Marks & Spencer opens with a bang

Hanoi, September 15 (VNA) - British retailer Marks & Spencer, which opened in Vietnam just a fortnight ago, has announced that it has already achieved its first month’s sales target. At the official opening ceremony of its first store in Vietnam on September 12, Munish Rishi, country manager and senior VP - department store at franchise Central Retail Corporation, told Vietnam News:" We have been open for 14 days and have only started marketing now. But the response has been fantastic; we reached our one-month target in the first 10 days." The result has surprised them, he said, adding that 80 percent of customers were Vietnamese, proving that the Vietnamese retail market is very promising. Marks & Spencer’s first outlet in Vietnam is in Ho Chi Minh City’s Vincom Centre Dong Khoi. On future plans, Bruce Findlay, the retailer’s regional director for Asia, told Vietnam News that "… We see about 20 stores in the next five or six years. We will open another store in Ho Chi Minh City and we are looking to go into Hanoi and beyond." The second and third stores will open in 2015 before going to other major cities in 2016. The company plans to update its products every month and customers can also order online and get delivery from the store. One of the UK’s leading retailers, Marks & Spencer has over 800 stores in that country and 460 others in 56 countries and territories. In Vietnam, its stores will be operated by Central, which has a long-standing franchise agreement with it.-VNA