Big C unfazed by CP All's Makro takeover
Big C Supercenter sees little threat from CP All's takeover of Makro, since they target different markets, and will continue to expand aggressively.
“Big C focuses on retail with cheap prices and quality, while Makro focuses on wholesale and 7-Eleven focuses on retail but not on prices, so the merger of the two modern traders should not seriously impact competition,” Kudatara Nagaviroj, director of corporate affairs, said yesterday.
It was too early to comment on which direction the retail and wholesale business would take or whether the merger would lead to market dominance, but Big C would closely monitor CP All’s strategy, he said.
Since there were different target markets and high competition, the merger should not hinder the retail industry’s growth.
Big C plans to continue expanding to ensure the growth of the business after it acquired Carrefour in 2010.
This year 227 branches would be added to its chain of 380 outlets, of which seven would be hypermarkets, 20 Big Cs, 150 Mini Big Cs and 50 Pure specialty stores for medicine and healthcare products.
Big C’s three key selling points remained cheap price, high quality products and good service, unlike 7-Eleven, which stresses convenience but not pricing, and Makro, which deals in wholesale trading.
The government’s plan to set a market entrance fee to ensure fair treatment for suppliers would be difficult to implement for all modern traders since each company targets different groups and negotiation strategies are not the same.
The entrance fee should depend on bargaining between retail operators and suppliers, he added.
The Internal Trade Department will closely monitor the merger. Even with higher sales and a larger market share, if a company does not do anything that leads to market dominance, it would not likely break the Trade Competition Act, an official said.
According to Business Competition Bureau data, as of last month, there were 1,578 discount stores, of which 1,254 were Tesco Lotuses, 267 Big Cs and 57 Makros. Out of the 6,822 convenience stores in the country, 9,286 were 7-Elevens.
