By the end of the 1980s, the growing CP empire had already produced some $4 billion in revenues. Yet a
significant part of that figure no longer came from the group's core food interests but from its increasingly
diversified operations. The company's entry into the restaurant sector came in 1988 with the launch of
Chester's Grill. That same year, CP launched its own supermarket group, Makro, which quickly became a
leader in Thailand's retail sector. The following year, CP entered the dairy market, partnering with Japan's
Meiji group to launch the CP Meiji line of dairy foods for the Thai market. The company also added
convenience stores that year, gaining the Thai franchise for the 7-11 retail format. The company quickly
began building that format into a national chain, adding as many as 20 stores each month and reaching a
total of 1,000 by the end of the 1990s.