Twelve outlets of Big C, the long-standing supermarket brand run by Thailand’s Central Group, has had its brand identity changed after 22 years in Vietnam.

According to the announcement of Central Retail, which is Central Group’s retail subsidiary, seven Big C supermarkets inside apartment buildings were renamed Tops Market, while five Big C hypermarkets were changed to GO!

Among that, three Big C supermarkets inside apartment complexes in Ho Chi Minh City, including Big C An Phu, Big C Thao Dien, and Big C Au Co, were the first to have been relabeled.

Four Big C supermarkets of the same type in Hanoi, including Big C The Garden, Big C Ha Dong, Big C Nguyen Xien, and Big C Le Trong Tan are set to follow suit by the third quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, all five Big C hypermarkets have been rebranded since the end of December last year.

The brand identity change took place nearly five years behind the Thai retail giant’s schedule as the firm had originally planned to do so immediately after its acquisition of Big C Vietnam from France’s Groupe Casino in 2016.

However, the transition was not easy as Big C was a familiar brand name that had given Vietnamese consumers a long-lasting and trustworthy impression.

It also marked the disappearance of the Big C brand after 22 years of existence in Vietnam.

Big C started its presence in Vietnam in 1998 as a subsidiary of Groupe Casino.

In addition to relabeling existing Big C hypermarkets to GO!, Central Retail already built new GO! hypermarkets in My Tho City in Tien Giang Province, Ben Tre City in the namesake province, Tra Vinh City in the namesake province, Buon Ma Thuot City in Dak Lak Province, and Quang Ngai City in the eponymous province last year.

Big C was founded by Central Group in 1993. It has operations in four countries, namely Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

As of 2019, Big C had operated 153 hypermarkets, 63 supermarkets, and 1,018 Mini Big C stores, according to Bangkok Post.