China’s Largest Mass Merchant Turns to Its Own Brands for Growth

Source: Bloomberg News

Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. (6808), China’s largest operator of big-box stores, will boost its own brand offerings and add higher-margin items to increase sales after opening new stores helped raise 2012 profit by half.

China Resources migrating to higher margins

Source: The Asset by Oliver Jones on March 11, 2013 | Photo: China Daily

One important transaction was the October 2009 asset swap agreement that CRE entered into with its parent company China Resources (Holdings) (华润(集团) or CRH).

RT-Mart outperforms world’s leading retailers in China

Source: Want China Times

Taiwan-funded supermarket chain RT-Mart outperformed the world’s top three retailers in terms of the number of newly opened outlets in China in 2012, according to the National Business Daily in Shanghai.

Metro Opens 64th Chinese Outlet In Qingdao

Source: China Retail News

German retail giant Metro AG announced the opening of its 64th Chinese supermarket in Huangdao district of Qingdao, Shandong province.

Promoters Make a Difference in Supermarket Sales

Source: China Daily via CRI

Shopping at supermarkets in China is a constant battle to resist product promotions from young saleswomen, often armed with free samples and dressed in miniskirts.

China Retailer CRE Adopts Rivals’ Western Ways

Source: Wall Street Journal by Laurie Burkitt

BEIJING—Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Carrefour SA sprang into China in the 1990s, disrupting the traditional ways of shopping. But now, local companies, and one conglomerate in particular, are showing how Chinese retailers aren’t only playing catch-up but learning to outfox their foreign megastore rivals.

Tesco Stumbles With Wal-Mart as China Shoppers Buy Local

Source: Bloomberg News

Tesco Plc (TSCO) this week is trying to lure Chinese shoppers with promotions on soy sauce, cooking oil and apples. Emily Zhang still won’t do much of her shopping there.

Reports of Carrefour leaving China untrue: Chamber of Commerce

Source: Want China Times

The China General Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday dismissed reports about French retail chain Carrefour planning to pull out of the country and said the reports were aimed at tarnishing China’s image.

Beijing supermarkets’ H1 profits decrease greatly

Source: By Li Woke (chinadaily.com.cn)

Beijing supermarkets saw their profits slide in the first half of the year, marking the first such decrease in nearly three years.

Tesco closes stores as expansion stutters

Source: By Tang Zhihao and Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)

British retail giant Tesco Plc, the world’s third-largest retailer by sales revenue, confirmed it would close four stores in China, a move to concentrate on its key business regions in the country.