Vietnam’s Mekong Delta emerges as new destination for giant retailers

South Korean retail giant Lotte will open Lotte Mart Can Tho on Thursday.

Spanning 15,700 square meters, the US$62 million mall is the 11thLotte mall property in Vietnam.

Lotte Mart Can Tho is a complex of one supermarket, a deluxe trade center, an entertainment area and food zone, with more than 90 percent of available goods made in Vietnam.

The Can Tho hypermarket is hoped to be the leading shopping mall in the Mekong Delta, with expected daily sales of VND1.3 billion ($58,036), Hong Won Sik, general director of the Vietnamese unit of Lotte, said in a statement.

Besides Can Tho City, which is directly administered by the central government, the Mekong Delta also includes such provinces as Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Dong Thap, An Giang, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu and Ca Mau.

Can Tho, with its moderate income consumers and a strategic role in the Mekong Delta, is an ideal destination for retailers, according to Hong.

Entering Vietnam in 2008, Lotte is now running ten Lotte Mart hypermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Binh Thuan and Vung Tau.

The Lotte Mart Can Tho thus marks its first presence in the Mekong Delta.

Lotte is also slated to open one new hypermarket each in Ho Chi Minh City and the south-central city of Nha Trang by the end of this year, with its plan to reach 60 outlets across the country by 2020.

In the meantime, Vietnam’s top realty developer Vingroup also turned the first sod at its Vincom Rach Gia shopping mall in Kien Giang Province on Monday.

Vincom Rach Gia will have a 15,000-square-meter shopping mall and a 33,000-square-meter housing area, called Vincom Shophouse, upon completion.

Vingroup first entered the Mekong Delta market with the Vincom Can Tho in July this year, but this is the first time it has brought the Vincom Shophouse project to the region.

Vincom Rach Gia is scheduled for completion in 2016, and expected to become a new get-together destination for people in Rach Gia, the capital city of Kien Giang.

The cost of the project is not disclosed by the developer, Vincom Retail.

Hanoi-based Vingroup announced in February that it will open 25 new shopping malls, under the flagship brands Vincom and Vincom Mega Mall, throughout the country in 2015.

By the time of the February announcement, Vingroup had had five Vincom malls – two each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and one in the northern province of Quang Ninh – along with two Vincom Mega Mall venues, both in the capital city.

The list has since been extended with facilities in Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District, the central city of Da Nang, the southern city of Bien Hoa, the northern city of Hai Phong, and Can Tho.