| Type | Family-owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Real estate, retailing, restaurants |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Headquarters | Bangkok, Thailand |
| Key people | Vanchai Chirathivat, chairman Kobchai Chirathivat, president and CEO Yuwadee Chirathivat Bhicharnchitr, president Central Department Stores |
| Products | Shopping centres, department stores, restaurants, hotels. |
| Employees | 66,000 |
| Subsidiaries | Central Pattana PLC (SET: CPN) Central Retail Corporation Centara Hotels and Resorts (SET: CENTEL) Central Restaurant Group Central Marketing Group |
| Website | www.centralgroup.com |
The Central Group of Companies (Thai: เครือเซ็นทรัล) is a family-owned conglomerate holding company in Thailand that is involved in retailing, real estate, hotels and restaurants. Among its subsidiaries is Central Pattana, which is the largest developer and operator of shopping centres in Thailand and the Central Retail Corporation, Thailand's biggest retail conglomerate. Its chief rival is The Mall Group, which owns Siam Paragon and The Emporium and several suburban shopping centres.
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Tiang Chirathivat started a general merchandise store in 1947 in Samphanthawong district, Bangkok's Chinatown. In 1957, Tiang's son, Samrit Chirathivat, opened the first Central Department Store in Wangburapha, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok. The company's property development arm, Central Pattana was founded in 1980, and opened its first shopping centre, Central Plaza Lat Phrao in Chatuchak district, Bangkok in 1982.
Central Pattana is the retail property development and management arm of the Central Group, Central Pattana was founded on June 17, 1980 with a registered capital of 300 million baht. The company became registered as a public limited company in 1994 and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 1995. CPN is currently managing 15 shopping centres, 6 office buildings, one hotel and two residential projects
CPN operates 3 kind of shopping mall concepts[1]: International shopping center and multi experiential retail and leisure destination with over 200,000 sq/m of net leasable area. There is currently one branch of CentralWorld.
The "real shopping experience" with a complete quality selection that enhances every lifestyle, fashion and entertainment. A typical mall of this size has around 100,000 sq/m of net leasable area. There are currently 13 malls of this concept with 4 more under construction and 4 more planned. The first mall of this concept opened in 1982 and is CentralPlaza Ladprao.
The "shopping and entertainment experience" with holiday spirit and local novelty, it's designed to cater more international visitors. Approximately 50,000 sg/m net leasable area. Only 1 branch has recently opened called CentralFestival Pattaya Beach a second branch is under construction in Chiang Mai and will open in early 2013.
Central Retail Corporation is the largest retailer in Thailand, it operates 3 department store chains (Central Department Store, ZEN and Robinson) in Thailand and it recently bought La Rinascente a department store in Italy. It also operates 2 Supermarkets (Tops and Central Food Hall) and 5 Specialty Retail Stores (Power Buy - Electronics Store, Super Sport - Sports Store, B2S - Books Entertainment and Stationary, homeWorks - Home Improvement Center and Office Depot - Office Product Stores)
Robinson Lifestyle Center is a new medium size mall concept of Central Retail Corporation. The role of the new lifestyle center concept is to penetrate secondary provinces where big shopping malls are not present. A typical size of the new concept will have a retail space of around 30,000 square metres, with 20,000 net leasable area. First mall opened in November 2011, in Trang a second store is under construction in Suphanburi.
Central stores are positioned as an upper-market chain. It has 12 stores in Bangkok and branches in Pak Kret/Nonthaburi, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Pattaya and Phuket.
The Robinson department store chain was established in 1979 and was merged with Central in 1995. The company has branches in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Phuket, Patong Beach, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Ayutthaya, Ratchaburi, Sri Racha, Chanthaburi, Udonthani, Ubon Ratchathani, Chonburi, Khon Kaen. Also there is an expansion plan in 2011-2012 such as Trang, Chiang Rai, Phitsanulok, Rama IX in Bangkok and Surat Thani.
The upmarket Zen department store chain was established in 1990 with its first branch as one of the anchors of the World Trade Center in Pathum Wan district, Bangkok. Now named CentralWorld, the shopping center underwent a major renovation in 2006, although it was destroyed in a fire lit by the Red Shirt movement on May 19, 2010 as a reaction to the surrender of their protest leaders. The CentralWorld branch is due to reopen in August 2011. A second branch is currently under construction in Shenyang, China and will open in the third quarter this year with more stores to come.[2]
On May 27, 2011 Central Retail bought a 100% stake of the 150-year-old store firm for 260 million euros. "Our ultimate goal is to take it global and to be recognised all across Asia, be it in Thailand, China, Japan or Hong Kong," Chief Executive Officer Tos Chirathivat told reporters. Central Retail also planned new Rinascente stores in Italy and expected the takeover to break even within eight years. Tos said there would be no change of management team at Rinascente, which is led by Chief Executive Vittorio Radice. Rinascente posted sales of 350 million euros in 2010. Central Retail was still looking for more foreign assets after the acquisition, which is expected to add 15 percent to its sales starting next month, Tos said, adding the Thai company expected sales of 100 billion baht ($3.3 billion) in 2011 and 230 billion baht in 2012.[3]
Central Hotels and Resorts, renamed Centara Hotels and Resorts in 2007, owns 11 resort hotels in Thailand, including the Sofitel Centara Grand at Central Plaza Lat Phrao in Chatuchak district and the Sofitel Centara Grand Hua Hin Resort, which was Thailand's first resort-style hotel, built in 1923 by the State Railway of Thailand. Other hotels are located in Krabi, Ko Samui, Phuket, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai and Mae Sot. The company plans to open two more hotels, Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld in Bangkok, and the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort in Pattaya in 2008. The two hotels are now fully operational and their grand openings were held in 2008 (Bangkok) and 2009 (Pattaya).
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