The Metro Group, the world's fourth-largest retailer, plans to more than double the number of its stores in China, in an effort to compensate for declining sales in its home base of Germany.
Chief executive Hans-Joachim Koerber said yesterday his company would have 23 cash-and-carry stores in China by the end of this year and add an additional 40 in the next few years, mostly in second-tier cities open to foreign companies under the country's commitments to the World Trade Organisation.
'Our medium-term goal is about 10 per cent of Metro Cash & Carry revenues in Asia, most of them in China. It is one of our fastest-growing markets, after Russia,' he said.
Last year the company's sales in China were Euro517 million (HK$5.1 billion), out of global sales of Euro53.6 billion, of which 47.2 per cent were outside Germany, up from 46.3 per cent in 2002. Sales in Asia grew 7.2 per cent and in east Europe 7 per cent, with operations in 30 countries, as it sought to reduce its dependence on its home market. It is investing two-thirds of its capital spending abroad.
Metro is the world's No4 retailer, after Wal-Mart, Carrefour and financially troubled Royal Ahold, which it is trying to unseat.
In China, it has invested more than Euro350 million in 23 stores with a total selling space of 155,000 square metres, 5,200 employees and two million customers.
