International Finance caught up with Mr. Chandavong Southitham, business owner of UniqTeK Company Limited, who shared the success story of the firm and also spoke about the company’s future vision, strengths, milestones, and much more.
UniqTeK Company Limited (UTCL) is a Lao-owned company established under the Laws of the Lao PDR. The company is a professional supplier of survey equipment namely, land survey equipment, UAV, mining equipment, environmental equipment and hydropower and electrical-mechanical equipment. The company also provides surveying solutions and installation of electrical works, communications network and network cabling.
Additionally, the company also provides survey solutions such as aerial mapping, topographic survey, cadastral survey, reference stations, and project solutions such as transmission line survey and design, hydropower survey, mining application, road and bridge survey, land management system, irrigation mapping survey to their customers. Their clients range from multinational companies, government agencies, NGOs, developers, SMEs, and farmers.
Mr. Chandavong Southitham spoke about the vision he and UTCL have. He said: UniqTek was built on the foundation of providing excellence to its market and customers. The company is driven by the mojo of “striving to be the most reliable business partners”.
The firm treats the client as business partners, which means the foundation of its existence is to help its partners succeed in their goals.
The company has three major mission statements. First to reach international standards, second to build a systematic and dynamic approach to the services they provide and third, to introduce and update products and technology.
“We try to do research and bring in new and high-tech products into the market 24 months before the market is ready and we educate the market”, Southitham said.
UTCL has a different approach to becoming a leader in the field. The company doesn’t engage in price wars with other competitors rather they provide value to the customers. They believe “if they help the client solve problems, they will grow along with them. Instead of treating it as a buy-sales relationship, the company sees the client as a partner,” Southitham said.
When asked about the competitors in the Industry, Southitham says the intensity of the competition is not high as it is a very technical and specific industry.
“We are the pioneers with very little competition and no strong competitor that we face,” he added.
UTCL has not restricted them from selling equipment to the customers, they provide solutions and build infrastructure as well.
“We help build digital base stations so clients and non-clients can be pulled into the ecosystem. This makes it very difficult for the competitor to match or build. Another strength is we always invest in research and new technology. We always bring in technology that is ahead of the market by 24 months,” Southitham said.
UTCL has achieved some major milestones in its success journey. UTCL is the only firm in Laos to help develop digital land management for the Department of Lands. It is the only company to install Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) in Laos. The company holds 95% market share of RTK and drone products. It has grown from a 03-person company to 100+ members within eight years. Moreover, the company fully supports and funds employees’ best practices. Their motto is “train clients until they are experts”.
UTCL also offers several staff benefits. Southitham says, “We have health insurance and value the health and safety of our staff. Since the foundation of the company, we have never signed a single contract with our employees, yet our turnover is very low. Many staff who currently work for us have been with us for at least 05 years. Our staff retention is successful because we offer them a say in the company, we always welcome constructive feedback; allow them to be trained in and outside of the country. Most importantly, we care about their long-term personal life development goals and make sure what they do align with what they want to achieve in life”.