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Home / Industry Overview / Retail

Recently, Thailand’s Talad Simum arrived in Binh Thuan to look for specific retail opportunities. Tesco, Carrefour, Walmart are also in process to get the investment license to operate in Vietnam, alongside with 2 other giants which have already set foot in the country: Metro and Bourbon.

Local retailers, facing new competition, have been also very active lately. Citimart agreed to allow Hongkong’s Dairy Farm to run one of its store. Co-op Mart, the leading local retailer is to open another 60 stores together with 7-8 supermarkets.

G7 Mart, member of Trung Nguyen Group, under certain difficulty in the past years, looks to partner with Singaporean enterprises. Oldchangkee, Caravane, Ten&Han have finished a working visit to Vietnam, looking to exploit the opportunities of food distribution through G7 Mart network.

In 2008, foreign distributors will be legitimated to operate in Vietnam. This will accelerate the trend of change in consumer shopping behavior in Vietnam. Supermarkets and convenience stores recorded 29% of total retails in 2006, compared with 18% in 2004. Still, this figure leaves a lot a ground to augment for existing and potential international retailers and distributors.

Local players stated (i) financial capability (ii) experience & management as their disadvantages in competing with international rivals while they claim to possess proper local consumption know-hows.

Franchise business recorded its booming period through 2 past years, even though the number of successful franchise business is limited (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pho 24, Highland Coffee). Most of chain stores are still operated by the owners. The lack of local franchise agencies can not be overlooked, who would function as the bridge between local investors (potential franchisees) and foreign reputable franchisors.  

Facts

* At the end of 2005, 9063 markets (traditional and modern) markets operated nationwide: 6788 in rural area and 2275 in cities.

* There were over 200 supermarkets, 30 commercial centers and approx. 1000 convenience stores to be found in 30 out of 64 provinces.