What is Central Group? Central Group Review

Founding Origin

Central Group, owned by the Chirathivat family, which has a net worth of $21 billion according to Forbes, is also involved in real estate development, financial services and fintech, and owns high-end department stores in Italy, Germany and Denmark.

Group composition

5 chain stores (Central Department Store, ZEN, Robinsons, La Rinascente and Ilum), it operates many stores in Thailand, China, Italy, Indonesia and Denmark.

6 shopping malls ("Superluxury Mall", "Community Mall").

7 retail and wholesale supermarket brands (Central Food Hall, Tops market, Tops SUPERSTORE, Tops Superkoom, Tops Superkoom Wholesale, Tops super and Tops daily).

1 convenience store chain (Central FamilyMart) with existing franchise licensing agreement.

8 specialty retail chains (PowerBuy, SuperSports, B2S, homeWorks, OfficeMate, Thai Watsadu, PageOne and baan&BEYOND)

8 franchise/license chain retail specialty stores - only in Thailand (Watsons, Marks & Spencer, MUJI, UNIQLO, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Sanrio, Komonoya and Matsumoto Kiyoshi).

Development History

Tiang Chirathivat opened a grocery store in Samphanthawong, Bangkok's Chinatown, in 1947.

In 1957, his son Samrit Chirathivat opened the first Central Department Store in Phra Nakhon Wangburapha, Bangkok.

The group entered the Chinese market in 2007 and has opened Shangtai department stores in Hangzhou and Shenyang respectively.

In 2013, Central Group had total assets of US$7.4 billion and 66,000 employees. Its subsidiaries include Central Pattana Co., Ltd., Central Plaza Hotel Co., Ltd., Central Retail Co., Ltd., Central Restaurant Group and Central Marketing Group.

In September 2018, the joint venture between Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com and Thai retail company Central Group was officially launched on September 28, and the jointly created online retail platform JD CENTRAL was officially launched in Thailand.

In January 2019, Thai retail giant Central Group raised US$200 million from Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab.

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