Why Patience Matters When Entering Southeast Asia
IKEA opened its first Southeast Asian store in 1996. It waited 18 years before opening a second. Starbucks needed 7 years just to turn a profit in Vietnam. Both are now among the most successful foreign operators in the region.
How long does it actually take to become profitable in Southeast Asia? For most foreign companies, the honest answer is 3–5 years — not the 12–18 months most boards budget for. Brand-name success stories took even longer: Starbucks spent 7 years reaching profitability in Vietnam, and IKEA treated its first store as a decade-plus learning exercise before scaling. Companies that plan around a shorter runway tend to exit right before the market turns in their favour.
Why Southeast Asia Punishes Short-Term Thinking
Every input that drives profitability here moves slower than it does in mature markets. Brand awareness builds gradually in a region with no single dominant media channel. Regulatory approvals routinely run past their official timelines. Distributor relationships take years of face-to-face trust-building, not a signed contract. Consumer habits shift with the generation, not the ad cycle.
3–5 yrs typical time to profitability | 18 mths common investor patience horizon | 7 yrs Starbucks' time to profitability in Vietnam | 18 yrs gap between IKEA's first and second SEA stores
A company that walks in expecting an 18-month payback is optimizing for the wrong number. It will either pull out too early or spend those first years panicking instead of building.
Success Story: Starbucks Vietnam — Seven Years, Then Dominance
Starbucks opened its first Vietnam store in Ho Chi Minh City in 2013, priced 4–5x above the country's entrenched cà phê shops. Early sales were unremarkable, and analysts called it a mistimed premium bet. Starbucks held its course anyway, treating the brand as a long-term lifestyle aspiration rather than a coffee transaction. By 2020, it had 80+ stores and 40% year-on-year revenue growth. By 2023, Vietnam ranked among its fastest-growing markets in Asia. The patient years weren't wasted time — they were the investment.
Cautionary Tale: The Private Equity Exit That Left Money on the Table
A regional private equity fund backed a health food brand entering Indonesia in 2018. The fundamentals were sound: brand awareness was building, distribution was expanding, and repeat purchase rates were climbing. But the fund's five-year investment horizon expired before the market did. Under pressure to show a return, it forced a sale in 2021 at a below-potential valuation. Two years later, the new owner — with no exit deadline hanging over it — had grown the same business 3x. The business hadn't changed. The timeline pressure had simply forced a bad exit price.
How Curt & Co Thinks About Timeline
We build our client relationships around the market's real timeline, not a fiscal quarter's. Our engagement with KidsOnline, for example, has run continuously since 2023 — because market entry in this region isn't a project you finish, it's a position you build. The clients who ask us "when will this be profitable" get an honest 3–5 year answer up front, so their board expectations match reality before the first dollar is spent, not two years into it.
Southeast Asia doesn't reward speed. It rewards whoever is still standing when the inflection point arrives.
What's the longest you've had to wait for a market to pay off — and was it worth it? Drop it in the comments below.
About Us
Curt & Co Pte Ltd is a consulting company started amongst a group of business owners who were looking for a consulting company themselves for advice !
Our offices and our focus markets are in Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. With clients ranging from 1 man operating SMEs to listed companies, we are proud to have helped our clients across different industries gain market entry into the South East Asian region.
Contact us at marcus@curtconsult.com if you want to talk!
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