UK supermarket chain Tesco has signed a deal to open three shopping centres in China. The new outlets will be located in the cities of Shenyang, Xiamen and Fuzhou. Each store will house a Tesco hypermarket as its anchor tenant. The property venture between Tesco and Metro Holdings in Singapore is said to be worth £170 million. Metro Holdings operates department stores and specialty stores in Indonesia and Singapore.
Tesco already operates 93 Tesco hypermarkets and four Lifespan branded shopping centres in China. This new investment comes hot on the tails of the French grocery giant Carrefour being blacklisted by authorities for price differentiation in some of its Chinese stores. With the China Daily now reporting that Carrefour in China has been inflating its sales figures by reselling products to intermediate distributors at a discount, it seems this could be the perfect time for Tesco to take advantage of the giant's demise in the booming Asian country. (2 Mar)
© 2011 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
