Latest / The Retail Podcast / NRF APAC 2025 Soundbite: Panchalee Weeratammawat on Retail’s Human Core

Transcript

NRF APAC 2025 Soundbite: Panchalee Weeratammawat on Retail’s Human Core · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  And there's so many impressive sessions.
• 0:02
  Actually one of the, the, the, the, the makers one that I
• 0:06
  really like is the, the session that the fair price, that the
• 0:09
  morning session, the fair price CEO talking about, you know, the
• 0:13
  latte CEO. I think that's fantastic.
• 0:25
  Hello and welcome back to the Retail Podcast.
• 0:27
  Now I'm joined by one of the Executive Board members of NRF,
• 0:32
  Panjali from the Central Group. Have I got that right?
• 0:34
  Yeah. My name is Panjali.
• 0:36
  May I? May I?
• 0:36
  I was just introducing myself and my name is Panjali Virata
• 0:40
  Mahwat. I'm Chief People Officer of
• 0:41
  Central Retail. It's part of Central Group.
• 0:44
  Yeah, I, I was reading about it. It sounds before I get to the
• 0:47
  rule, What, what, what can you tell us about because this is
• 0:50
  in, is it Thailand? Yes, we operate in three
• 0:53
  countries actually, Thailand, Vietnam and Italy.
• 0:56
  Centre Retail has the multiple sort of business unit, diverse
• 0:59
  business portfolio. We have fashion, food, you know,
• 1:03
  brands, brands and specialty stores, you know, hotlines, you
• 1:07
  know all of those. Well, whole series of retail.
• 1:10
  And in Thailand we have about 60,000 employees, Vietnam we
• 1:13
  have about 15,000 employees and in Italy we have a few thousand.
• 1:17
  So all together almost 80,000 employees.
• 1:20
  That's. Right.
• 1:20
  That's phenomenal. And you're responsible for all
• 1:22
  of them. That's a big family.
• 1:25
  What I'd really love to know from an NRF perspective is
• 1:28
  what's been top of mind for retailers coming to the show.
• 1:31
  Right. Well, I think for me retailer is
• 1:35
  typically, you know, it's a very dynamic involving business
• 1:38
  anywhere and it is the industry where we really have to keep up.
• 1:42
  And not just that as a big retailer you have to really
• 1:44
  sometime dominate the stage, right.
• 1:46
  You have to really be one step ahead of the consumer.
• 1:49
  You have to lead their behaviours.
• 1:50
  The thing, you know, what we expect would be would be
• 1:53
  obviously, you know, understanding what's going on
• 1:56
  out there, you know, outside of our country, you know, what's
• 1:58
  the trend of the, of the industry and innovation.
• 2:02
  I think, you know, you'll have a fantastic mood and exhibition of
• 2:07
  all of the technology companies. You know, a lot of innovation
• 2:13
  out there that you can really take a look at.
• 2:15
  And I, I think that's really what we're looking for.
• 2:18
  Fantastic. And I'm just curious on you,
• 2:20
  you've probably been meeting so many people.
• 2:23
  What's your takeaways from day one or NRF?
• 2:25
  Right. I there's so many impressive
• 2:29
  sessions. Actually one of the the the, the
• 2:33
  biggest one that I really like is the the session that the fair
• 2:36
  price, that the morning session, the fair price CEO talking
• 2:39
  about, you know, the Lotte CEOI think that's fantastic.
• 2:42
  Primarily, I think the key take away from me would be retail,
• 2:46
  you know is the business where we have to keep listening to our
• 2:49
  customers, our employees and they have to go hand in hand.
• 2:52
  And I think, you know, employees must be happy so that they can
• 2:57
  really look after the customers. And I think all of these has to
• 3:00
  be, you know, an ecosystem that would be sustainable so that we
• 3:04
  can really supporting our customers and then they will,
• 3:07
  you know, appreciate, you know, coming back to our stores.
• 3:10
  Anjali, that's I don't want to take any more of your time up.
• 3:12
  So I've been super grateful. Thank you so much.
• 3:14
  It's really a pleasure to meet you.
• 3:15
  Thank you. Likewise appreciate that.
• 3:19
  Thank. You bye.