Thai retail conglomerate, Central Group plans to expand its presence in Vietnam through its Central Retail subsidiary, aiming to cover around 90% of Vietnam’s provinces in the next five years. Central Retail at the moment operates 35 malls and around 230 supermarkets, electronics stores, and other retailers in Vietnam. It plans to operate in 55 out of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities, up from the current 39.
The company will open six new GO! Mall locations and convert four Big C supermarkets into malls, according to its expansion plan and is optimistic of Vietnam’s continued growth and economic potential, which recorded 3.82% growth in the first quarter of 2020, despite a four-week shutdown of majority of retail in late March.
Vietnam retail and service revenues rose by 5.3% in June over the same month last year and by 6.2% over May. In particular, sales of consumer goods accounted for 79.6% of retail revenue, up 3.4% year on year. The figures are encouraging given the impacts of the pandemic on retailers and services during the first half of this year, with the country’s stores effectively shutting down from late March to late April and tourists banned from mid-March.
Central Group is the largest multinational retail company operating in Vietnam, with a customer base of about 12 million and revenues of USD 1.17 billion last year. Vietnam accounted for about 20% of total revenue in 2019, making it the largest market for the company after Thailand.
(Source: Vietnam Insider; Insider Retail)
