Central Food Retail: Business Expansion and Brand Architecture Strategy

Abstract

The retail store market in Thailand continued to grow with more intense competition from key players expanding their operations across retail grocery market segments. Central Food Retail Company Limited (CFR) was the market leader in the supermarket segment targeting the middle to high income groups. As part of the company’s long-term strategy, CFR planned to expand the business into other retail sectors by launching new store formats to capture other customer segments, especially middle- and lowincome groups. These customer segments had been largely served by operators in the hypermarket segment. The challenges and opportunities that CFR faced and the decisions on brand extension strategy and brand architecture strategy were discussed.