entations are, they do provide insight into a company’s priorities, which is valuable for investors. Central’s priorities now reflect more pragmatism and discipline than at times in the past when acquisitions and new concepts (for example, Tops Club) had unrealistic expectations. Not willing to run second Central’s determination to pursue more disciplined growth partly reflects the fact that the company already has a large platform to build on. Total company revenue for 2025 from its more than 3,700 points of sale and 77 malls in Thailand and Vietnam came to 253.2 billion Thai baht (US$8.2 billion), an increase of 3.6 per cent on 2024. However, that increase was biased upward by one-off revenue takes: retail sales increased by only 0.7 per cent and rental and service income from the malls by 0.5 per cent. Net profit was 7.8 billion baht (US$251 million), a decline of 9.9 per cent. Same-store sales growth is non-existent: food (-4 per cent), hardlines (-4 per cent) and fashion (-3 per cent) were all down in the fourth quarter, continuing a trend that started 18 months ago. In revenue terms, Central runs second to Thailand’s leading retail/wholesale conglomerate, CP Axtra, which operates the Makro and Lotus’s chains and raked in about twice Central’s revenue in 2025. Being a runner-up in any category doesn’t sit well with Central, which is rolling out its own wholesale concept called Go Wholesale. Four more of these warehouses were opened in 2025, all in provincial capital cities where Makro has a presence and is immensely popular among Horeca and retail customers. Central now has 14 Go Wholesale warehouses in operation and, unlike Makro, it operates on a membership model (think Costco), though membership is currently free. By the end of 2026, Central aims to have 16 of these warehouses operating, but that marks a deceleration in the rollout relative to what was hoped when the first store opened in the fourth quarter of 2023. The company originally announced plans to have about 40 open by the end of 2028, but at the current pace, that isn’t going to happen. Still, Go Wholesale is beginning to gain traction in some key markets and could yet become a serious competitor for Makro. Vietnam is a special area of focus for Central, although it recently dumped its ailing Nguyen Kim appliance chain after years of trials and tribulations. Its popular Tops supermarket app, “The 1”, had a successful rollout in Vietnam last year and had 4.3 million members signed up in the country as of December. An assistant is on the way – or not? Tops supermarket is the company’s large-format food retail platform for Central in Thailand, and the company claims it will be getting a lot of investment in the next few years to improve the customer experience. The store format needs fixing: the layout and seamless interconnectivity with adjacent food kiosks mean that, in many instances, a shopper can leave the supermarket and find themselves on the wrong side of the checkout without even realising it. Store security isn’t particularly robust, which can provide shoplifters with opportunities they wouldn’t have in a traditional supermarket. The other problem Tops needs to fix, urgently, is the checkout experience. Thai shoppers, particularly the more affluent ones, really like self-checkouts, but Tops supermarkets tend to have few of them and the technology is awful. At any given time, half of the machines are out of service, and the ones that are operating don’t offer anything like a seamless experience. The dreaded “Assistant is on the way” message on the checkout screen is a constant tripwire, particularly for barcoded produce in most shoppers’ baskets. If the customer is really lucky, a staff member will be fixing a similar problem on an adjacent machine and will intervene promptly; if the customer is unlucky, they may be standing there waving their arms like a shipwrecked sailor for several minutes, waiting for someone to assist. Despite the moody obstinacy of the self-checkout machines, the incentives to join one of the regular checkout lines are weak: in an era of payment by phone, even the short lines can move like molasses. Now Central plans to expand the self-checkout option this year and it is, in principle, a wonderful idea if the technology can be improved. Store networks to grow Central is planning to continue opening stores in Thailand at a measured pace in 2026, with up to 10 new supermarkets and five Thai Watsadu home improvement stores to launch. The company will also open two more of its Go Wholesale stores, as noted. Central is particularly keen on dominating the home improvement market with its Thai Watsadu DIY warehouses and BnB home furnishings superstores. It rightly claims that Thai Watsadu is the only home improvement chain in the highly competitive Thai market to increase sales in 2025, albeit by only 1 per cent, with an assist from two store openings. Central now estimates that Thai Watsadu has 36 per cent of the market, ahead of Homepro with 29 per cent and Global House with 20 per cent. Finally, on the expansion front in Thailand, the company is also keen on its Auto 1 car servicing business and plans to double its stores from 53 to 106 this year, co-locating with highly trafficked malls and on main roads. In Vietnam, the plan is also quite modest: one new mall, two hypermarkets and six convenience stores this year. There are some things Central can’t control: the broader Thai economy isn’t growing rapidly, tourism has been weaker than expected and rising energy prices don’t help at all. But the company’s plans are sound and, if the newly unveiled strategy is delivered, resources will be directed to pretty much all the right places. Further reading: What is driving Central Pattana’s next growth phase?