From seed to fortune: The Chearavanont family’s billion-dollar rise

[ronnie50]

My understanding is there are only a small handfull of families that control the retail and food/grocer industries in Thailand. The two biggest, the above CP family and the creators of the Central Patanna family are at the top of the heap. The latter (I recall) owns all the Central group of shopping centers and department stores, Robinson, Power Buy, Super Sports, Big-C, Tops, (maybe Villa), B2S, Office Mate, Centara Hotels Group, and many other subsidiairies including property development (office and residential), and many others. The other few of that small handful are Bill Heneke who owns Minor Foods (I think that is KFC, Pizza Company, DQ, others), the family behind the Mall Group (Paragom, Em Quartier, and all the other "M" malls). And a few other super-rich like the Chang liquor baron. At the end of the day, it's quite difficult in the major cities to find any real competition other than the above. There is a second tier that is still way up there, like the owners of hospitality chains (e.g. another hotel groups like Dusit,  and food subsidiaries like Tim Hortons). 

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, JimHuaHin said:

You left out exploitation of workers - where do profits come from?

I often speak with staff at my local 7-11 and on my weekly trip to Big C to stock up, none of them say they are being exploited, rather they are happy to have employment.

As are the other mini-shops within or outside of these establishments