Tesco Lotus building regional distribution hub
TESCO Lotus will open its second regional distribution centre (DC) in Surat Thani to support its growing business.
At a cost of Bt2.5 billion, the state-of-the-art DC will serve customers in the South of Thailand while contributing to local economic growth, with an official opening scheduled for the third quarter of this year.
Its first regional DC was opened last year in Khon Kaen.
The DC in Surat Thani will have a service area of 52,000 square metres, and cater for every kind of product, whether groceries, non-food items or temperature-controlled fresh food, the retail giant says.
The facility will also handle products in all package sizes, from a full pallet to a single item.
“The opening of our first southern regional distribution centre in Surat Thani represents our latest contribution to the Thai economy,” said Tesco Lotus chief executive officer John Christie.
“We have invested Bt2.5 billion in building this state-of-the-art distribution centre and the project will create nearly 700 new jobs in the local area.”
The facility will serve nearly 200 Tesco Lotus stores in 11 provinces in the Southern region. The stores range from the smallest Express outlets to the largest Extra stores, and the DC has capacity to handle up to 3.5 million cases of product.
“The focus of the regional distribution centres has been to get products closer to customers, and improving availability of products on shelves. By setting up the DC in Surat Thani, we have also reduced trucks travelling 400,000 kilometres every week, a major reduction in carbon emissions,” Christie said.
The Surat Thani DC has been designed to similar international standards as top facilities in Europe.
It incorporates all the latest innovations in distribution technology, the company says. It is being built with environmentally friendly concepts, with a wide range of low-energy-consumption equipment.
“We have followed our road map to open regional distribution centres in the Northeast and in the South.
Last year we opened our first regional distribution centre in Khon Kaen,” Christie said.
Tesco Lotus currently has four distribution centres in the Central region, a regional DC in Khon Kaen and a hub in Lamphun, servicing about 1,800 stores in Thailand.
The company has been expanding its store network, and this year will continue to grow its business based on a multi-channel retailing strategy.
