CENTRAL offers coffee houses and wine cellars at Tops

In Thailand, Central Food Retail, the operator of the Tops supermarket chain, has entered the coffee house and wine cellar businesses as part of the group ‘s vision to become one of the premium food retailers in Asia. The company has recently won the local licence to open the Segafredo Italian coffee house chain in Thailand and has also launched Central Wine Cellar, with its first standalone outlet opening last month in Hua Hin. "We want to be an expert in many fields of food retailing. The new diversified food businesses will also serve our vision to become one of the leading premium food retailers in Thailand as well as Asia," according to Chiranun Poopat, senior vice president for buying, merchandising and marketing. She said the first Segafredo coffee house had already opened at Central World Plaza, followed by others in Bangkok at Soi Thonglor and Sukhumvit Soi 41. Ian Pye, president of Central Food Retail, said the company's sales would be on target this year despite the economic downturn. The company expects to achieve THB20 billion (USD605.5 million) in sales this year, up from THB18 billion (USD473.8 million) last year. Mr Pye said the company would spend almost THB1 billion (USD30.2 million) this year and next year on the renovation of existing supermarkets to fit the group’s four concepts. He said about 50 stores had already been renovated and another 20 will complete their renovations by the end of this year. He said the company would spend another THB200 million (USD6 million) on new stores this year. "We plan to open another four to five Tops Daily outlets this year, up from about six stores now. We also plan to open another four Tops Super this year as well as one or two new Tops Market outlets. We will spend the next two years focusing on fixing our existing supermarkets before expanding into new outlets and destinations," he added.