Vingroup buys Vietnam c-store chain Shop&Go

Vingroup has acquired 87 Vietnamese Shop&Go convenience stores for just US$1.

Vingroup’s retail arm VinCommerce, which manages Vinmart supermarkets and Vinmart+ convenience stores, will upgrade infrastructure, staff and goods at the acquired stores by the end of next month.

According to a VinCommerce statement, Shop&Go made the approach and offered to sell itself.

“The competition is more intense than we imagined; that is why we’ve decided to leave,” a Shop&Go spokesperson said, admitting Vietnamese retail market still has potential for growth.

“We have sold our stores to Vingroup so it can continue to develop them.”

Opened in 2006, Shop&Go was one of the earliest convenience store chains in Vietnam.

By 2016, it had aggregated losses of almost VND205 billion (US$8.81 million).

VinCommerce runs 108 VinMart supermarkets and 1900 VinMart+ convenience stores.

Last year, it acquired supermarket chain Fivimart with 23 outlets.

In a report last year, Nielsen Vietnam observed a rise in visits by Vietnamese to convenience stores. The average shopper uses a convenience store 4.5 times per month – three times the frequency of 2010.