Charoen Pokphand Foods is about to expand its convenience store business under a 1.65 billion baht (US$53.76 million) investment plan.

According to a senior VP Jakchai Nutprayoon, 1400 new CP Fresh Mart convenience stores will be opened between 2012 and 2015. The total number of stores is expected to reach 2000 by 2015 – three times the level of last year.

Investments abroad will follow according to Nutprayoon who said that “We’ll wait until the local operation of CP Fresh Mart is stable, probably in the next three years, then actively expand our international stores.”

CP Fresh Mart opened a store, mostly with locally procured products, in Myanmar last year. It will open 70 stores in Vietnam and seven in Malaysia.

Under an additional investment plan of 250 million baht (US$8.15 million), the number of small cold storage units for distributing fresh and frozen food to small and medium-sized enterprise buyers nationwide will increase from 5000 last year to 20,000. SME buyers retail these frozen products locally. Each cold storage unit has the capacity to supply 400 to 500 households, or 200 condo units.

The combined sales of fresh, ready-to-eat and frozen products from CP Fresh Mart stores and cold storages reached the level of 4.8 billion baht last year. With an estimated growth of 15 per cent, it might reach 5.6 billion baht (US$182.47 million) this year. The projected aim under the accelerating expansion plan is 10 billion baht (US$325.84 million) sales.

CP Fresh Mart has now signed an agreement with the Government Pension Fund on special benefits for its members. The offer includes special promotions and the opportunity to sell CP Fresh Mart products themselves by becoming a GPF franchiser with an investment of 3000 baht (US$97.75).

GB