Adopting sophisticated technologies to drive operations is high on Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group's agenda, as one of Thailand's largest conglomerates works to enlarge its footprint during the fourth industrial revolution, says chief executive Suphachai Chearavanont.
"We want to transform ourselves into a technology-led company, spanning food, retail and telecom businesses," Mr Suphachai told the Bangkok Post in an exclusive interview. "Digitalisation has to be done across all business groups [for] information management in the 4.0 era."
Part of the group's digitalisation scheme is to gradually transform 7-Eleven, the convenience store chain run by flagship retail arm CP All, through integration of robotics and automation.
Automation has been brought in to help improve cost management, reduce losses and notify of every movement and monitor operational processes to deliver products through transport routes precisely, according to a CP All annual report published in 2017.
"7-Eleven, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) and True Corporation are overwhelmingly associated with robotics and automation," Mr Suphachai said. "We are interested in developing this further, since we already have a network in place."
Smart cameras installed in 7-Eleven will provide insight into traffic at convenience stores, customer demography and even service satisfaction of customers, which are related to a stage of artificial intelligence (AI) integration, said the group supremo.
He was quick to point out that robotics and automation integration in 7-Eleven stores do not equate to unmanned operations. Job-loss fears have been fanned by the prospect of robotic replacements.
"It remains unproven that unmanned retail operations [would result in greater efficiency], as it is still an unrealised concept," Mr Suphachai said. "We also have a social responsibility to create jobs. Our business model has to take inclusiveness into account."
X-Store, an unmanned experimental 7-Eleven, was launched in Taiwan last year, making use of AI to serve coffee and offer other services. The store also employs payment and entry via facial recognition technology.
Apart from True Corporation, a huge telecom arm of CP Group, embarking on integrating digital media and the Internet of Things into day-to-day business operations, CPF, the agro-industrial and food conglomerate, is incorporating genomic sequencing and data analytics to develop new food innovations, Mr Suphachai said.
At present, CP Group operates through more than 200 companies under eight categories of business groups: agriculture, retail, telecommunications and media, e-commerce, automotive and heavy industry, finance, pharmaceuticals, and real estate.
CP Group has investments in 21 countries globally.
Owned by the Chearavanont family, one of Thailand's richest, CP Group generated revenue worth US$63 billion in 2018, according to Nikkei Asian Review.
With a net worth of $29.5 billion (907 billion baht), CP Group senior chairman Dhanin Chearavanont, Mr Suphachai's father, topped the Forbes list of Thailand's richest for 2019.
TREADING GENTLY
CP All's vision of a regional 7-Eleven expansion is still on the cards, but such ambitions also depend on a master licence approval granted by parent companies in Japan and the US, Mr Suphachai said.
"We cannot disclose anything yet," he said. "[CP All] is still exploring and negotiating [a regional expansion plan]."
Mr Suphachai says part of the group's digitalisation scheme is to gradually transform 7-Eleven stores with automation. SOMCHAI POOMLARD
With an ubiquitous domestic presence, CP All's 7-Eleven chain is looking to expand across Asia-Pacific to carry out its regional growth vision, Mr Suphachai told the Bangkok Post earlier.
Mr Suphachai hinted that the expansion plan would be explored in the region's tropical countries because of the company's expertise in inventory management and customer behaviour for products available in such climes.
"[Inventory management] of goods in countries with a cool climate is a different story," he said. "Despite some similarities on the [retail] concept, knowledge of products and markets are different."
CP All would have to relearn inventory management if it were to open 7-Eleven branches in countries with cooler weather, forcing a drastic change in both food inventory and customer traffic, Mr Suphachai said.
CP All has 10,268 branches of the 7-Eleven franchise in Thailand, broken down into 4,556 franchises in the Bangkok metropolitan region (44%) and 5,712 franchises in other provinces (56%).