Lotte Mart said on the 12th it opened the Tay Ninh store in Tay Ninh, an emerging economic city in southern Vietnam, on the 9th. It is the first new opening in about three years since the West Lake Hanoi store in Vietnam.
Tay Ninh, where the Tay Ninh store is located, is an emerging industrial city about 90 kilometers northwest of Ho Chi Minh City. The area has been growing under the Vietnamese government's industrial complex development and corporations attraction policies, and it borders Cambodia, expanding its role as a logistics hub.
Lotte Mart applied the same "grocery specialty store" model, proven at remodeled stores including the West Lake Hanoi store, to the new Tay Ninh location.
Lotte Mart said it plans to accelerate new openings in earnest by expanding from the centers of major cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi into small and mid-sized provincial cities, based on its grocery expertise.
Reflecting resident shopping and tourist demand, Lotte Mart Tay Ninh is a "grocery specialty store" with about 88% of the store assortment devoted to grocery categories. It spans from one basement level to the ground floor, with a sales area of about 2,165 square meters (655 pyeong).
The shopping space covers K-food, high-quality fresh foods, and globally sourced items, as well as a K-beauty specialty zone and integrated tenants linked to group affiliates. In particular, it secured differentiated products not available at competing local stores to about 15% of the total.
The prepared foods specialty store "Yorihada Kitchen" combines an open kitchen with a dining space and sells more than 300 deli items including K-food, sushi, and local dishes. As of the first half of this year, sales at Vietnam's "Yorihada Kitchen" rose 20% from a year earlier.
The "K-Noodle Station" and "K-Grocery Shop" sell more than 1,500 K-products including ramen. The bakery offers K-bakery items under Lotte Mart's private brand Pungmiso.
The fresh food section, centered on Lotte Mart's fresh private brand FRESH 365, significantly increased direct-from-origin products.
The H&B section is presented as a K-beauty specialty store. It sells more than 400 cosmetics, including VT and TFIT, which have high recognition among local Millennials and Gen Z, and additional popular beauty brands from Asung Daiso Co.
With the opening of the Tay Ninh store, the number of stores Lotte Mart operates in Vietnam has increased to 16. Lotte Mart first entered the Vietnamese market in 2008 with the Nam Saigon store in Ho Chi Minh City and now operates 64 stores in Southeast Asia, including 48 in Indonesia.
Shin Jubaek, head of Lotte Mart and Lotte Super Vietnam, said, "The Tay Ninh store is a small and mid-sized hub model that concentrates Lotte Mart's K-food and grocery capabilities accumulated in Vietnam's retail market," adding, "In the second half of this year, we will accelerate expansion across Vietnam, including opening in Bac Giang, and establish ourselves as the No. 1 grocery market in Southeast Asia's retail sector."