New Czech grocery chain to be opened by Vietnamese

November 21, 2006

Vietnamese market sellers plan to open a new chain to compete with other supermarkets. The shops will run primarily in small towns and will offer food and drugs. They are to be opened in the next few years, said Nguyen Duong former chairman of the Prague-based Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs. For this purpose, they are buying available vacant shops from Czech retail chain Jednota.

So far Vietnamese retailers focus on selling shoes, clothes, and electronics. This is to be changed now. After some time, when the shops will be successfully established, sellers will move from the outside to the inside. of buildings. "Within three to five years [Vietnamese] outdoor markets will disappear completely", Duong said. But it seems the new chain will have a hard time, as the market is getting saturated and even some bigger companies have decided to leave the Czech Republic. Last week Belgium-based retailer, Delvita, sold its supermarket to German Rewe group which will be rebranded to Billa.

Neither the current Vietnamese business activities are without problems. Czech Customs confiscated products worth 50,000,000 CZK (€1,786,000) during the trademark falsification round-up Saturday. The inspection took place simultaneously in Pilsen, Prachatice, Chomutov, and Prague. "This sort of inspection will continue, we have positive experience with actions in the time before Christmas", said a spokesman of the Czech Customs agency.