Thai giant retailer opens supermarkets in Can Tho, Hai Phong

Thailand’s Central Retail opened one Tops Market supermarket in Can Tho city on Thursday, the first of its kind in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, and another in the northern city of Hai Phong one day before.

The two are the ninth and tenth Tops Market outlets in Vietnam. The eight others are located in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. On the occasion, the retailer also debuted the Tops Market online shopping mobile app.

The 900-square meter unit in Can Tho is within the Nguyen Kim Can Tho shopping center in Ninh Kieu district and offers over 9,000 items. The Hai Phong establishment is located at 104 Luong Khanh Thien street in Ngo Quyen district.

In Vietnam, the Thai retailer operates the Go supermarkets, hypermarkets and compact malls, along with Tops Market stores, formerly known as Big C.

Thailand’s Central Retail plans to pump 30 billion baht ($828 million) into Vietnam from now until 2026 to expand its presence in the country.

“With Vietnam as one of Central Retail’s key strategic markets, our growth has leaped with sales reaching 38.592 billion baht (over $1.06 billion) within 10 years, accounting for 22% of our total sales today,” Central Retail Vietnam CEO Olivier Langlet said in July.

Earlier this year, the giant retailer had announced its plans to build supermarkets and stores in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu and Dong Thap, and the central provinces of Quang Binh, Nghe An, and Binh Thuan.

Amid soaring shopping demand in the holiday season (Solar and Lunar New Year), a Central Retail representative emphasized 90% of the firm's revenues are from sales of domestically-produced goods.

Another big retailer Aeon Vietnam, under Japanese retailer Aeon, on December 10 signed a memorandum of understanding with Hai Duong province People’s Committee to build a mall in the northern province. Aeon currently has six malls in Vietnam, including two in Hanoi, two in HCMC, one in the southern province of Binh Duong, and one in the northern city of Hai Phong.

The retailer is scheduled to commence construction on the $158 million Aeon Mall Hue in Hue town, central Vietnam in December this year. The giant also plans to build its second mall in Hai Phong.

Vietnam’s retail sales and service revenues reached VND5,181 trillion ($219.5 billion) in the first 11 months of this year, up 20% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Retail sales went up 14.8% to VND4,079 trillion ($172.8 billion), followed by hotel and restaurant services with VND536.3 trillion, up 56.5%; and the tourism sector with VND22.9 trillion, up 306.5%.