Central's retail units move to shore up sales
AIMING to counter the negative impact from the lower spending power of Thai consumers, especially in the farming sector as the drought drags on, Central Group's retail business units, including HomeWorks and Central Food Retail, are initiating strategies
HomeWorks yesterday announc-ed the permanent closure of two stores at Rangsit and Petchakasem because of their weak performances.
Sa-angtip Amornchat, vice president for marketing at CRC Thaiwatsadu Co, an operator of home-product centres, said the drought had a significant impact on the spending power of grass-roots people, particularly farmers. Consumers have been confronting many uncertainties, such as the world’s economic problems, especially the financial crisis in Greece.
“I personally believe that the Thai economy will be better in the second half of this year. The tourism sector is rebounding significantly. The government has been also spending money in various projects to stimulate the economy,” Sa-angtip said.
HomeWorks yesterday also announced its third annual “HomeWorks Expo” to be held for the first time at Impact Muang Thong Thani, running from July 24 to August 2. In previous years, the expo was held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Bitec) in Bang Na.
Suthisarn Chirathivat, CEO for hardware, home decoration and electronic appliances at Central Group, said that occupying a larger space – about 27,000 square metres – at Impact Muang Thong Thani, the HomeWorks Expo was expected to attract around 400,000 shoppers and see sales of Bt600 million over the 10-day period.
“We expect the economic outlook to improve in the second half of the year from the government’s stimulus efforts in various investment projects, which should give consumers more purchasing power,” he said.
“Apart of this, the market for electronic products in neighbouring countries also has the potential to continue growing. Living space is also one of the four life essentials, which led to the continuous expansion of demand for public utilities, housing, condominiums, and electric trains, especially in the northern part of Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and Pathum Thani province,” Suthisarn said.
Pattaraporn Penprapat, deputy managing director for marketing and public relations, Central Food Retail, the group’s operator of supermarket chains, said the company was fine-tuning its concepts to be more diversified to reach different segments of shoppers.
She said the company currently had six different supermarket formats in its portfolio, which were Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Super-store, Tops Daily, Tops Superkoom, and Tops Superkoom Wholesale.
“By having more diversified formats, we will be able to expand the number of stores by ourselves without relying on Central Group’s retail-property expansion,” she said.
Central Food Retail currently operates 155 supermarkets, of which 75 are Tops Market stores. The company plans to increase the total number of stores to 170 by the end of this year.
