At Makro, a wholesale retail outlet popular with restaurant and small business owners, Vietnamese promotional materials and employees recruited for their Vietnamese-language skills are part of an effort from the company to tap into a market that has grown steadily in the past two decades. The trend has extended recently to telecommunications companies, insurance providers, car dealers and other wholesalers who work with Vietnamese večerkas, or convenience stores, and restaurant owners, benefiting both the buyers and the sellers.
"Some wine distributors have started printing their material and order forms in Vietnamese," said Thi Minh Trang Nguyen, who owns PhuSaBoLily Večerka on Jungmannova street. "I think it helps the Vietnamese store owners, because they often only speak basic Czech, and, this way, it's easier for them to do business."
Vietnamese workers began immigrating during communism when they were invited by the government as guest workers. Since 1991, when the census showed 421 Vietnamese residents, the community has grown to more than 60,000, according to a 2008 estimate from the Czech Statistical Office, more than three times the number from the 2001 census, which counted 17,462. While many Vietnamese have come to the Czech Republic through employment agencies to fill factories, a growing number are establishing themselves as small to midsize business owners who deal directly with other Czech companies. As a result, the community's purchasing power has grown, said Marcel Winter, head of the Czech-Vietnamese Society, who has seen a growing number of companies outside basic wholesalers begin to target the market.