Chief executive Tos Chirathivat said that the company had yet to see any serious impact from the current political turmoil.

"I will be quite worried if the political conflicts drag on," he said. "This will heavily affect the economy and consumer confidence. As the business sector, we should not suspend our investments, as this will dampen the overall economy. Consumers should also maintain their consumption."

Investment by businesses will stimulate the economy, he said.

Thailand's largest retail conglomerate is studying the feasibility of expanding into 10 major cities in China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong and Nan Jing. It is looking at local markets, competition, consumption, shopping habits, as well as local supply and demand. The company is negotiating two regional deals worth a total of more than Bt1 billion to expand abroad.

Tos said that of its Bt5.3 billion domestic expansion budget, about Bt2.6 billion would be allocated to renovate 100,000 square metres of the Central World Plaza shopping centre. That includes renovating its Zen Department Store in the mall, which will increase its retail space by three times from 24,000sqm to more than 80,000sqm.

Zen will close for renovations on Sunday and reopen by the end of this year. It will be expanding to a whopping 20 storeys. The first eight will be a department store, while the remaining 12 will be created as "Zen World" lifestyle destination: new health and leisure centres including facilities for fitness, spas, yoga, beauty, education and tourism promotion, plus world-class restaurants, bars and karaoke lounges.

Tos said that CRC would also open major flagship outlets of its speciality stores: a 5,400-sqm Power Buy store including game and IT zones, a 5,000-sqm Super Sport store, and B2S, the region's largest bookstore which will cover 4,500 square metres of retail space in a three storey area.

All flagship stores will be opened by the middle of this year.

"We have increased the number of our shopping outlets in various retail formats - department stores, supermarkets and speciality stores - by 60 at the end of last year to a total of 357. We will continue to expand and expect to reach 400 by the end of this year," said Tos. He added that Robinson Department Store would open its latest outlet at Ayutthaya Park this year, while Home Work will open its new mega-store in Pattaya (near Big C Supercentre).

Tos said that this year the company would re-brand its supermarket business to clearly positioning its grocery stores, Tops Supermarket and Tops Market Place. The company bought Tops Supermarket back from Royal Ahold of the Netherlands in 2004.

"We will also develop a new format of Tops Daily, a compact-sized supermarket, which will have a total retail space of not more than 300 square metres," Tos said. "The new compact-size supermarket will allow CRC to be more flexible in expanding its supermarket outlets at any potential locations. The first Tops Daily supermarket will be opened next month. We have made a good turnaround of Tops Supermarket, which recorded Bt500 million in profit last year."

CRC marked another milestone by achieving sales of Bt70 billion last year, up 19.7 per cent on 2004. The company also recorded 30-per-cent growth in profit.

"2006 is another challenging year as we have set a target to achieve Bt78 billion in sales this year, up 12 per cent over last year," said Tos.

Tos added that this year CRC would launch its Central Retail Academy to train and educate its 40,000 employees about the retail business and management. Its has adopted its new "Top Talent" programme to recruit and promote quality employees within the organisation. They will be receive retail coaching by CRC senior management at least three times a year.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation