Central Food Retail, the parent company of Tops Thailand, revealed that it will invest THB6.5 billion to open new stores during the next five years. The company is hoping to add 70 new outlets each year between now and the end of 2021.
Tops Thailand recently celebrated its 20th anniversary and as part of the festivities, president Alistair Taylor told the media that the company is targeting to have 600 outlets by the end of 2021. At the moment, Tops operates 205 stores throughout the county.
“For this year alone, we plan to allocate between THB1.2 billion and THB1.3 billion of investment capital in two areas,” Retail News Asia reported Taylor as saying. “Between THB200 million and THB300 million will be spent on a system to support our growth. Another THB600 million will be spent on new stores, and between THB400 million and THB500 million on renovations of our existing supermarkets.”
Central Food Retail holdings include 85 Tops Market stores, 51 Tops Daily and seven Central Food Hall stores. It was also noted that there are other outlets in different formats as well. Retail News Asia added that the focus of the company’s expansion plan is to significantly increase the number of Tops Daily and Tops Market stores in Thailand. Tops Daily is a smaller, mini-mart outlet while Tops Markets are bigger, supermarket-style stores that can be found in malls and shopping complexes.
Taylor pointed out that this plan will help the company maintain an average growth of 10 to 15 percent annually. Central Food Retail is also looking at opportunities outside of Thailand but these plans are still in the exploratory phase.
“There are also many opportunities we have seen in neighboring countries. However, there is no fixed plan decided by the company at this moment,” Taylor claimed.
Image via facebook.com/TopsThailand
