A pendant inlaid with gemstones.   Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza with a crown designed by PNJ. Designing on the computer. Product finishing line. Product quality check-up. Starting with 7.4 tael of gold and a staff of 20 people, 20 years later Phu Nhuan Jewellery Joint-Stock Company (PNJ) has become one of the leading jewellery manufacturers in Vietnam and since 2004 it has been selected as one of the 500 leading retailers in Asia. PNJ products are available on the markets of many countries. At the coronation ceremony of the 2008 Miss Universe Pageant held in Nha Trang, Vietnam in July 2008, just at the moment when Miss Venezuela appeared with a twinkling crown, the name of PNJ that designed, produced and presented the Miss Universe crown was announced and broadcast throughout the world. The announcement lasted only 10 seconds but it marked a process of the Company’s staff. Since 1988, PNJ followed its own path by making great investment in manufacturing jewellery items in the mode of industrialization, using modern machines, its own specific designs and skilled jewellers. In 1992, PNJ sent some employees to Singapore to learn the technique, laying a foundation for the Company’s development. Two years later, it introduced two categories of products, including cast items and necklaces, which were made on an automated production line of Italian technology. In 1993, the Company’s Design Department was established. It receives and deals with the information and demands of the market, sent by the Marketing and Business Departments, so as to manufacture the items suitable to customers or lead the customers to a new trend. Now, the Design Department has eight people and every month it creates about 350 designs. Dang Thi Kim Lien, Head of the Design Department said: “We are happy for being considered as those who breathe life into jewellery items. We are proud when seeing our products displayed on the showcases and sought by customers”. Lien also said that since 2001 PNJ has organized an annual national jewellery designing competition which attracts many young designers, helping establish the Vietnamese jewellery style and create specific imprints of PNJ trademark. Skilled jewellers are a decisive factor to the beauty of the jewellery because they add the final touches and create specific features to the products. Over the past 20 years, more than 1,000 jewellers have been trained by PNJ. Since 1995, PNJ products have been available at the Hong Kong Jewellery Fair. Now they are sold in Denmark, Germany, the United States and Australia and will be sold in Dubai in the near future. The Company’s export turnover increases 126% per year, reaching 8 million USD in 2007. The appearance of CAO Fine Jewellery as the official crown sponsor of the 2008 Miss Universe Pageant at Times Square, the world’s largest fashion centre, once again affirms PNJ trademark to international customers. PNJ shops are always crowded with customers. At present, PNJ produces over 6,000 samples of and over two million products of different categories a year, such as the manually-made CAO Fine Jewellery, PNJ Gold and PNJ Silver items. PNJ products are distributed via the Company’s own wholesale and retail systems consisting of 90 shops, 15 branches and two factories nationwide. The attraction of nearly 3,000 large customers from all cities and provinces throughout the country has helped PNJ trademark reach other customers in sparse and remote areas. Story by Pham Hoang Nam - Photos by Quang Minh