Japan’s general trader Sumitomo Group and its Vietnamese partner BRG Group are expected to launch their first supermarket in Hanoi by the end of this year through a joint-venture named Fujimart Vietnam Retail, Vietnam Finance reported.
Illustrative photo.
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Under the brand name of FujiMart, the new supermarket targets middle-class in Vietnam.
In 2016, BRG and Sumitomo signed a cooperation agreement to develop smart city, high-tech agriculture, retail and other sectors.
The liberalization of the retail market has made Vietnam more attractive in the eyes of investors, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Just like India, the growth rate of Vietnam’s market is expected to exceed that of others, particularly e-commerce.
At present, there is approximately one convenience store per 69,000 Vietnamese citizens, compared to one per 21,000 in China and one per 1,800 in South Korea as of the end of 2016.
There remains room for the market to growth and a rapid change in market behavior of the Vietnamese customers could make the modern retail model a promising land.
In the FAST500 ranking recently released, the Vietnamese market witnessed a strong rise of the retail sector, reaching an annual growth rate of 63.7% in the 2013 – 2016 period. In 2017, the sale revenue from the retail sector in Vietnam stood at US$129 billion, up 11% year-on-year.
Vaughan Ryan, CEO of Nielsen Vietnam, said that the country has a total of 600,000 retail points of sale, in which the modern retail channel is 1,200 points, accounting for 25% of the market share. The rate is projected to increase to 45% by 2020, Ryan added.
Under this context, Vietnam’s retail market remains open for both local and foreign companies, said Ryan.
