Central Retail to Add 37 Food Stores Across Vietnam by 2028

Central Retail will open up to 37 food stores in Vietnam by 2028. The plan adds large-format hypermarkets and neighborhood supermarkets across primary and secondary cities.

Targets include 10 to 12 Go! Hypermarkets and 23 to 25 Mini Go! Stores over the next two years. The group already operates more than 300 locations covering 1.3 million square metres of floor space.

Splitting formats between city hubs and provinces

Capital will split between large retail hubs and smaller grocery boxes. Central Retail Food Group is restructuring flagship Go! Hypermarkets around fresh produce, in-store bakeries and prepared dining counters. Smaller Mini Go! Branches will push into provincial markets. There, modern retail still competes against traditional wet markets.

Food accounts for the bulk of local revenue. Beyond Go!, the portfolio includes Tops Market, Mini Go! And Lan Chi Mart. Sourcing leans heavily local. More than 90 per cent of inventory comes from roughly 2,000 Vietnamese suppliers.

“Our strength lies in having a diverse range of store formats, from hypermarkets to supermarkets, allowing us to expand in ways that best suit the potential of each location and consumer segment across both major and secondary cities,” said Stephane Coum, CEO of Central Retail Food Group.

Pressure on domestic grocers and floor space

Rival operators like WinCommerce and Saigon Co.op face higher stakes in secondary provinces. Domestic chains spent the past three years closing unprofitable small stores and trimming distribution margins. Central Retail is taking the opposite route, committing fresh capital to physical stores as consumer spending climbs.

Productivity outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City remains the main operational hurdle. Secondary cities provide cheaper leases and less modern competition, but basket sizes are smaller and shoppers watch prices closely. The company bets fresh food counters and ready-to-eat meals will pull shoppers from wet markets faster than packaged goods.

Building out the network

Central Retail entered Vietnam nearly 15 years ago and has invested THB49 billion (US$1.5 billion) to date. It converted the Big C assets acquired in 2016 into the Go! Brand. Older hypermarket layouts were dropped for food-led centers that mix dining tenants with specialty retail.

Loyalty data will feed directly into the physical roll-out. The 1 Vietnam loyalty programme reached 7.4 million members in its first year. The chain will use that database to drive shoppers into the 37 new locations as construction finishes through 2028.