Shanghai, July 9 - Privately held French supermarket group Auchan SA plans to double the number of its stores in China in two years, accelerating expansion in the world's fastest-growing major consumer market, a company official said.
Auchan, which currently runs 17 stores in China, will add as many as eight outlets this year and 10 next year, mostly in Beijing and affluent coastal regions around Shanghai, the French company's China spokesman Zheng Jichang said on Monday.
"We'll aggressively expand in east China where people have high incomes," Zheng said.
Auchan lags French rival Carrefour SA and U.S. retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in expanding in the world's fourth-largest economy, where retail sales grew about 10 percent annually in the past decade.
Auchan on average opened two stores a year in the past eight years, Zheng said. Its China sales jumped 32 percent to 6.2 billion yuan ($775 million) in 2006.
"Now, as Auchan's business is on the right track and there is adequate well-trained local talent, we're ready to grow much faster," he said.