Japan’s largest drugstore operator, Matsumotokiyoshi, will open a store in Bangkok this week, its first abroad, and a second one by the end of the year, the head of the company’s new joint venture here said Tuesday.

“We are confident to be successful here,” Junichi Tateno, chief executive officer of Central & Matsumoto Kiyoshi Corp., a joint venture between Matsumotokiyoshi Holdings Co. and Thailand’s Central Food Retail Corp., told a press conference.

He cited Thailand’s status as Southeast Asia’s leading health-and-beauty market, worth 85 billion baht ($2.4 billion), and one that has been growing steadily despite periods of political instability.

Credit and view full story at The Japan Times