Group CEO Tos Chirathivat said the changes in the management were aimed at helping the group meet the many complex challenges in the future.

He cited the diversity of target consumers who could be divided into four major segments –baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and ageing people – as a challenge, as well as the emergence of digital technology; international expansion, and the demographic change in tourists coming to Thailand.

The top management of Central Group now includes the former governor of the Bank of Thailand, Prasarn Trairatvorakul, and Supachai Panitchpakdi, former deputy prime minister and former secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The two have been appointed as the group’s senior advisers. Yol Phokasub, former president of Siam Commercial Bank, has joined as group president. They will work together to set the group’s future direction, focus on customer management, strengthen the group’s business capability, develop its digital business, and work on expanding in international markets.

Nicolo Galante, who had worked at Paris-based Baker & McKenzie for 21 years and looked after the southern European market as a senior director, is now Central Group’s chief operating officer. He will be in charge of four key areas – analytics and big data management; in-store technology; the last mile; and new digital ways of selling.

Chanitr Chanchainarong, the former president of the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI), has joined as group senior vice president for corporate development. He will be in charge of the group’s overseas expansion, especially in CLMV markets (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam).

“We are looking at the future, which will change dramatically in the next 10 to 20 years. We need to strengthen our business organisation to cope with such changes. Although we are a big business player today, it does not mean that we will be big tomorrow,” said Tos.

“We need to have a management with great knowledge and capable of doing more complicated work to push the whole organisation forward,” he said.

Central Group expects to achieve Bt320 billion in total revenue this year, up 21 per cent over last year. The group is also dealing with 14,000 suppliers and 11 million customers in its database.

“Overseas contribution has increased significantly – by 12 times over the past five years – up from Bt7 billion in 2011 to about Bt100 billion expected this year. This is higher than domestic sales, which has grown by only two times over the last five years,” said Tos. He added that 40 per cent of the group’s revenue is now from Bangkok and its outskirts, 30 per cent from upcountry, and another 30 per cent from overseas businesses.

“We [Central Group] aim to increase sales contribution from overseas markets to 40 per cent in the next five years,” he said.

Tos added that Central Group now had a strong presence in Europe and in Asean countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

He said the group would continue to invest in Vietnam, and expand into new CLMV markets, with Myanmar is its priority. The group would be able to penetrate the CLMV markets with all diversified businesses similar to those invested in Thailand and Vietnam. They are hotels, real estates and food retails, including hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores.

Explaining the nature of customers, Tos said the baby boomer generation 20 years ago was marked by similar shopping behaviour. However, today they could be divided into four major groups – the baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and people aged 60 and above – who would equally make up the market but complicate marketing activities for suppliers.

He said the demography of tourists coming to Thailand had also changed, from mainly Europe, the US, and Japan, to more diversified in-bound tourists from China, the Middle East, Russia, Asian and Western countries, including Europe and America.

Tos said another challenge is the emergence of digital technology, which has influenced consumer shopping behaviour, including their payment methods, as well as the ways companies delivered products and services.

“We earn about Bt2.5 billion from online sales, which is less than 1 per cent of total group revenue. We want online sales contributions to reach between 4 to 5 per cent of total revenue in the next five years,” said To.