Saigon Co.op touches on shopping mall
By Quoc Hung - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC - Saigon Co.op is seeking to expand its business scale beyond traditional supermarkets by readying itself for a huge shopping mall project costing some US$200 million in HCMC’s District 7, the top business executive said Saturday.
Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, chairman of Saigon Co.op, told reporters that it would start work on the project this year in a joint venture with Singapore’s MapleTree and Saigon Transportation Mechanical Corp. (Samco). The three partners will hold respective stakes of 65%, 30% and 5%, he said at a meeting to review Saigon Co.op’s 2009 performance and set targets for 2010.
Saigon Co.op will be represented in the joint venture by Saigon Co.op Investment Development Joint Stock Co. (SCID), which is 85% owned by the stores chain operator.
The shopping complex, covering over 42,000 square meters, will get off ground this year for completion after 18 months to two years of construction, said Hoa. The project will include a seven-story shopping mall with more than 70,000 square meters of floor space and a 20-story office building with more than 100,000 square meters, Hoa said, adding the shopping complex would meet standards for a modern shopping mall in the world.
The forthcoming shopping center will also serve as a destination for relaxation and entertainment, and is one of the largest projects undertaken by SCID, Hoa said.
Saigon Co.op, widely known for its supermarkets of the brand Co.opMart, is also working on a plan to build its first-ever supermarket in the neighboring country of Cambodia.
Hoa said Phnom Penh of Cambodia would be the first target oversea market of Saigon Co.op. The project will not only expand the retail market of Saigon Co.op but also help promote domestic goods in the neighboring market, he noted, adding the company would also join forces with other partners in the project.
“Saigon Co.op will cooperate with domestic manufacturing companies to develop the project,” Hoa told the Daily.
The country’s leading retail store chain operator is also continuing to expand its supermarket and convenience food store chains nationwide. It plans to increase the number of supermarkets from the current 42 to at least 52 by the end of the year, and that of newly established food stores from the current eight to 20, Nguyen Thi Hanh, general director of Saigon Co.op, said at the meeting.
Hanh said that it targeted some 10 new supermarkets this year, with the first of them already launched earlier in the year in the central city of Danang. Other supermarkets would be opened in HCMC, Phu Tho, Hanoi, Quang Ngai, Quang Tri, Soc Trang, Binh Duong and Nha Trang.
In the medium term, it targets to scale up the number of its supermarkets to 100 by 2015, besides opening some 12 more convenience food stores in HCMC, she said.
Co.op Food is the new store brand which Saigon Co.op launched in late 2008. Open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. everyday, the store offers a wide range of foods including fresh, processed, semi-processed and ready-cooked and frozen foods.
Saigon Co.op expects to increase its food stores in HCMC to 120 by 2012, and join forces with other real estate developers to operate these stores which cover 200 to 500 square meters each.
Hanh said this year Saigon Co.op would also open ten more Co.op convenience stores in HCMC, increasing the total to more than 90.
“This is part of Saigon Co.op’s expansion plan to introduce the convenience shopping concept to residential areas in the city. Saigon Co.op has seen the potential of this new business model,” she noted.
Saigon Co-op obtained over VND8.57 trillion in revenue last year, up 35% on 2008, with the Co.opMart chain contributing over VND8.3 trillion, or 96.9%. It expects the revenue this year to rise 34% to VND11.5 trillion.