OBI moves Asian hub to Shenzhen

The German retailer takes 60 jobs with it across the border

OBI, one of the world's largest Do-It-Yourself retailers, will relocate its Asia sourcing centre and 60 jobs from Hong Kong to Shenzhen next year, as the special economic zone cements its status as one of the top procurement hubs for global retailing chains.

The German retail giant's new regional sourcing centre would procure products for its more than 7,000 global retail outlets, OBI Asia president and chief executive Li Fengjiang said yesterday at the China (Shenzhen) Consumer Goods Procurement Fair. The trade fair has attracted scores of retailers from Hong Kong and overseas, along with hundreds of mainland companies.

Matthew Zhang, OBI Asia's vice-president for merchandising and logistics, said: 'Shenzhen is indispensable to our marketing strategy. We have to minimise our procurement costs and maximise the benefit for our customers in terms of reduced prices.'

He said relocating OBI's sourcing centre to Shenzhen was desirable given the Pearl River Delta's emergence as 'the world's workshop'. 'Continuing to conduct business from Hong Kong is not ideal. We prefer getting closer to suppliers in China. From Shenzhen, it is much easier for us to expand our sourcing coverage to other cities [in the delta],' Mr Zhang said.

OBI's procurement activities in Shenzhen account for 40 per cent of products sourced by its Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific unit, which in turn is responsible for 80 per cent of the group's global sourcing operations. OBI sources more than US$150 million worth of products from China annually.