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PITSINEE JITPLEECHEEP
CenCar Co, the operator of Carrefour hypermarkets, has expanded its role to become a retail developer, opening its first community mall with a Carrefour premium store as a magnet.
The move is part of the company's strategy to speed up expansion and respond to changing consumer behaviour to shop at community stores near their homes, said Prapaphan Ploysaengngam, marketing director of CenCar.
''It's the first time in Asia that Carrefour developed a community mall by itself. This will help create flexibility for us to expand our retail outlets,'' she said.
The Carrefour mini-hypermarket concept store was introduced in Thailand after success in Spain. It has total retail space of 2,000 square metres and parking space for 172 cars. It service hours are between 9 am and 11 pm daily.
Ms Prapaphan said the community mall sector had huge potential to expand in the next few years because the capital has been expanding in line with the government's new transport routes.
Siam Future Development Plc has been the pioneer in developing community malls for several years, and the segment has also attracted retail chains and developers including HomePro, Central Retail Corporation and Tesco Lotus.
Carrefour, the latest player in the segment, spent 140 million baht to develop its first community mall in the Suan Luang area, which opened on May 30. The mall is built on a two-rai plot with a Carrefour premium mini-hypermaket as a main magnet and another 18 tenants from food chains to services. The mall has total space of 15,000 square metres.
''We conducted lots of consumer research and found that shopping at retail stores near home or at community malls came as the first priority for shoppers. The number of shoppers at community malls has increased sharply when living costs are higher because of rising oil prices and inflation,'' she said.
The Carrefour mini-hypermarket in Suan Luang offers up to 30,000 items. About 60% of the total consists of food items, both domestic and imported, with the remainder ranging from small electrical appliances to mobile phones.
Phidsanu Pongwatana, the company's regional director, said the image of Carrefour in the Suan Luang area was more trendy in terms of colour, in-store graphics and signs to respond to the demand of shoppers in the area.
Carrefour Suan Luang provides services to customers in a five-kilometre radius. The company expects about 400 million baht in sales from the mini-hypermarket, which is expected to break even within three to five years.
Currently, there are about 2,500 shoppers per day with average spending per visit of 500 baht.
CenCar plans to open one or two new outlets this year, with one being a mini-hypermarket concept store.
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