Parkson - Best Place to Work, Best Place to Shop

PARKSON Corporation Sdn Bhd, set up in 1987, is the retail arm of LION Group and has quickly become the largest department store chain in Malaysia. At present, we have 36 department stores in Malaysia.

In 1994, PARKSON landed in China to further expand its market. So far, we have 40 department stores in most major cities in China. Total revenues of PARKSON in both Malaysia and China are US$1.3 billion a year. Possibly, PARKSON is the leader in these two markets and we always desire to become the leader in any market we join.

 

In Vietnam, PARKSON made official debut in June 2005 with the opening of PARKSON Saigon Tourist Plaza, a leading international standard department store in Ho Chi Minh City. We developed PARKSON Hai Phong in 2006 and PARKSON Hung Vuong Plaza in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City now.

 

Many people misunderstand that we only target high-income earners. In fact, high-class customers only account for only 5 per cent, while medium and middle high-income customers make up 45 per cent. These are regular visitors and customers at modern shopping centres like department stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets. The remaining 50 per cent are familiar with buying at traditional marketplaces and others.

 

At PARKSON shops, consumers can find world-famous trademarks in Vietnam such as Porches Designs, Calvin Klein, Timberland, Soda Exchange, Espirit for apparel, Lancome, Estee Lauder, Armani, DKNY, and Tommy Hilfiger for cosmetics and fragrances. In addition, we also supply favourite Vietnamese brands like Nino Maxx, An Phuoc and Donga Silk. At PARKSON, customers can feel secure in buying genuine products.

 

After Ho Chi Minh City, we will develop in Hanoi, but in the past we were unable to find a good location for PARKSON. However, now the good news is we will have PARKSON in Hanoi very soon, because we have finally found a good location. I can affirm that PARKSON will become a market leader in Vietnam because we will expand our networks rapidly to major cities like Da Nang, Hue, Nha Trang and Can Tho. In Ho Chi Minh City, we plan to open eight PARKSON department stores in various districts. The positioning of PARKSON in each market depends on factors like the customer profile, buying power, brand availability and competition in the local market place.

 

We hardly encountered difficulties. The only difficulty maybe is that the employees are inexperienced, although they used to work for other shops. Thus, all our employees have to be retrained to become international professionals. As you know, we open our shops 365 days a year, even during the Lunar New Year, because our purpose is to provide the best service to our customers. This looks simple but we faced with much difficulty in the first year. Now, our employees understand the nature of the business and the business is going very well. The ultimate purpose of PARKSON is to make customers feel this is the best place to shop and the employees feel this is the best place to work.

What do you think about the Malaysian investment flow into Vietnam in the coming years?

Certainly, the amount will increase tremendously. In my opinion, Vietnam is really very attractive to investors because it has a fast-growing economy, an open market, an industrious workforce and a good education system. As far as I know, up to 94 per cent of Vietnamese people are literate. This is ideal for investors. Another advantage of Vietnam is the political stability and good security. During my time in Vietnam, I always feel secure everywhere I go.