Tesco plans expansion in Thailand

Tesco is to spend £110m (€160m) on a major expansion of its business in Thailand, it has anounced.

Tesco is to spend £110m (€160m) on a major expansion of its business in Thailand, it has anounced.

It aims to add about 60 convenience stores to the 260 it already has in the country.

However, it is not saying how many of its larger hypermarkets are in its plans.

This is a controversial subject in Thailand, where smaller shopkeepers are calling for the spread of larger stores to be curbed.

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Tesco currently runs some 56 hypermarkets in Thailand - it is in competition with Carrefour, which has 24, and Big C Supercenter, which runs 49 now and plans to open another four this year.

In the convenience sector, Tesco is dwarfed by 7-Eleven, which currently has 4,000 shops and plans another 450 this year.

The Thai government is working on changes to the law surrounding the retail sector because of the spread of supermarkets.

Public hearings are scheduled before they go before the country's ministers.