Entering Vietnam market in 2009, Aoen opened its two first shopping centers – Aeon Mall Celadon in Tan Phu district in HCMC and Aeon Mall Canary in Binh Duong - only five years later. It reported revenue of VND1.3 trillion and loss of VND112 billion in the same year. The revenue hit VND3.883 trillion in 2016 and the pre-tax profit was VND54 billion, and it soared to VND5.136 trillion in 2017 and the profit to VND234 billion, or four times bigger than the year before.
At a meeting with Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue on February 25, Aeon’s representative reported that Aeon had revenue of $800 million and generated 6,000 jobs last year. The Japanese retailer considers Vietnam the key investment point in Southeast Asia and the retailer plans to open 30 shopping malls with total capital of $5 billion in the country.
Last year, South Korea-based Lotte reported revenue of VND5.793 trillion from 11 supermarkets and two hypermarkets, which meant a 7.9 percent growth rate over 2017.t The operation scale of the retail group rose by 200 times after a decade.
A finance report audited by PwC showed despite the high growth rate, the retail giant had incurred an accumulative loss of VND800 billion as of the end of 2017.
Seong Won, finance director of Lotte Vietnam, cited a number of reasons, including unsatisfactory performance of some shopping centers. He added that the retailer is expanding its operation scale, and each shopping center needs 5-8 years to break even. It plans to open 60 shopping centers across the country next year.
Meanwhile, others have gone downhill.
France’s Auchan did not do well with its business during the five years it was in Vietnam. The revenue was modest, just 45 million euros last year. Ihas been transferred to Saigon Co-op, a large local retail chain.
TCC Group changed Metro into MM Mega Market after taking over the brand. MM Mega Market in 2016 reported modest revenue of VND11.7 trillion, or 20 percent lower than that before the transfer in 2013. The revenue was just equal to that of 2010, when the number of Metro supermarkets was half of the current figure. In the same year, the supermarket chain reported a loss of VND110 billion.
