Robinsons Group aims to expand into the Vietnam market

The Robinsons Group is aiming to expand into the Vietnam market in about three to five years and set up shop in suburban malls in Singapore.

The group, under the Al-Futtaim Group of Dubai, told Channel NewsAsia that it hopes to have more details about the Singapore plans in about a year.

The Al-Futtaim Group acquired The Robinsons Group in April 2008 for S$620 million.

For this year, the group is setting aside S$16 million capital expenditure for the Robinsons stores in Singapore.

The Robinsons Group, which manages other retail stores like John Little and Marks and Spencer, has been a familiar face to Singaporeans.

And although its expansion plans in Southeast Asia were delayed by the economic crisis last year, things have changed.

Jim Mccallum, chairman, The Robinsons Group, said: "We'll start to look at Southeast Asia again. We didn't look very far in 2009 for obvious reasons. But one day I'm sure we're going to get to places like Vietnam which I think has retail potential. It's just a question of when.

“What we need to do is to make sure that our base is secure. We're quite recent entries into the market in Malaysia. We opened the store in Malaysia three years ago.

“But that market entry needs to be supported and reinforced with potentially more footage and other stores to make sense of what we're done there.”

Robinsons said it intends to secure its base in Malaysia first and then move to explore the Vietnam market.

The group is also considering whether to operate department stores in Singapore's suburban malls.

Mr Mccallum said: "Getting one to open is easier said than done. For whatever reason, landlords are not particularly keen on renting out large bits of space these days.

“We need to show people with our execution and the standards which we have, that we'd actually add value to someone's development. I think it's natural market development. Suburban retail is not second class anymore, perhaps in the middle market.

“Obviously, Orchard Road and some of these prestigious developments will be where the luxury brands sit and they want to be in the creme de la creme positions.

“But we are unashamedly a middle market business and we'd be very happy to look at what you might call it a category B space because we can do a good job there and indeed add some volume.

“With 370,00 cardholders, there are many of our customers who don't come every week, you have to come to Raffles City or Centrepoint to enjoy Robinsons.

“We have Marks and Spencer stores in suburban malls that are doing very well so that shows us that our customers are there and if we got the right opportunity, we'd love to do it."

The recent financial crisis has affected the top-line sales for the Robinsons Group. But during the same period, the company also saw a return of its customers looking for affordable, quality products.

Going forward, the company wants to maintain its appeal and increase its focus on promoting more Asian brands. It's also studying the potential of offering on-line sales to cater to the increasing tech-savvy consumers.