After operating a retail business in Ho Chi Minh City for about a month starting with the convenience-store format, the company plans to open B's Mart stores in Laos this year, and in Cambodia within the next couple of years.— Photo dantri

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

BANGKOK — Berli Jucker plans to launch a retail business in Thailand and Myanmar in various formats - convenience stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets and premium warehouses - by 2015.

After operating a retail business in Ho Chi Minh City for about a month starting with the convenience-store format, the company plans to open B's Mart stores in Laos this year, and in Cambodia within the next couple of years. The regional retail expansion is part of the company's strategy to cash in on the development of highways strategically connecting Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

The company aims to expand its retail business throughout the region as a major downstream arm to serve its upstream businesses. It will develop training centres both in Thailand and Vietnam by next year so it has skilled retail staff. Berli Jucker acquired 65 per cent of Thai An, which operated 41 B's Mart convenience stores in Ho Chi Minh City. The company opened three more B's Marts this month and plans to have 61 stores in this city by the end of the year. About 100 new B's Marts will be opened next year.

Phidsanu Pongwatana, senior vice president for Berli Jucker's retail business group, said the company selected Vietnam as the first market for its modern retail business because of the country's high concentration of young people, with an average age of about 28.7 years. Vietnam also has a high overall population, about 90 million.

"There are no major retail players in Vietnam. It fits in with our strategy to become a leader in any market we operate in," Phidsanu said.

He said that there were currently about 250 convenience stores in Vietnam, including Shop & Go (77 stores), Circle K (50 stores), B's Mart (44 stores), and Mini Stop (17 stores).

He said traditional trades still dominated in Southeast Asia but modern-trade retailing was expanding its footprint. However, the convenience-store sector shows strong growth at 15 per cent annually.

"Our vision is to be a leading retail business in Vietnam by way of a multi-business, multi-format, multi-country strategy," Phidsanu said.

He said Berli Jucker expected its B's Marts to increase sales from Bt16,000 per store per day currently to about Bt18,000 by the end of this year. — The Nation/ANN/VNS