Berli Jucker Plc (BJC), a consumer goods trading firm under Thai Beverage Group and the owner of Big C Supercenter Plc, says the expansion of retail outlets in the format of hypermarkets and Mini Big C will proceed despite declining sales in the first half.
By the end of June, a new Big C hypermarket opened in Nakhon Ratchasima and 37 Mini Big C stores set up shop across the nation, said Rami Piirainen, vice-president for group strategy and investor relations.
The company earlier set a target to open nine hypermarkets, one Big C supermarket and 200 Mini Big C stores, either through the company's own investment or under the franchise model.
"We confirm that our expansion will meet the target," Mr Piirainen said during a meeting with stockbrokers at the Stock Exchange of Thailand's Opportunity Day.
He said the firm will open only one Big C supermarket a year instead of two, while it plans to make renovations at existing stores.
Plans to open a Big C supermarket in Cambodia by 2018 remain unchanged.
BJC owns a 97.9% stake in Big C Supercenter Plc, the operator of the Big C hypermarket chain.
Both companies "synergised" their operations last year and are in the process of delisting Big C from the SET, probably next month.
Sales of Big C in the first half of this year dropped by 14% year-on-year to 54.3 billion baht, due to a drop in same-store-sales, which contracted over 17%.
In the first six months, BJC reported total sales of 72.3 billion baht, a 31.8% rise, with net profit of 1.96 billion or a 112.7% increase year-on-year.
Big C contributed 70% of total sales and 63% of total net profit for BJC in the first half.
Mr Piirainen said he was optimistic that sales of the retailer would show an improvement in this half, especially from same-store-sales, as the company has made the decision to sell some products at retail rather than wholesale prices.
The change has helped increase Big C profit margin and improve the performance of same-store-sales, which registered growth of 2.7% in July and 10% last month.
Mr Piirainen said he expects same-store sales to contract for the full year, but at a narrow rate of 5%.
