SUNING Appliance Co plans to shift its focus to bigger stores in the next three to five years in Shanghai to target rising consumption.
Company officials said yesterday that the retailer will open four stores in major commercial centers with their sizes more than doubling those of its average outlets.
Ling Guosheng, vice president of Suning Appliance, said the group will diversify by selling home-improvement products, interior-vehicle decorations and sports equipment.
"The development of Metro lines has enabled stores to cover consumers within a five to 10-kilometer radius, compared to a three-kilometer radius before," said Ling.
One of the four stores is in the Xujiahui commercial center and will be opened later this month with a floor space of 10,000 square meters. The store is close to United States retailer Best Buy's only and largest Asian outlet and a 1,900-square-meter Gome store, which is still being decorated. Gome officials yesterday wouldn't give an opening date for the store.
Another two Suning stores - one covering 8,000 square meters and the other 18,000 square meters - will be opened in September in Pudong. The last, with a floor space of almost 20,000 square meters, will be opened in Hongkou District in October.
The Nanjing retailer will start selling home appliance-related products such as clotheshorses in one of the Pudong outlets.
Suning, the nation's second-biggest home appliance chain, aims to have 50 stores in Shanghai by the end of this year. It now has 38.
Besides the four flagship-sized stores to be opened, the retailer is also in talks for another two to three locations of similar size.
The 18,000-square-meter Changning store, its regional headquarters, generated a sales increase of 52 percent year on year in the first seven months of 2007.
If the expansion plan works out, Suning's store numbers may catch up with its rival Gome Appliance. Gome runs 45 outlets in Shanghai. Company spokesman Chang Shuning declined to give details of its expansion plans.
Yolo stores, now owned by Gome Appliance after its acquisition of China Paradise Electronics, aims to have 150 stores in Shanghai by the end of this year to stay No. 1 in its home market. Shanghai's first-half retail sales jumped 14.2 percent from a year earlier to 188.75 billion yuan (US$24.91 billion).