Carrefour opened its fifth store in Beijing Wednesday after three years of dormancy in new store openings

The new outlet, in the newly developed Zhongguancun West District, will be the French retailer's flagship store in Asia.

With floor space of 11,600 square meters, much bigger than any other Carrefour store in the country, the latest outlet is comparable to Carrefour hypermarkets in Europe in terms of layout and such aspects as food safety and environmental hygiene, according to company sources.

"The new store is very important for us, as it is located in a high-technology area that is gathering a large number of IT enterprises and white-collar workers, as well as college students," said Jean-Luc Chereau, president of Carrefour China. "I hope it will be a good beginning for our growth in the area."

As an area that lacks big shopping centers and supermarkets, Zhongguancun is attracting more foreign retailers.

PriceSmart, one of Carrefour's major rivals, also plans to open its N-Mart Supercenter in the area this year.

In the wake of the Zhongguancun Plaza store's opening, one or two more Carrefour stores will also be opened in Beijing this year.

An outlet in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, will open soon, according to the company.

The openings are an obvious sign that Carrefour has begun to speed its expansion in the country after two and a half years of restructuring.

Entering the Chinese market in 1995, the retailer infringed upon regulations governing foreign retailers about three years ago.

It was then ordered to sell down its shares to the regulated 65 percent limit to local partners.

During the past two years, Carrefour has not been allowed to open a new store. It had first to restructure its existing outlets.

"Through two-and-a-half years of effort, we have completed our revamp in China, and now we are heading into a fast-growth period for the country," Chereau said.

Company sources said Carrefour plans to open more than a dozen new stores around the country this year.

Last month, Carrefour opened two hypermarkets in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and east China's Shanghai Municipality.

With more foreign retailers gaining a foothold in China as the country lifts its limits on the industry, Carrefour is eager to expand and accumulate a greater market share, say analysts.

China, in accordance with its commitments to the World Trade Organization, will lift regional limitations on foreign chain retail operators by year's end.

All restrictions on foreign retailers will be removed by 2007, when China's chain retail market will be fully opened.

But earlier this month, some 100 deputies submitted a proposal to the 10th National People's Congress, suggesting legislation on a hearing system for the opening of hypermarkets.

Industry experts say the proposal apparently targets the expansion plans of foreign-funded stores like Carrefour.

However, Chereau is not concerned.

"We can deal with the international trade concept, we are also able to deal with local ones, and I believe consumers will decide what they would have," he said confidently.

The French retailer ranked first among foreign supermarkets last year, with annual revenues of 13.4 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion), according to the China General Chamber of Commerce.

(China Daily March 18, 2004)