China, important world purchasing base: Carrefour

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 29, 2003

China, important world purchasing base: Carrefour

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Although Carrefour has already become a household name in China, the Europe's biggest and world's second largest retail giant still worked hard to create an attractive exhibition booth in hopes of drawing more attention at the ongoing Second China International Consumer Goods Fair.

The booth of Carrefour, covering 90 square meters, is at the most eye-catching location of the exhibition hall.

"We hope our exhibition booth will attract more domestic businessmen who intend to sell their products to Europe and even the whole world through Carrefour's sales channel," said a staff of Carrefour.

In 2002, Carrefour purchased a variety of products worth of 1.6 billion US dollars in China, making up 66 percent of its whole purchasing volume. And through Carrefour's sales network in Europe, South America and Asia covers more than 30 countries and regions, an increasing number of Chinese products are becoming known by customers all over the world.

Zhang Yiguang, public relations manager of the Carrefour Global Purchasing Center (China) said Chinese products are welcomed all over the world, because they are of high quality and at a reasonable price.

He added that half of the world's consumers buy China-made TVs and shoes. In Carrefour's stores, about 60 to 70 percent of goods are made in China.

China is not only an important purchasing base for Carrefour, but also for other internationally famous retail giants, such as Auchan and Metro.

In the last two years, the product purchasing volume of Carrefour, Auchan and Metro in China all increased by more than 20percent annually.

The France-based retail group Auchan, a global top 10 retail giant, invested 10 million euros to set up a purchasing center in China last year in a bid to simplify the product circulating procedures and further localize its product purchasing business.

Nowadays, about 47 percent of Auchan's goods are purchased in China and the retail giant expects to annually purchase Chinese products worth of 300 million euros in 2006.

Yan Haiyun, public relations manager for the Auchan Asian purchasing center, said that the marketing strategy of Auchan has now shifted from Europe to Asia, especially China.

Also in last year, Carrefour set up its global purchasing China headquarters in Shanghai and now its purchasing network covers most areas of China. Carrefour has opened business with more than 600 Chinese enterprises and sells many Chinese products in the international market.

According to Zhang, Carrefour will further expand its purchasing in China in the near future, as China continues to remove export quota limits on the light industry and textile industry.

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