Yuwadee Chirathivat, chief executive of Central Department Store Group, said the investment was in line with the group’s strategy to strengthen its flagship department stores in Europe. It hopes to nearly double the annual sales revenue from its Europe stores from 1.3 billion euros (Bt51 billion) expected this year to 2 billion euros by 2020, marking significant growth of 20 per cent per year.

Central acquired its first European department-store company, La Rinascente in Milan, in 2011. Since then, the group has invested about Bt40 billion in acquiring and facelifting its department stores in Europe.

The additional investment of Bt10 billion will be allocated for the renovation of its flagship stores in major cities in Europe.

Yuwadee said the group currently operated European department stores under three umbrella brands, La Rinascente in Italy, KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) in Germany, and Illum in Denmark.

La Rinascente operates 11 department stores in Italy, including its flagship store in Milan. Another flagship La Rinascente store will be opened next year in Rome at the cost of more than 200 million euros.

The group also operates the KaDeWe department store in Berlin. The group’s other department stores under the KaDeWe umbrella are Oberpollinger in Munich and Alsterhaus in Hamburg.

Central Department Store Group also operates Illum department store in Copenhagen.

“We want to be the best department stores in the world. We have positioned our department stores in Europe as ‘city stores’ so that individual visitors to each city will recognise [them] when they visit,” Yuwadee said.

She said Europe was a well-known tourist destination and popular luxury market. The market for luxury travel has grown by 50 per cent since 2010. The number of tourist arrivals to Europe is expected to increase significantly from 590 million in 2014 to about 750 million by 2030, driven by strong cultural attractions and shopping destinations.

“We increased the contribution from our department stores in Europe to the Department Store Group’s total sales revenue from 25 per cent in 2014 to 30 per cent last year, and up to 40 per cent is projected for this year,” Yuwadee said.

Revenue target Bt120 bn

She said Central Department Store Group expected its total sales revenue to reach Bt120 billion this year, and increase to Bt180 billion in 2020. The Department Store Group will maintain its business contribution to Central Group at about 40 per cent, excluding its Vietnam business.

Yuwadee said that in Thailand, her group operated 21 Central Department Stores and 42 Robinson Department Stores.

“We will open one or two new Central Department Stores and three to five new Robinson Department Stores every year,” she said.

“However, we will slow down the physical expansion of our department-store business in Europe [for now] as Central Group has recently allocated a lot of money to develop the retail business in Vietnam. However, we will not stop looking for new opportunities in Europe.”

Yuwadee said La Rinascente recently won the “Best Department Store in the World” award at the “Global Department Store Summit” in Zurich, Switzerland. The summit was hosted by the Intercontinental Group of Department Stores, the largest department-store association with more than 40 member companies worldwide.