years of operation. The company was established in 1976, equitized in 2004 and listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) in 2006.
With 5 factories covering a total area of over 10 hectares and a total of 70 production lines, this is one of the garment manufacturers with a large market share, working with many international brands.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the company had more than 4,000 employees, annual revenue of thousands of billions of VND and profits of more than hundreds of billions of VND. However, due to the impact of the pandemic, orders have become difficult.
The big “shock” came in 2022, Garmex’s sales dropped by 93% compared to the previous year. This year, the company reported a loss for the first time. Explaining, Garmex said that due to the impact of general market difficulties, the company only received a few small processing orders, and had to lower prices to be more competitive to maintain operations.
In addition to the general difficulties of the industry, this company also suffered a "chain effect" from the incident when its major partner Gilimex was suddenly cut off by Amazon Robotics LLC while it had invested in facilities and inventory. This event not only affected Gilimex itself but also affected partner businesses such as Garmex Saigon.
In 2022, Garmex's revenue will decrease from thousands of billions of VND to just over 200 billion VND. This number will continue to decrease to only 8 billion in 2023, and in 2024 to only 2 billion VND.
Affected by the impact of Gilimex partner suing Amazon
Amazon has been a major partner of Gilimex (also a large textile and garment company in the South) since 2014. During the pandemic, when e-commerce boomed, the company invested tens of millions of dollars in production facilities to build warehouses for Amazon, recruiting more than 7,000 employees in many factories to produce more than 1 million units of products annually. Production for Amazon has increased 20 times over the past 8 years.
Gilimex even turned down other major customers such as IKEA and Columbia Sportswear and relocated its manufacturing and packaging facilities to continue production. A report by Vietcombank Securities (VCBS) at the time said that Amazon accounted for 85% of Gilimex's revenue before the incident, with the remaining 15% coming from IKEA and other customers.
At the end of 2022, Gilimex sued Amazon, causing a stir in public opinion, accusing Amazon of suddenly reducing orders and terminating the agreement with Gilimex, which was a breach of contract and a breach of fiduciary duty.
The scandal caused Gilimex's business to plummet. After that, both Gilimex and Garmex could hardly make money from their traditional businesses.
It is known that Garmex is not only the main processing unit for Gilimex, but the relationship between the two sides has long been very close. At that time, Gilimex owned nearly 25% of Gia Dinh Textile's capital, while Gia Dinh Textile owned more than 10% of Garmex Saigon. In 2018, two leaders of Gilimex were also elected to the Board of Directors of Garmex as representatives of Gia Dinh Textile's ownership.
Days of decline: Had to sell a series of assets to survive, staff only 29 people left
Garmex has had to restructure and sell a variety of assets, including vehicles and real estate, to cover costs and mitigate losses. Some assets were sold at below market value, and in some cases, they were unsold.
The company also cut staff. From thousands of people, Garmex had only 31 employees in 2024 and is now down to 29.
In the market, the Company's GMC shares were compulsorily delisted because Garmex had stopped its main production and business activities for more than one year, which is a case of compulsory delisting according to regulations.
In 2023, this company will shift to real estate, through increasing its capital contribution at Phu My Company with an amount of more than 19 billion VND, bringing the total contributed capital to nearly 24 billion VND, equivalent to 32.47% of charter capital.
Garmex Saigon also shifted to pharmaceutical retail, logistics... but has not recorded much for the Company, except for the cooperation with VinaPrint (including Pickleball court rental service) which brought in half a billion in revenue in the first half of this year. However, cost pressure caused this textile enterprise to lose 12 billion VND after tax.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/chuyen-doanh-nghiep-det-may-dinh-dam-o-tphcm-nay-song-nho-san-pickleball-20250730205138897.htm
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