Thailand’s Central Retail has marked the settlement of its takeover of B2S and OfficeMate parent COL by unveiling a new concept store in Bangkok.
Dubbed B2S Think Space, the store takes up a 1000sqm space on the sixth floor of the Central department store inside the Central Chidlom shopping centre. It features a book zone with a mirrored ‘Book Cave’, displaying more than 10,000 books. These are backed up by more than 60,000 SKUs of stationery and art supplies, sourced in store or shipped from a warehouse after ordering online.
Central Retail CEO Yol Phokasub says the company plans to convert the larger stores in the 130-strong B2S network into the Think Space format a move he hopes will help boost B2S sales by between 20 and 30 per cent this year.
“This is only one part of forward steps to expand the business of Central Retail,” he said.
This year, the company will broaden the variety of its products and services and develop an omnichannel platform to meet customer demands for shopping both online and offline.
“Central Retail’s acquisition of COL is an important move to further strengthen the retail comprehensiveness of Central Retail. COL has been the established leader in the business of office supplies, books, entertainment media, lifestyle products and e-books under the brands of OfficeMate, B2S and MEB E-book with numerous sales channels, namely stores, websites, Line Store, drive-thru, a call centre, mobile application and e-ordering,” he said.
