China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990
Suning to boost China stores 34%
January 14, 2010
Suning Appliance will increase stores by over a third this year because it is very optimistic about the market.
President Sun Weimin said, “The worst-case scenario for the economy didn’t materialize and the best of times have yet to arrive, so there’s vast room for growth. We still aren’t as entrenched in our store network in China and we want to plug those holes.”
The retailer, with 885 stores as of September, is competing for an electronics and appliances market worth $166 billion.
Suning, based in Nanjing, eastern China, plans to open about 200 outlets in smaller towns and cities, and 100 shops in rural areas.
BusinessWeek reported Chairman Zhang Jindong established Suning in Nanjing in 1990 initially as an air-conditioner wholesaler, and opened its first retail chain store six years later. Zhang, a Chinese literature major from Nanjing Normal University, was ranked 234 among the world’s billionaires by Forbes magazine in 2009, with a net worth of $2.7 billion.