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

Recorded live at NRF APAC 2025, this short soundbite features Panchalee Weeratammawat, Chief People Officer of Central Retail. With nearly 80,000 employees across Thailand, Vietnam, and Italy, Panchalee shares what’s top of mind for retail leaders in Asia today.

Key Highlights:

• Why employee happiness drives customer loyalty

• Retail’s evolving role: from reactive to behavior-shaping

• What stood out on Day 1 of NRF APAC 2025

  
  

A quick yet powerful insight into the human side of global retail transformation.

She unpacks why great retail begins with engaged employees, and how listening—both to teams and customers—is the secret to building long-term trust and sustainable growth.

Panchalee Weeratammawat

Chief People Officer, Central Retail

🧑‍💼 Guest Name & Title

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And there's so many impressive sessions.
Actually one of the, the, the, the, the makers one that I
really like is the, the session that the fair price, that the
morning session, the fair price CEO talking about, you know, the
latte CEO. I think that's fantastic.

(00:25):
Hello and welcome back to the Retail Podcast.
Now I'm joined by one of the Executive Board members of NRF,
Panjali from the Central Group. Have I got that right?
Yeah. My name is Panjali.
May I? May I?
I was just introducing myself and my name is Panjali Virata
Mahwat. I'm Chief People Officer of
Central Retail. It's part of Central Group.
Yeah, I, I was reading about it.It sounds before I get to the

(00:47):
rule, What, what, what can you tell us about because this is
in, is it Thailand? Yes, we operate in three
countries actually, Thailand, Vietnam and Italy.
Centre Retail has the multiple sort of business unit, diverse
business portfolio. We have fashion, food, you know,
brands, brands and specialty stores, you know, hotlines, you
know all of those. Well, whole series of retail.

(01:10):
And in Thailand we have about 60,000 employees, Vietnam we
have about 15,000 employees and in Italy we have a few thousand.
So all together almost 80,000 employees.
That's. Right.
That's phenomenal. And you're responsible for all
of them. That's a big family.
What I'd really love to know from an NRF perspective is
what's been top of mind for retailers coming to the show.

(01:31):
Right. Well, I think for me retailer is
typically, you know, it's a verydynamic involving business
anywhere and it is the industry where we really have to keep up.
And not just that as a big retailer you have to really
sometime dominate the stage, right.
You have to really be one step ahead of the consumer.
You have to lead their behaviours.
The thing, you know, what we expect would be would be

(01:53):
obviously, you know, understanding what's going on
out there, you know, outside of our country, you know, what's
the trend of the, of the industry and innovation.
I think, you know, you'll have afantastic mood and exhibition of
all of the technology companies.You know, a lot of innovation
out there that you can really take a look at.

(02:15):
And I, I think that's really what we're looking for.
Fantastic. And I'm just curious on you,
you've probably been meeting so many people.
What's your takeaways from day one or NRF?
Right. I there's so many impressive
sessions. Actually one of the the the, the
biggest one that I really like is the the session that the fair

(02:36):
price, that the morning session,the fair price CEO talking
about, you know, the Lotte CEOI think that's fantastic.
Primarily, I think the key take away from me would be retail,
you know is the business where we have to keep listening to our
customers, our employees and they have to go hand in hand.
And I think, you know, employeesmust be happy so that they can

(02:57):
really look after the customers.And I think all of these has to
be, you know, an ecosystem that would be sustainable so that we
can really supporting our customers and then they will,
you know, appreciate, you know, coming back to our stores.
Anjali, that's I don't want to take any more of your time up.
So I've been super grateful. Thank you so much.
It's really a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you. Likewise appreciate that.

(03:19):
Thank. You bye.