Metro, Germany’s biggest retailer and among the biggest in the world by sales, surprised the market last week by announcing a new corporate structure that splits wholesale retail unit Cash & Carry into two business units: Europe and Mature Markets, and Asia and New Markets. Metro said at the time that the new structure integrates Cash & Carry’s administrative functions with Metro’s and will help accelerate international expansion in the medium term.
CEO Eckhard Cordes told a press briefing on Wednesday the group aims to "substantially" increase the number of new store openings in 2010, with the focus on Asia and Eastern Europe. To this end, the retailer said it has lifted its investment budget to EUR1.9 billion (USD2.57 billion) from EUR1.5 billion (USD2.03 billion) in 2009. In 2009, it opened 80 new stores.
Cordes told reporters that "China is in the spotlight". Metro said earlier this year it plans to open its first Media Markt outlets in Shanghai in September and sees the potential for more than 100 stores in China by 2015.
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