CRC Sports Co, a sporting goods distributor under Central Group, plans to spend 1.8 billion baht to open 119 new retail outlets in the next five years.
The expansion will take its number of outlets including Supersports, Supersports Outlets and Crocs stores to reach 250 by 2019, up from 131 now.
Morton: Vietnamese market profitable
Managing director Tony Morton said the first batch of the investment fund, about 400 million baht, would be used this year to open 24 branches — nine in Vietnam and 15 in Thailand.
"We'll focus on opening branches in Thailand and Vietnam this year before branching out into Cambodia and Myanmar later," he said.
CRC Sports opened its first Supersports shop in Vietnam in 2013 and now has 20 stores in the country.
"We are successful in Vietnam in terms of profitability and have exceeded our sales target," Mr Morton said.
He said sales in Vietnam totalled 250 million baht last year, which was a good return after operating there for only two years.
Demand for sporting goods has been rising in line with growing concerns about healthly liftestyles among people, Mr Morton said.
The sporting goods market is also being spurred by the booming fitness market in Thailand, drawing more demand for products such as shoes, apparel and equipment.
To cash in on the trend, Mr Morton said CRC Sports planned to add 10 new brands of sporting products by seeking distribution rights from brand owners.
The move will take the number of sporting goods brands in its stores to 20 this year.
The brands it currently distributes include Speedo swimwear, New Balance, Crocs, K Swiss, Skechers, Warrior, Fila, Umbro, Wilson and Liverpool.
The company expects sales of CRC Sports will grow by 21% this year to 8.3 billion baht.
Mr Morton said popular brands would help to drive significant growth to the company in the next five years.
The sales contribution of branded sports products at CRC Sport is expected to rise to 40% of the total in 2020 from the current level of 21%.
Last year CRC reported total sales of 6.9 billion baht, up 10.7% from 2013.
CRC Sports has 131 stores across the country.
They are made up of 65 Supersports branches, five Supersports Outlets stores, 13 Fit Sports outlets, 27 Crocs stores, 12 New Balance branches, eight Skechers stores and one Go Sport shop.
Britain's Speedo International Ltd recently appointed CRC Sports as its official importer and distributor in Thailand.