Julien Tessonneau leaves Central Food Retail, Thailand’s largest grocery retailer and a subsidiary of Central Retail (2021 turnover of US$5.89 billion, with 20% of sales online). He becomes Senior Director Quick Commerce for the Asia Pacific region at the food delivery specialist Foodpanda. Acquired by the German company Delivery Hero in 2016, Foodpanda manages 300 darks stores and operates express deliveries for 50,000 restaurants and retail stores.
It is active in 11 countries including Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines. Asia is a strategic region for Delivery Hero: it accounts for 65% of the total business (in GMV). Although far from profitable, Delivery Hero reached a turnover of US$6.64 billion last year.
Moving from retail to quick commerce is an almost “natural” step for Mr. Tessonneau. This French expatriate, trained in La Rochelle and an expert in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and e-commerce, joined Cdiscount in 2009, before moving to Bangkok in 2016 to take over the Asian marketing department of Cdiscount. At the time, Casino withdrew from Thailand and Cdiscount Thailand was of part the conglomerate TCC Group. One of his first missions as VP e-commerce of this local player, was to “rebrand” Cdiscount Thailand into Cmart.
Appointed head of e-commerce, omnichannel and digital at Central Food Retail in 2018, Tessonneau increased the group’s food e-commerce turnover tenfold. He launched an express delivery offering by leveraging partners like Grab and Foodpanda. The new Senior Director Quick Commerce of PandaFood Asia therefore knows the industry in detail and how to drive online profitability.
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