Siam Makro PCL, a Thailand-based retail company, is set to foray in the wholesale cash-and-carry business in India under the brand, Lots Wholesale Solutions. The company plans to invest ₹1,000 crore in setting up its wholesale distribution centres and back-end supply chain in the next five years in North India.

Siam Makro PLC is part of the Bangkok-headquartered Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group), which has a presence in several sectors such as agribusiness, retail, food production, telecom and automotive.

“From a CP Group perspective, India and US are the two priority markets for future growth. With modern trade constituting just about 8-9 per cent of the Indian retail sector, we believe there is a lot of room for growth in the country,” said Tanit Chearavanont, Managing Director, Lots Wholesale Solutions, adding that high economic growth and regulatory changes in recent times, such as GST, have made the company bullish on India’s growth potential.

Distribution centres

The company plans to set up 15 wholesale distribution centres in North India in the next three years. “We aim to open the first two stores in Delhi-NCR region in the next six months,” added Chearavanont.

Besides Thailand, the company also has cash-and-carry business in other markets such as China, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Sluggish real estate growth in the last few years has posed challenges for retail expansion.

“We have a flexible mindset in terms of store formats, which will help us address the constraints of Indian real estate.We operate under 7-8 formats depending on the availability of location and size of the stores,” said Chearavanont.

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