Tesco Lotus, Carrefour and Big C have all modified their store formats to meet local regulations, smaller communities and different consumers' requirements, and they are spreading into the provinces.

The first player, Tesco Lotus, has spent the past two years diversifying its retail formats to serve different locations and shoppers' demands.

It began by launching its Tesco Lotus Express stores, about the size of convenience stores. The first Express stores were located at petrol stations, but the company has since expanded to shop-house locations.

The company has opened 135 Express outlets so far, and plans to open another 100 this year.

Another of Tesco Lotus's new retail formats - "Talad Lotus" - is still on trial. It was developed to serve smaller communities both in Bangkok and upcountry.

The new stores offer a full range of both fresh food and dry grocery items at Tesco lotus hypermarket prices.

Stores in the trial programme have opened at Maha Sarakham, Pinklao and Chinatown and an existing Tesco Lotus supermarket at Phongphet will be converted to a Talad Lotus store by July.

"We are very excited about this new Talad Lotus concept," said Tesco Lotus chief executive Jeff Adams.

"Customers told us they wanted a more conveniently located food store with a full range of food products. We will keep the same low prices as our hypermarkets."

Talad Lotus stores will vary between 700 and 1,500 square metres in size, and will carry a range of 6,000 to 9,000 fresh food, dry grocery, and daily household items.

Adams said Tesco Lotus had also successfully introduced a new compact format called "Khum Kha" stores in upcountry communities. About 14 Khum Kha stores have been opened so far.

In addition, Tesco Lotus has 55 standard-format hypermarkets in major cities throughout the country.

The French hypermarket chain Carrefour recently announced a new smaller-store format to help the company speed up its up-country presence. Carrefour currently has 23 hypermarkets.

 Most of them are in Bangkok, but the most recently opened are in Hat Yai and Chachoengsao.

Carrefour Thailand managing director Luc Dayot said the company wanted to open smaller hypermarket stores, with retail space of between 4,000 and 6,000sqm, particularly upcountry.

The smaller format will comply with local retail zoning regulations in the provinces, which prohibit the opening of large-scale complexes.

"We plan to open three or four smaller stores this year at Chon Buri, Phuket and Chiang Mai," Dayot said, adding that the smaller outlets will take about six months to build, compared to between eight and 12 months for conventional hypermarkets.

"The new smaller stores will serve communities with fewer than 50,000 households," he said.

"Our hypermarkets serve communities of not fewer than 150,000 households."

Dayot said the investment required for a smaller outlet was about Bt300 million, compared to Bt1 billion for a 10,000-sqm hypermarket.

Big C Supercentre will invest Bt2 billion to open four new outlets this year. Two of them will be of a compact size.

New Big C stores will open in Phrae and Ratchaburi in the middle of the year and two more, also upcountry, by the end of the year.

The Phrae store will be a compact model with retail space of 5,800sqm, while Ratchaburi will follow a standard format with 9,000 to 10,000sqm.

Big C operates 45 hypermarkets across the country.

Twenty-four of them are in Bangkok.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation