SJC Gold Shop

SJC — Saigon Jewelry Company — began in 1988 as a state-owned enterprise under the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, later restructured into Saigon Jewelry Company Limited in 2010. Its position in Vietnam's gold market became effectively unmatched in May 2011, when the State Bank of Vietnam designated SJC as the sole entity authorized to produce gold bars nationwide, a decision intended to let the state more tightly control gold inventories and intervene in domestic gold pricing.

At its commercial peak, between 2007 and 2011, SJC gold bars accounted for around 90% of gold transactions in Vietnam and roughly 85% of gold held by individuals and organizations, with SJC bars also commonly used as a store of value in real estate deals. In 2011 the company ranked fourth among Vietnam's top 500 largest enterprises, posting revenue of about VND111 trillion (roughly $4.47 billion) that year.

The brand's dominance has not been without controversy: Vietnamese courts have convicted a former senior SJC gold executive and more than a dozen others in a case tied to state losses from the gold monopoly system, and the government has since moved to scale back that monopoly in favor of a more market-based approach to gold trading.