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Published on October 1, 2007

The new 999 retail outlet has been defined by CP Group as its first "grocery store" format and targets small and medium scale daily consumers of grocery items, including fresh and dry products.

The new mini-retail outlets will cover about 300 square metres of space and stock various grocery products, from fresh and processed foods to other finished products such as fish sauces, beverages, detergents, toothpastes and soaps.

The 999 grocery stores will be engaged in retail and wholesale services. About ten 999 stores have already been opened this year at residential and business communities such as in the Lat Phrao area.

Suwit Kingkaew, vice president of CP Seven Eleven, said the new 999 grocery stores would be handled by CP Intertrade, the group's trading and export unit for both agricultural and non-agri-cultural products. The company has also imported

key ingredients from abroad for its feed-mill factories.

Suwit said the group cannot operate 999 stores as part of its retail arm, CP Seven-Eleven, as they have a franchise contract with 7-Eleven in running their convenience-store chain. Suwit said that CP Seven Eleven currently operated 4,200 outlets of 7-Eleven stores. Some 400 to 450 new 7-Eleven store outlets will be opened this year.

About 43 per cent of those 7-Eleven stores are owned by franchisees and 57 per cent by the company. It expects to increase the ratio of franchised stores to 50 per cent in the next two years.

CP Seven Eleven is quite optimistic about its business future and plans to open 5,000 7-Eleven convenience stores in the next two years.

"There is still great potential for this type of grocery store format in the Thai market and the group wants to utilise this business opportunity," said Suwit.

"The 999 stores will be another significant retail channel of distribution for CP Group's grocery products as well as processed foods, to reach a large number of consumers in different communities," he said.

Suwit added that the 999 grocery stores would be positioned differently from 7-Eleven convenience stores, which occupy only 80 square metres of retail space on average and target general consumers, who want to buy food items in particular at a convenient time and location.

He said the 999 stores would be competing directly with Lotus Express outlets operated by the UK-based Tesco Lotus.

Darmp Sukontasap, senior vice president of Ek-Chai Distribution System, operator of Tesco Lotus, said earlier that Tesco Lotus planned to open about 60 new Lotus Express stores this year. The additions will take the total number of Lotus Express outlets to 320, or about 4 per cent of the total number of convenience stores in Thailand, which is estimated to reach about 7,360 by the end of this year.

Kwanchai

 Rungfapaisarn

 The Nation