Central Food Retail invests Bt90m in Own Brands quality products

Central Food Retail, operators of Central Food Hall, Tops Super, Tops Market and Tops Daily, has invested 90 million baht in introducing its three own brands – Cooking for Fun, My Choice and TOPS. With their complete range of 1,000 premium-quality products and innovative designs that reflect a full range of customer lifestyles, these brands are completely differentiated from other house brands.


The popularity of house-brand products has been growing every year as consumers has pay more attention to value, quality and diversity of products, said Ms Chiranun Poopat, Senior Vice President – Buying & Merchandising and Marketing of Central Food Retail.

“As Thailand’s leading retail company, we have combined our expertise in premium product selection and consumer insights to develop our own brands of unique quality products to extend our business opportunities.

“A budget of 90 million baht has been set aside to develop the products under the Cooking for Fun, My Choice and TOPS brands, and quality is at the heart of all of them. We’re opting only for premium quality products from original sources across the world, and we treat them with processes that meet international standards. Meticulous care is also provided for packaging design to make all details modern and stylish, and representative of the lifestyles of the consumers,” she said.

Mr Nick Reitmeier, Vice President of Buying – Perishable, Produce, International Food, Wine and Own Brand, said that the own-brand products from Central Food Retail provided new, distinct choices for buyers. The company would continually extend the product lines to cover all consumer’s needs from 1,000 items this year to 1,500 items in 2010. In the past 10 months, sales of these products have already totalled more than 400 million baht.
Prominent characteristics of CFR’s Own Brands are:

Cooking for Fun – Our Chef’s Choice enables you to enjoy special meals with premium-quality products that have been thoughtfully selected. A wide range of cooking ingredients -- perishable food produce, dried food, ready-to-cook items, seasonings, spices, kitchen utensils – is available. Customers can find best quality products such as pure olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pasta of all kinds, organic rice, jasmine rice, Natural Pork and jumbo-sized eggs. Cooking for Fun products are available at all branches of Central Food Hall and Tops Market.

My Choice – Make the Right Choice This level of best quality products provides new culinary experiences with many kinds of consumer items and ready-to-eat meals. These include penne pasta with tomato sauce, rice with sea bass Chu Chee Curry, pork tenderloin with garlic and pepper on rice, mixed salads, waffles, soft cookies, pure longan flower honey, instant coffee, juices, ready-to-drink green tea and fresh water. You can find My Choice products at all branches of Central Food Hall and Tops Market.

TOPS – Quality Makes Us Different Every item represents our best choice at every step of the processes, from ingredient selection and flavour to quality control and package design. Most customers’ needs will be met by TOPS’ range of items, whose value compares favourably with other leading proprietary brands. They include jasmine rice, soybean oil, large-sized eggs, imitation crabmeat, croutons, instant creamer, canned food, dried fruit, paper towels, dishwashing and cleaning products and a wide variety of housewares. TOPS products are available at all branches of Tops Market, Tops Super and Tops Daily.

Discover the exciting, innovative advantages of Own Brand products at all 117 branches of Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Super and Tops Daily.

Sugarcane price poised to hit B950

       Sugarcane farmers will enjoy a record high cane price of nearly 1,000 baht a tonne this season, thanks to the global sugar deficit that has pushed up global sugar prices to a 28-year high.
       "Cane farmers can expect to gain 950 baht a tonne during this 2009-10 harvesting season, a record high in local cane history," said Prasert Tapaneeyangkul, the secretary-general of the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board (OCSB).
       The price is for cane with a commercial cane sugar (CCS) rating of 10,the total recoverable sugar percentage.
       The government's record high price is calculated based on the export sugar quota, of which around 70% has been committed to sales contracts at a high 19.75 US cents per pound at the exchange rate at 35 baht per dollar.
       "This is the highest price ever for the local cane industry. Farmers should be happy as it is a considerable increase from 830 baht per tonne they earned last year while the cost of production is relatively unchanged from the previous year. It is a wonderful year for the sugar industry," Mr Prasert said.
       The early arrival of winter breezes should also enhance cane sweetness.Mr Prasert said that 70% of cane farmers may have output with a higher CCS of 12.28, for which they may earn up to 1,043 baht per tonne.
       The OCSB expects the factories to start crushing this month. It hopes to see 71.44 million tonnes of cane crushed in this season, a 7.49% increase from 66.46 million tonnes last year. The rise in production is the result of good cane prices since last year which attract more growers.
       Sugar production is expected to reach 7.61 million tonnes this year, a 6% increase from 7.18 million tonnes produced last year, with 5.5 million tonnes allocated for export sales.
       The board also agreed to increase domestic sugar allocation to 2.1 million tonnes from 1.9 million last year.
       "This is because we expect food processors for export, who usually purchase cheaper export sugar, to shift to domestic sugar as the export price may be more expensive than the local one,"Mr Prasert said.
       At present, the domestic price is much cheaper than the export price.