Central Pattana takes home three wins at Retail Asia Awards 2024

Its successful performance in the past year has been driven by the strong leadership of its CEO Wallaya Chirathivat.

Thailand’s leading retail & property developer triumphed at the coveted Retail Asia Awards 2024 with three major accolades for its successful welcome of global brands’ “first-ever” store in Thailand, its partnership with online travel agent platform Klook for various marketing projects, as well as the remarkable performance of its CEO Wallaya Chirathivat.

Wallaya, the chief executive of Central Pattana, has continuously created a retail phenomenon along her career, with her sharp and clairvoyant vision named “Imagining Better Future For All” having been implemented in every function. 

With her expertise and dedication in retail and real estate, she has been the key driving force for the company to launch 42 shopping malls, including Central World, as well as other projects including 17 community malls, 43 residential projects, 10 hotels, and 10 office buildings.

Central Pattana’s revenue has seen its highest record under Wallaya’s leadership in 2023 at US$1,300m, together with the highest profit at US$420m, a 26% and 40% increase against its 2022 numbers, respectively. The company has also won many local and international awards, reflecting Wallaya’s outstanding management.

Under her leadership, the continuous development and expansion of the company both in the key cities and other potential cities in upcountry, with its average investment of over US$610m annually, has been the key driver of Thailand’s economy. More than 120,000 new employment opportunities have also been offered nationwide due to the company’s performance.

Wallaya’s unwavering commitment and outstanding expertise that have led to the various achievements gained by Central Pattana and Central World has been recognised by the prestigious awards programme, as she wins the CEO of the Year.

A global lifestyle landmark
Best known as the “largest lifestyle shopping and dining destination in Asia,” Central World features over 500 stores and attracts over 150,000 footfall traffic from both local & international visitors daily. It is always being selected by many global brands to open their first stores in Thailand due to its superb location and marketing strategy.

In 2023, it welcomed plenty of brands for their first-ever store, such as Lululemon, On Running Official Store, and AAPE; as well as globally famous restaurants like Shake Shack, The Cheesecake Factory, Mak’s Noodle, and Canton Paradise.

Central World also acts as an experience curator that caters more than 1,000 events along the year, aiming to excite and inspire both local and international visitors alike. It has also launched some of its campaigns in partnership with many global brands such as Tinder and Hermes Fit.

This successful performance has brought Central World the Mall of the Year - Thailand category win in the prestigious awards programme.

Given its distinct success in initiating marketing projects, it has partnered with Klook in 2022 upon the former’s anticipation of the importance of online travel agents as a significant channel in its expansion of market reach and enhancement of industry presence.

Furthermore, Central World has redirected its focus towards Asian markets due to the unpredictability of Chinese inbound tourism in 2023. This has worked perfectly amidst the majority of Klook users being Asian and the prioritisation of the mall’s strategy of creating a tourist hub in the establishment.

The partnership has led to the opening of the Klook Lounge at Central World, which offers visitors an area designed for various travel-related functions such as downtown counters, drop-off points for shuttle services and tourist locations, and e-voucher selling for shops, amongst others.

In addition to collaboration with partners like Klook, Central World also consistently launches marketing campaigns for international tourists. One standout campaign that has gone viral, particularly in the Chinese customers market, is the campaign that stimulates Chinese customers to share their experience at Central World via Xiaohongshu, the most popular social media best known for its user generated content in China. With the deep insight regarding customer’s preference, Central World has implemented the most cost effective marketing campaign by giving away an elephant coin purse from Good Goods brand to its international customer. Apart from being Thailand’s national animal, an elephant considered as an auspicious animal in Chinese culture. This campaign can generate free media from Key Opinion Consumers (KOC) over 5,000 posts per month. 

“This success is attributed to [the] marketing team's ability to develop projects based on insights into customer segments and objectives which aim to enhance many aspects related to traffic, spending, and most importantly customer experiences,” the company said.

Central World has received the Marketing Initiative of the Year - Thailand category win for this initiative.

Retail Asia Awards honours companies that have recently launched innovative retail projects or initiatives, as well as industry leaders that have propelled their respective brands to maintain a competitive edge.

The Retail Asia Awards is presented by Retail Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's exceptional products or initiatives in the Retail industry, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].