Central Retail eyes sales of Bt140bn - The Nation

The Nation September 24, 2012 1:00 am

After firming up plans to open a 20,000-square-metre Zen Department Store in Indonesia in two years, the group is now looking at other Asean countries, especially Vietnam, Myanmar and Malaysia.

CRC is aiming for annual growth of 15-20 per cent over the next few years, driven by regional and global expansion on top of local expansion. Thais are earning more and its Thai Watsadu business is thriving. Launched just two years ago, it now has about 20 branches.

Tos Chirathivat, CEO of CRC, said in an exclusive interview with The Nation that the company expects the sales contribution from Bangkok stores to shift from about 30 per cent to 50 per cent in the near future.

Tos is now in charge of three major retail businesses - department and discount stores, specialty stores and food retail - which generate about 40 per cent, 40 per cent and 20 per cent of sales.

Department and discount stores comprise Central, Robinson and discount stores in Italy and China. The specialty chains are PowerBuy, B2S, HomeWorks and Thai Watsadu. The food retail group is Tops Supermarket.

CRC has opened 11 department stores in Italy and four in China. In Thailand, it operates 14 Central Department Store branches and 20 Robinson stores.

CRC has recently acquired the 150-year-old la Rinascente department store in Italy for Bt10 billion. The No 1 luxury department store has achieved annual growth of 6 per cent despite the economic downturn in Europe, which is about a year old.

It showed dramatic year-on-year growth of 15 per cent last month and 10 per cent so far this month. CRC plans to open a second la Rinascente in Rome in 30 months at a cost of Bt8 billion.

The beleaguered euro would benefit the tourism and shopping industry as it would attract more foreign tourists to Europe.

"At la Rinascente, we have a good mix of shoppers, with 50 per cent local and 50 per cent foreign tourists. We expect the la Rinascente business in Europe to double or triple in three to five years," Tos said.

"We have seen the tendency of Asian consumers to have higher incomes and greater preference for luxury fashion brands, especially from Europe. By having our flagship department store in Milan, we have good connections with international brands and this will help us in the development of department stores, whether in Thailand or other countries in the region such as China and Southeast Asia," he said.

It is good that many sections of society are enthusiastic about the coming of the AEC in 2015. Thailand's state and private sectors should team up to seek business and growth opportunities in other AEC members, he added.

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Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Central-Retail-eyes-sales-of-Bt140bn-30190958.html

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