Central to splash B17bn on Vietnam

Vietnamese Goods Week in Thailand, promoting international business and trade opportunities involving Vietnam, runs through Monday at CentralPlaza Lardprao.

Central Group of Companies, the country's leading retail and property developer, will spend 17 billion baht to expand its operations in Vietnam over the next five years.

Philippe Broianigo, chief executive of Central Group Vietnam, said the budget will be used to expand all businesses the group has set up there, particularly food and electronics.

The budget will also provide for the expansion of other businesses such as shopping malls, wholesaling, hotel management and stationery shops.

Mr Broianigo yesterday joined with other group executives to kick off the second Vietnamese Goods Week in Thailand, aimed at promoting international business and trade opportunities in Bangkok. The event was presided over by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Speaking at the same event, Central Group chief executive Tos Chirathivat said 1-2 billion baht of the fund will be used to expand business in Vietnam this year, including opening 30 new branches of the Nguyen Kim electronics chain.

Some 7 billion baht has been allocated to open 20 branches of Big C hypermarket and its wholesale business Lanchi Mart next year, on top of 20 Nguyen Kim shopping centres in Vietnam.

The remaining 7-8 billion baht will be used during 2019-21, Mr Tos said.

Under the aggressive investment plan, Central Group is confident sales in Vietnam will reach 35 billion baht in 2017, helping push overall sales for Central Group to reach 382 billion baht.

"Vietnam and Europe are our investment priorities. We are interested in building our own hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in the future," Mr Tos said, adding that the hotel development plan entails 200-500 rooms.

Central Group has already expanded via six business categories in Vietnam. They include hypermarkets, electrical appliances, hotel management, fashion department stores, export business and wholesale. The group operates 160 stores.

"We will continue to expand our business in Vietnam because of the country's strong potential as an emerging market with high GDP growth," Mr Tos said.

He said the company is allocating a small amount of investment in Vietnam this year because the company wants to focus its efforts on reorganising the internal management of Big C, which the group just brought into its portfolio.

"The signs have been good. Sales of Big C in Vietnam in July grew by 11%," Mr Tos said.

The company is also adjusting the external management and business format for its Robins Department Store in Vietnam. An Indonesian executive was hired to handle the fashion business and lead the management of Robins Department Store in Vietnam.

Central is aiming for 20-30% annual growth in Vietnam.

According to the Thai Business Data Center in Vietnam, Thai-Vietnamese trade in the first 11 months of 2016 totalled US$12.3 billion (409 billion baht), with Thailand exporting $8.2 billion in goods to Vietnam and importing $4.03 billion in Vietnamese products.