Wal-Mart, Carrefour see bumper sales

Supermarket retailers Wal-Mart and Carrefour enjoyed surging sales in China last year on the back of new store openings, Bloomberg reported. Carrefour saw sales rise 53% to US$3.2 billion, while Wal-Mart posted a 30% gain to reach US$1.9 billion. According to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, Carrefour is now the country's fifth-largest retailer with Wal-Mart in 10th place. Lianhua Supermarket Holdings leads the way, recording sales of US$5.7 billion in 2006. Wal-Mart has since bought Trust-Mart, which could see it double its number of stores in China, currently 68. Carrefour expanded its network of hypermarkets by 50% last year to 95, and plans to open 20 new hypermarkets per year in the country. China's retail sales grew 14% to US$770 billion in 2006, according to official figures. Credit Suisse expects the country's share of global consumer spending to almost triple to 14.1% by 2015.