European kitchen retailer Ixina has made its China debut, opening two new stores — one in Beijing and the other in Shanghai.
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Brought to China by Gome Retail, Ixina will sell its wide range of tailored fitted kitchens (fully assembled furniture from German manufacturers) and brand name electric appliances in the two new locations.
Gome Retail will open six more Ixina stores in 2019 including Wuxi and Nanjing for a total of eight by 2020. It then plans to rollout more than 90 stores in the next three years, taking its total China store count to 100.
The market size of kitchen furniture and appliances in China is currently over RMB 400 billion (USD$58 billion), according to Gome Retail.
That figure has been driven up by the Chinese belief that a kitchen is a space to “experience something, make social interactions and maintain affection ties,” added Gome Retail in a statement.
Wang Junzhou, President of Gome Retail said that selling individual products is far from meeting new consumption habits, and package solutions are more popular.
Chinese consumers are also placing a higher priority on kitchen quality, Junzhou added
Founded in 1987, Gome Retail is a leading retail chain operator in China that offers consumers quality home appliances, decoration, furniture and services.
The company has more than 2,100 stores in 630 Chinese cities.
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Ixina is an international kitchen retail network founded in Belgium more then 45 years ago. The chain has 170 stores globally in markets such as Belgium, France, Algeria, China, Morocco, Tunisia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Poland.