S. Korea’s GS Retail Co. this month opens first four overseas outposts under its convenience store brand GS25 in Vietnam with an aim to increase the total store number in the Southeast Asian country to 2,000 over the next 10 years.

GS Retail said on Thursday it will open GS25’s first and second convenience stores respectively on January 19 and 23 in the central urban area of District 1 in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. They are also the Korean convenient store’s first foreign branches.

The stores will serve freshly-cooked popular Korean foods such as fried chicken, dumplings, cupped rice and cupped Tteokbokki (rice cake fried in spicy pepper paste) to Vietnamese consumers, according to the company. It will also sell freshly brewed coffee at less than one third of the price of coffee sold at local cafes by using high-quality beans and machine.

The Korean company aims to open 2,000 convenience stores in Vietnam over the next 10 years after enhancing its brand awareness in Ho Chi Minh to further expand to suburban areas. For stable food supply, it currently runs a factory for fresh foods in Long An Province in suburban Ho Chi Minh.

To debut in Vietnam, GS Retail has teamed up with Vietnam’s fast-growing SonKim Group in July 2017 to set up a JV running convenience store business. GS Retail owns a 30 percent stake in the JV, and SonKim remaining 70 percent. The company plans to branch out to other Southeast Asian markets including Cambodia, as well as China, according to an official.

By Kim Byung-ho and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]