New World Development's retailing arm, New World Department Stores, will today open a new store in the port city of Ningbo as part of an aggressive expansion in second-tier mainland cities.
The five-storey unit, with 10,000 square metres of sales area, is Ningbo's first department store invested and managed by a foreign retailer.
Located in the city's commercial district, the outlet is New World's sixth mainland department store since opening its first in Wuhan in 1994. It also operates in Harbin, Shenyang, Tianjin and Wuxi.
A Beijing department store is planned for June with outlets in Dalian and Qingdao scheduled to come on line next year.
Fashion and accessories dominate the Ningbo outlet, and unlike most other department stores, electrical appliances are absent.
New World Department Stores merchandising and marketing director Johanna Lau said household appliances were less important when starting a department store because the market was already saturated.
'Customers for electrical appliances will be too few, not making enough revenues for the store to carry a wide range of products. Profitability cannot be justified.