Central Group officially owns Big C Vietnam

Big C Vietnam has a network of 43 stores and 30 shopping centers and achieved a net sales in 2015 of €586 million ($666 million).

According to the press release, Central Group in partnership with the Vietnamese Nguyen Kim Group will continue the strategy of Big C Vietnam in particular concerning the supply of goods produced in Vietnam for Big C stores.

Casino continues its procurement of Vietnamese food, which will be distributed in France, Brazil and Colombia.

In December 2015, Casino Group had revealed plans to sell its Big C supermarket chain in Vietnam as well as Thailand and Colombia to pay debts. Casino sold Big C Thailand to TCC Holding for €3.1 billion ($3.4 billion) in February.

In Vietnam, the race for the retail chain includes Korea’s Lotte, Thailand’s Berli Jucker, as well as Central Group and Dairy Farm from Singapore. Vietnamese potential buyers Co.opmart and Masan Group were also in the running.

Earlier this week, Central Group was reported to be buying online retailer Zalora’s operations in Thailand and Vietnam.

Vietnam is considered a very potential market for retailers. According to the General Statistics Office, the retail revenue in 2015 was VND2,470 trillion ($111 billion), up 10.6 per cent on-year. However, modern retail, namely supermarkets and malls, only accounted for 25 per cent of all this. The percentage is a lot lower compared to that in other countries in the region, such as the Phillippines (33 per cent), Thailand (34 per cent), China (51 per cent), Malaysia (60 per cent), and Singapore (90 per cent).

The prospect has lured in many big international names in retail including Seven & I Holding, Lotte Group, TCC, Circle K, Berli Jucker Plc and Aeon, all of which are all planning expansion in number of outlets in the near future.

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