Lotus's (formerly known as Lotus Supercenter, Tesco Lotus Supercenter and Tesco Lotus) is a
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...
chain in
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
founded and operated by
Charoen Pokphand
The Charoen Pokphand Group Company, Ltd. (CP) (; ) is a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok. It is Thailand's largest private company and the largest privately held Royal Warrant holder of the Thai Royal Family. The company describes itself as hav ...
(CP) Group, with operations in
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
following the acquisition of
Tesco Malaysia in 2020.
Description
In 1994, the
Charoen Pokphand
The Charoen Pokphand Group Company, Ltd. (CP) (; ) is a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok. It is Thailand's largest private company and the largest privately held Royal Warrant holder of the Thai Royal Family. The company describes itself as hav ...
(CP) Group established the Lotus Supercenter chain, opening its first outlet at
Seacon Square
Seacon Square is a large indoor shopping mall in Prawet, Bangkok. It was opened in 1994 in a ceremony presided over by Princess Sirindhorn. The shopping center has a gross leasable area of , a total area of and houses more than 300 stores. The b ...
. In 1998, British supermarket chain
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
acquired a stake of the Lotus Supercenter chain to form "
Tesco Lotus
Lotus's (formerly known as Lotus Supercenter, Tesco Lotus Supercenter and Tesco Lotus) is a retail chain in Thailand founded and operated by Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, with operations in Malaysia following the acquisition of Tesco Malaysia i ...
". CP Group sold most of its remaining shares of Tesco Lotus in 2003.
Tesco Lotus stores currently operate in five formats: Extra,
Hypermarket
A hypermarket or superstore is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In ...
, Department Store, Talad, and Express. Extra, Hypermarket, and Department store formats sell fresh food, prepared foods, and grocery offerings as well as a non-food offerings including electrical appliances, apparel, toys, stationery, and household goods. ''Talad'' ('market') is a "supermarket format" selling mainly groceries. Express is a convenience "mini-supermarket" format. Many of the products on the shelf are Tesco house brand products.
The bigger stores are often set in malls and have food courts and many other shops and stalls available as well as large car parks. Tesco Lotus also offers a range of retail and financial services including bill payment, personal loans (Tesco Premier), a Tesco Visa credit card, and a Tesco insurance broker. Most recently, in April 2013, Tesco Lotus introduced online shopping. As of early-2018, Tesco Lotus's total retail floor space stood at 1.4 million m
2. In August it opened store number 2,000 in Thailand. Its biggest competitor in the Thai market is
Big C
Big C, operated by Big C Supercenter Public Company Limited under Big C Retail Corporation Public Company Limited, is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2016, Big C was Thailand's second-largest hy ...
.
, Tesco Lotus had 1,967 stores in Thailand under the Tesco Lotus brand: 1,600 Tesco Lotus Express stores and about 400 other stores in hypermarket, Talad, and department store formats. Two hypermarkets opened in 2019, two more are being constructed, and 50 Tesco Lotus Express stores will open in the second-half of 2019.
Reacquisition by Charoen Pokphand and expansion to Malaysia
On 9 March 2020, CP Group submitted the winning bid to reacquire Tesco Lotus, in addition to
Tesco operations in
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
, for about US$10 billion. The purchase needs the approval of Thailand's
Trade Competition Commission as the new company could constitute a monopoly, given that CP Group already owns
7-Eleven
7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan, which in turn is owned by the retail holdings company Seven & I Holdings.
The chain was founde ...
convenience stores and the
Makro
Makro is a Netherlands, Dutch international brand of warehouse clubs, also called Cash and carry (wholesale), cash and carry stores. Makro was founded by SHV Holdings, a Dutch conglomerate based in Utrecht in partnership with German company ...
cash-and-carry business. The sale became approved in Malaysia in November 2020 and in Thailand in December 2020, with rebranding of the acquired stores beginning in February 2021, replacing the Tesco corporate branding with that of Lotus's.
Through the Tesco acquisition in Malaysia, Lotus's operates 64 rebranded Tesco outlets in the country.
Corporate social responsibility
Tesco Lotus has operated the Tesco for Thais Foundation since 2003 which has presented over 27,000 scholarships to needy children around the country, and runs programs for undergraduates which include in-store training. The company is also part of a major reforestation program, "Plant 9 Million Trees", which completed its nine million trees target in 2013. In line with the rest of Tesco group, Tesco Lotus is pledged to reduce carbon emissions from its business operations and opened the first "Zero Carbon Store" in Asia at Bangpra,
Chonburi
Chonburi (, , IAST: , ) is the capital of Chonburi Province and, as part of the district Mueang Chonburi District, Mueang Chonburi, the List of municipalities in Thailand, seventh-largest city in Thailand. It is about 100 km southeast of Ba ...
in November 2011.
Controversy
Libel lawsuit
In late-2007 and early-2008, Tesco Lotus sued three critics for libel. It lost the case against Jit Siratranont, former MP and now vice-general secretary of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, dropped the case against newspaper columnist Kamol Kamoltrakul on the grounds of his ill-health, and obtained a written apology from a newspaper business editor Nongnart Harnvilai.
Animal welfare concerns
The
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
World Animal Protection
World Animal Protection, formerly The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), is an international non-profit animal welfare organization that has been in operation since 1981. The charity's mission is to create a better world for an ...
reported that Tesco Lotus uses
sow stall
A gestation crate, also known as a sow stall, is a metal enclosure in which a farmed sow used for breeding may be kept during pregnancy.Wilson G. Pond, Fuller W. Bazer, Bernard E. Rollin (eds.), ''Animal Welfare in Animal Agriculture'', CRC Pre ...
s in their pork production process. The practice confines sows in cages no bigger than a refrigerator in order to use them as "breeding machines". Sow stalls have been banned in the UK since 1999 as well as in other jurisdictions. World Animal Protection succeeded in persuading Charoen Pokphand Foods, a major Thai pork producer, to get mother pigs out of cages in their Thai operations by 2025.
Logo
References
{{Tesco Plc
1998 establishments in Thailand
Convenience stores
Retail companies established in 1998
Retail companies of Bangkok
Supermarkets of Thailand
Lotus
Charoen Pokphand