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The Vietnam News

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[Year 2001]

New French Vietnamese JV supermarket to open in HCM City

HANOI - A US$35 million French-Vietnamese supermarket joint venture called Cora An Lac Hypermarche has announced its opening next week in Ho Chi Minh City's Binh Chanh District. The supermarket, owned by Espace Bourbon An Lac, will include a 6,000sq.m shopping centre, food processing areas, 40 booths and ten restaurants for lease and a large parking lot. It will stock some 30,000 products sourced from 1,000 suppliers, with the management saying the store's aim was to tailor its stock to the tastes of the local customers. The store's owners are also hoping to use longer opening hours [8am to 9pm, 362 days a year] to win business from the existing, well-established players.

Cora An Lac, which will employ 400 people, is the second supermarket opened in Vietnam by France's Groupe Bourbon. In 1998, Bourbon inaugurated the Cora Dong Nai Hypermarche, a supermarket built on 20,000sq.m area in Long Binh Tay ward in the Dong Nai Province city of Bien Hoa. The first store was part of a wider US$54 million project between Groupe Bourbon and Dong Nai Province. The supermarkets' operator, Espace Bourbon An Lac, is an 80/20 joint venture between the French group and Binh Chanh Construction and Investment Company.

The Espace Bourbon An Lac joint venture has also been licensed to operate a commercial centre on To Hien Thanh Street in HCM City's District 10, which will open in April.

Vietnam News Agency - March 14, 2001.