Vingroup adds Queenland Mart to its M&A trail

After the acquisitions, from September 1, Queenland Mart membership cards will be transferred to VinID, the customer care programme of Vingroup.

The Queenland Mart supermarket chain was established in 2014 under Vietnam Lotus Foods JSC to operate mainly in retail and the supermarket segment.

Vinmart and Vinmart + are operated by VinCommerce. VinMart was formerly OceanMart supermarket chain. Vingroup then developed it by opening new stores and launching the VinMart+ convenience store system, as well as acquiring the FiviMart supermarket chain and the Shop & Go convenience store chain.

As of June 30, 2019, VinCommerce operated a system of 113 VinMart supermarkets and more than 1,900 Vinmart+ stores in 60 out of 63 provinces and cities.

Entering the retail market quite late, the development strategy of Queenland Mart is quite clear as the chain focused on urban areas, high-end residential buildings, mainly located in District 7 and District 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. The premises of Queenland Mart are therefore expensive.

However, with fierce competition in the retail market, retail chains require strong capital flows that few businesses can maintain for extended periods of time.

Vingroup, on the other hand, was adamant in its ambition to expand its retail foothold by acquiring competitors.

Last year, Vingroup spent over VND1 trillion ($43.48 million) on buying Nhat Nam Investment JSC, the owner of Fivimart and Vien Thong A, the phone sales chain. After the deal, Fivimart was merged into Vincommerce and was renamed to Vinmart, while Vien Thong A was merged into VinPro.

In April 2019, VinCommerce announced the receipt of 87 chains of Shop & Go stores for $1. The deal is thought to have stemmed from a proposal of Shop & Go itself.