Malaysia-based Parkson department store is to target Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar for expansion, after revealing plans to enter Cambodia.

Parkson will set its footprint in Cambodia in the first half of 2013 and will open 24 stores across Asia by the end of next year.

“I am always on the lookout. The Indo-China region, as a whole, has about 160 million people. That’s where we want to be,” said Alfred Cheng, MD of the units listed in Hong Kong and Singapore.

“They had been quite slow in expanding in the last two to three years. Now, they’re ramping up to enter new locations before its rivals,” said Eing Kar Mei, an analyst at OSK Holdings Bhd.

Parkson, which has currently 49 stores in China, 37 in Malaysia, eight in Indonesia and another eight in Vietnam, plans to set up another four stores in China this month where it derives 70 per cent of its revenue.

“We are cautiously aggressive with our plans. We are operating in countries where the underlying domestic consumption is still growing very quickly,” said Cheng.

Parkson was established by Lion Group in 1987 as its retail arm. The holding company owns 51.5 per cent of Parkson Retail Group, which is listed in Hong Kong and based in Beijing; and 67.6 per cent of Parkson Retail Asia which is listed in Singapore and runs all stores outside China.

GB