BANGKOK – Some of Thailand’s wealthiest tycoons are looking to muscle in on the convenience store sector, betting that a shift in consumer preferences for buying less but shopping more often will fuel demand for years to come.

Leading the charge is Thailand’s richest person, Mr Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. The liquor mogul, with a net worth of about US$11.5 billion (S$15.8 billion), is planning an aggressive push to get 30,000 mom-and-pop shops to take up his business model by 2027.

Under that model, his company Berli Jucker provides logistics, marketing and data management in exchange for a store’s pledge to source a minimum level of inventory from his companies, which include Big C Retail and Thai Beverage – effectively converting stand-alone corner shops to convenience stores.

Others looking to stake their claim read like a who’s who of Thailand’s business elite. They include mass transit baron Keeree Kanjanapas and the Chirathivat family, which earned its fortune through department stores and shopping malls across the globe.

But anyone wanting to expand faces stiff competition from the current king of Thai convenience: CP All. The firm, the crown jewel in the Chearavanont family’s US$28 billion fortune, runs more than 14,000 7-Eleven outlets. That is nearly three-quarters of the total number of convenience stores in the country, according to data from real estate services firm CBRE Group.

The billionaires’ jostling underscores bullish expectations for the sector as new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin kicks off a programme to hand out about 560 billion baht (S$20.8 billion) in cash to boost the sagging economy. Bets on a tourism revival are underpinning growth expectations too.

At its core, though, is the rising popularity of convenience stores that dot virtually every street corner in Bangkok and other major cities, providing one-stop shops for everything from ready meals and daily essentials to paying electricity bills.

The sector is expected to expand 5.4 per cent in 2023 to 428 billion baht, following an 18 per cent increase in 2022 that was driven by the easing of Covid-19 curbs, according to Euromonitor International.

Annual growth may be 5.5 per cent till 2025, with more than two-thirds of convenience store revenue coming from food and beverages, according to Bank of Ayudhya estimates.

Some efforts to get a piece of the pie are hitting snags. Despite Mr Charoen’s early success in his ambitious mom-and-pop expansion programme – he has already added about 1,400 stores in the three months ended June 30 for about 2,600 outlets in total – a planned initial public offering of Big C Retail that was expected to raise US$1 billion was postponed in August. The firm said the share sale will be revived when the investment environment improves.

Branding overhaul

Meanwhile, the Chirathivat family, which made much of its US$13.8 billion fortune from Central department stores, shopping malls and hotels, is overhauling its convenience store strategy after the pandemic hurt business in key tourist destinations. The group, which already has a foothold in the segment as the local franchisee of Japan’s FamilyMart, has seen the number of those stores fall to about 400 as at March from 900 in 2020.

In August, Central Retail said it will drop the FamilyMart name entirely and switch to Tops Daily to help in its branding efforts. It has already set up nearly 300 Tops stores ranging from supermarkets to convenience stores in addition to the FamilyMart outlets.

Finally, Mr Keeree, the billionaire entrepreneur, is looking to leverage the elevated rail system in Bangkok that he has spearheaded over the past three decades, as well as his investments in smart card, finance and consumer product companies. In 2023, his BTS Group Holdings opened its first Turtle convenience stores on prime platforms of some of the stations serving the metropolis’ 10 million residents. It is also installing vending machines near station exits.

But whatever the brand, every one of their ambitions must compete with CP All’s plans to strengthen its already outsized dominance.

The firm is looking to grow its network on expectations that there will be a rebound in consumer spending and foreign tourists from pandemic lows, according to CP All’s head of investor relations, Ms Jiraphan Thongtan.

CP All will invest as much as 13 billion baht on its 2023 expansion plans, including opening at least 700 more 7-Eleven stores, she said. BLOOMBERG