Parkson Vietnam flounders in seven consecutive quarter losses

This is the seventh consecutive quarter that Parkson reports losses in Vietnam

According to Parkson Retail Asia Limited’s financial statement, sales in Vietnam stood at VND111 billion ($4.9 million) in the first quarter of 2018 and pre-tax profit was a negative VND24 billion ($1.06 million). This is the seventh consecutive quarter that the company reported losses in Vietnam (since the third quarter of 2016), although it has closed four shopping malls in the country.

The closed malls are Parkson Keangnam (January 2015), Parkson Paragon (May 2016), Parkson Viet Tower (December 2016), and most recently Parkson Flemington (February 2018).

The accumulated sales during the nine months of the fiscal year 2017-2018 was only VND350 billion ($15.4 million) in Vietnam, and pre-tax profit was negative VND48 billion ($2.1 million), down 4 per cent against the same period last year.

Notably, this company has made losses in all four of its Southeast Asian markets. Sales in the largest market Malaysia are 12 times higher than in Vietnam, but the losses are also three times more.

Parkson’s revenue in Indonesia is double that in Vietnam, while losses are 2.5 times more. Parkson has also been reporting losses in Malaysia and other markets. The total losses of this company are equivalent to $17 million.

Only six Parkson malls remain in Vietnam

Parkson is the premium retail group of Malaysia, which set foot in Vietnam in 2005 and developed a premium shopping mall chain in the big cities of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Haiphong.

Parkson has only four stores left in Ho Chi Minh City, including Parkson Le Thanh Ton (District 1), CT Plaza (Tan Binh District), Cantavil (District 2), and Hung Vuong (District 5), one in Haiphong, and one in Danang, while it has completely withdrawn from Hanoi.

Having closed four shopping malls in Vietnam since 2015, Parkson has fallen far since its heyday when it was touted as the one of the highest-potential players in the retail market planning to open 2-3 malls a year in Vietnam’s big cities.