Published on 07/08/2014
Portfolio makeover for Tops Supermarket operator
Central Food Retail Co (CFR), operator of Tops Supermarket, Tops Market and Tops Daily, has embarked upon an adjustment of its brand portfolio. Store formats are changing in accordance with data on area population densities and local consumer incomes. More densely populated areas will be suitable for Tops Superkhoom, a new discount format, while places with high-income residents will be ripe for a Tops Market, which provides more premium products. President Alistair Taylor said the adjustment would cost 1 billion baht and cover all supermarket formats this year. Of that amount, 800 million baht will be used to open new stores and 200 million to renovate existing ones and change their formats. Mr Taylor said nine Tops Supermarket branches would be upgraded as Tops Market and another 23 changed to Tops Superkhoom. The conversions will be completed in October. CFR will not open any more new Tops Supermarkets, as the country is now saturated with 148 branches, Mr Taylor said. Instead, a new supermarket brand called Tops Superstore will be opened instead. The first Tops Superstore will open at a cost of 120 million baht in CentralPlaza Salaya next Tuesday. Mr Taylor said the Tops Superstore will have 4,500 square metres of selling space. It will offer 85,000 foreign and domestic products including consumer wares, electronics, sporting goods, stationery items and children's products.
"The format is a new-model store that is different from the general supermarkets and hypermarkets," he said. The new retail format brings CFR's portfolio to eight brands. They are Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Supermarket, Eathai, Tops Daily, Tops Superkhoom, Tops Superkhoom Wholesale and Tops Superstore. The company expects monthly revenue of 100 million baht from this first Tops Superstore. Mr Taylor said two or three more Superstores would open each year starting in 2015. The second Tops Superstore will open at Central Westgate in Nonthaburi's Bang Yai district next April.