Face-to-Face: Tos Chirathivat, CEO, Central Retail Corporation
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1) The Central Group is best known for its iconic outlets, in particular CentralWorld mall and the Zen retail store. Can you tell us about the company’s diversification strategy into other areas of activity?
Currently the Central Group has business interests in the hospitality, food and beverage, retail and real estate industries. This has been our focus for the past 60 years since we began in the retail sector. In the past we have had success in not only the shopping centre and department store development, but also in mixed use developments which include hotels and convention centres such as CentralWorld. Although we have diversified into other business interests the synergy that we maintain through the different business units has helped us become the leader in Thailand’s retail industry.
2) What are the key trends that you see in the Asian retailing scene?
While customers’ becomes more lifestyle oriented, a tendency to grow remains in the retail business. In Thailand we have seen a great expansion in the open air community mall format bringing retail and lifestyle closer to where people live. We are also seeing other retail formats in the form of hypermarkets diversifying and trying to become a “one stop shop destination” for consumers by adding more retail and entertainment space. This concept is still very important and prevalent among retail developers as they need to fulfill the requirements of the ever changing lifestyle of consumers. This means having retail and other forms of entertainment and lifestyle products under a single roof. We have also seen among shopping centres in Asia that creative and innovation design both in the interior and the exterior serves as an important point of difference to keep costumers engaged. Lastly, developers and retailers are moving towards a “greener” and eco-friendly strategy by incorporating this into their design and functionality.
3) What opportunities does the Group see for expansion into China and other regional centres?
Central Group has explored to China market for several years. There is certainly both a lot of interest from our side and opportunities. As for the shopping centre aspect, we have been negotiating with local partners to establish our first shopping mall in China for sometime and we hope to be able to announce a joint venture partner this year. There is fierce competition in the Chinese market however, we feel that with our expertise in the retail industry, we can leverage this and learn as we grow throughout China. We have been studying and exploring second-tier cities across China where there is less competition compared to the first-tier cities. For other overseas expansion, the Central Group has looked into ongoing opportunities Vietnam and India for sometime but feel that land is highly overpriced to justify any investment currently
4) What is Central Group doing in response to the current economic situation globally and in Thailand ?
The group as a whole is still currently undergoing expansion of our business as planned but in a much more cautious manner. We have begun developments on sites and areas which we feel have the most potential and will most likely recover faster than others. Due to the impact from global financial crisis and also in Thailand, we have carefully monitored our budget in terms of selling administration, marketing and promotion expenses. We have to be more efficient and effective managing these aspects to cope with the situation.
5) Do you have plans for expansion into other tourist areas beyond Pattaya and for further restaurant launches like the stunning Zense at Zen World in Bangkok ?
Yes, we celebrated the opening of Central Festival Pattaya Beach at the beginning of this year along with the opening of Central in Chonburi in May. We are continuously studying into a number of locations for expansion into other tourist regions across Thailand. Our Khon Kaen development towards the north of Thailand will open its doors in December of this year with over 120,000m
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