Best Buy closes branded stores to grow Five Star Appliance chain

Best Buy, the world's largest consumer electronics retailer, will close all nine of its branded stores in China and concentrate on the profitable domestic chain it acquired in 2006.

The Minnesota-based retailing giant said it was shutting down the Best Buy stores in the country as they were doing poorly. Instead, it plans to open up to 50 branches of its Five Star Appliance chain, which it bought five years ago, by February next year, as part of efforts to 'refocus on the profitable retail platform'.

The company announced the appointment of Five Star co-founder Wang Jian as global vice-president of Best Buy and chief executive of Five Star yesterday.

Some market observers said Best Buy had missed the opportunity to challenge rivals such as Suning Appliance and Gome Electrical Appliances, the two largest home appliance retailers in China.

'The biggest mistake that Best Buy made in China was its slow pace of expansion,' said Zuo Yingjie, the chief executive of All3c.com, the country's largest consumer appliance shopping portal.

Best Buy formally entered China in June 2006, when it bought Jiangsu-based Five Star, the fourth-biggest operator in the market, which then had 136 stores, mainly in the Yangtze River Delta area. Five Star has 168 stores.