Advertisement

KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Aeon Co (M) Bhd expects its retail business to be only impacted minimally this year amid the sluggish retail market due to a slowing economy and Covid-19.

Aeon Retail Malaysia managing director and chief executive officer Shafie Shamsuddin said the group’s outlets are not frequented by tourists and therefore would not be badly affected by the outbreak.

“Our outlets and premises have a good balance of customers. The group’s hardline and fashion items have seen a slight dip in sales but these have been mitigated by the groceries and supermarket businesses.

“We also saw a hike in grocery sales in early February in south region stores, particularly from Singaporean customers,” he told reporters at the launch of Aeon’s “Raikan 101 hari bersama Aeon - sama-sama lagi best” campaign here today.

According to him, the company remains optimistic about at least maintaining last year’s profitability, if not better.

He said the group, besides investing on making sure that customers feel safe while shopping, is looking for growth opportunities such as in the home delivery business, considering the change in consumer purchasing behaviour.

In the past, he said, most retailers generally focus on the supply chain model. However, the change in behaviour is causing a move towards the demand side; hence the need to relook at the strategy.

Shafie said Aeon’s home delivery business is currently small, but daily home delivery business sales have increased by about 40 per cent in the past two to three months.

On the stimulus package to mitigate the economic risks arising from Covid-19, he noted that the government is doing its best but there is still room for improvement.

“Instead of giving more savings to businesses, probably giving more cash to customers could help in domestic consumption.

“The government should also look into small and medium enterprises’ cash flow as they are badly impacted,” he said.

On the “Raikan 101 hari” campaign, Shafie said it is an integrated collaboration between Aeon Co, Aeon Big and Aeon Credit Services. The campaign, which will run from March 20 to June 28, is aimed at offering customers big savings and value-added services.

Meanwhile, AEON, in an effort to ease customers’ concerns over Covid-19, has set aside RM1.2 million to undertake major sanitisation and cleaning initiatives throughout its retail outlets apart from the day-to-day cleaning.

“It is our responsibility to keep our customers and business partners safe from the outbreak, while at the same time spurring customer spending to drive up the economy,” he added.

Source: https://www.malaymail.com/news/money/2020/03/12/covid-19-aeon-malaysia-sees-minimal-effect-on-retail/1845806