In addition to Vietnam, CRC has aggressively expanded its Thailand Food line in recent years. We believe the move will build scale, scope, and earnings and strengthen its brand.
Food line expansion adds scope and scale
In the past year, CRC has aggressively expanded its Food line, especially in Thailand. The company is upgrading stores and launching new formats and brands. During the past month, we visited its new food retail formats—Tops CLUB, Tops Fine Food, and Tops Food Hall. Tops Fine Food and Tops Food Hall are essentially upgrades of the Tops brand to the premium market segment, but Tops CLUB is a new concept for CRC—a Thai wholesaler/large pack retailer (Figure 1-3).