Thai retailer maintains top stores in Europe

On the upper floor of the Central Embassy in Bangkok it feels more like a professional corporate lounge than a shopping center. Visitors can look at books, order Japanese food, work on a laptop, or float on a sofa and look at the sky.

The Thai company owned, Central Group, is in discussions to buy the prestigious UK Selfridges stores from the Canadian branch of the Weston family in a £ 4bn agreement to be approved by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the project.

During the epidemic that has plagued migrants to online shopping malls, Central pioneered ways to persuade people to return to supermarkets, so that Bangkok retailers can have future information about Selfridges. Central declined to comment on the sale.

Taking the highest quality in the world could be a reward for Central, Thailand’s largest retailer, run by the Chirathivat billionaire family. The group operates one of the best food halls in Bangkok and has been shopping and renovating several top European stores over the past decade, including KaDeWe in Germany, Rinascente in Italy, Globus in Switzerland and Illum in Denmark.

Although not known outside of Thailand or selling luxury goods, Central is one of the biggest groups in the country – groups often with Chinese families disrupting international businesses from hardscrabble start in Bangkok “selling houses”. Fellows are now waiting to see what the group, which is already one of the largest retailers in Europe, can bring to Selfridges.

“Central Group is an experienced retailer, and they will be well-suited and top owners following the Weston family,” said Ewan Venters, former head of the UK’s premier luxury food company Fortnum & Mason. “You can’t just buy in a moment and expect to make a profit; it’s about making a destination, and he has a good reputation for that.”

In the middle of last year he competed with Thai-Chinese Charoen Pokphand rivals and TCC to buy Tesco Thai and Malaysian supermarkets, and eventually lost to CP. $ 10.6 billion.

One of Selfridges’ top attractions, according to people who are well acquainted with the company’s ideas, will be the property; the brand has free space in its many stores, including its Oxford Street history.

Central has a history of banking in the best places. It built the Central Embassy on a plot of land purchased in Britain where the former British ambassador’s fields were located. In 2017, after Britain decided to move the ambassador to a higher level, Central merged with Hongkong Land to buy the rest, which owned a beautiful house and a statue of Queen Victoria, at a cost of £ 420m, the largest in Thailand. Central has not yet announced its plans for the country.

The group was formed by Zheng Ni Tiang, the grandmother of the chair and the head of Tos Chirathivat, who arrived in Thailand from Hainan Island in China in 1927. Tiang first helped his mother-in-law sell rice before setting up shop in Thonburi, across the Chao River. Phraya from central Bangkok. The company was founded in 1947 and has been importing since 1950 under the name Central Trading.

At that time, only a few Thai supermarkets were exported, mainly from Asia. Tiang and his son Samrit pioneered the production of U.S. goods including necklaces, cosmetics and English magazines and books. In a city where transactions were common, Central served as a regular pioneer. The group grew from the Charoen Krung street in what was then Bangkok, and built new stores in the capital and beyond.

After Tiang’s death, the couple set up a family electoral council that still exists today. Owners and management of Central are more widely distributed among families than in many other Thai groups.

The main committee of seven members or “family committee” is headed by Tos and is made up of Chirathivat. The 11-member Central Executive Committee consists of four family members and includes Vittorio Radice. An Italian businessman joined a Thai company when Central bought La Rinascente in 2011. repair of Selfridges in the 1990s, is expected to lead a new reform if the alliance is in place.

Thai politics have been plagued by economic instability over the past decade, which experts say has boosted the company’s growth abroad. Its main location, CentralWorld, was burned during the riots in Bangkok in 2010.

The center tried and failed to enter the Chinese market, then it also looked to Vietnam, where it is now a top foreign market, as well as Europe. In 2017 he made a ecommerce cooperation is the Chinese giant JD.com.

Covid-19 and a tight end this year have disrupted Thailand’s economy and pushed the group that has been floating around recently. Central Retail the lost share in the third loss of Bt2.22bn ($ 67m). As the epidemic escalates in ecommerce, Central has sought to lure consumers back into retail by providing more food and beverage options, expanding its facilities, and providing what one expert has called a “knowledgeable business”.

“Customer service is becoming one of the most important aspects of retail development,” said Jariya Thumtrongkitkul, CBRE’s chief marketing, technical and public relations officer. “It’s a genre that online shopping and ecommerce can’t compete with.”

If the sale took place, experts said, Selfridges would become the most popular overseas destination in Central and would be one of the best-selling Thai companies to date.

“Whether you go to Rinascente in Milan, KaDeWe in Berlin or Illum in Copenhagen, these are good stores, well-exhibited, with good sales in beautiful places,” said Peter Williams, a former Selfridges executive who leads several retail companies. “I think they’ve done a good job, and I understand why they’re interested in Selfridges.”

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