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  • China’s LeEco to enter Indian market with flagship Le Max and Le 1s smartphones

    China’s LeEco to enter Indian market with flagship Le Max and Le 1s smartphones

    LeEco, the Chinese entertainment giant formerly known as Letv, is bidding to become a top brand in India’s fast-growing smartphone market with the release of two handsets next month through leading online retail partner Flipkart.

    Its 6.3-inch flagship Le Max will go on sale on February 16, two weeks after the 5.5-inch mid-range Le 1s becomes available to whet consumers’ appetites. LeEco said that due to limited supply it will initially provide just 60,000 units of the Le 1s. Both will only be available online.

    “India is our new destination, our top priority and new home to all our smart products,” said Mok Tsui-tin, chief executive for LeEco Asia-Pacific, at a launch event in Gurgaon in Haryana state earlier this week.

    Addressing a crowd of about 1,000 in the city, located just south of New Delhi, Mok said India has the largest young population in the world, which will drive the switch from traditional feature phones to smartphones.

    Atul Jain, chief operating officer of smart electronics business for LeEco India, presented the two handsets to the enthusiastic crowd.

    Jain is a former senior vice president at Samsung Electronics’ South West Asia regional headquarters.

    Both phones will be sold exclusively at leading online retailer Flipkart, which it claimed to be the largest online retailer in India.

    “Every one in five smartphones sold in India today is from Flipkart,” said Ankit Nagori, chief business officer of Flipkart.

    LeEco announced deals with Eros International, a major Indian film production and distribution company that posted annual revenue of more than US$230 million in 2014, to run its content on LeEco’s website.

    It also partnered with US-based streaming content provider YuppTV, which mainly provides local Indian content.

    LeEco said content from both companies would be available during the second quarter of 2016.

    Le Max and Le 1s were both released in China in 2015. LeEco said it sells smartphones at prices below cost, a tactic to attract more subscribers to its streaming service.

    The retail prices in India are close to those in China. The Le Max will cost 32,999 rupees (US$485) for a model with 64GB memory and 35,999 rupess for the 128GB version. The Le 1s will retail for 10,999 rupees.

    The company will also build a research centre in Bangalore, India’s technology centre, later this year. Mok said LeEco plans to recruit around 1,000 local staff to support the localization of LeEco’s product.

    “As our businesses and operations are landing in the country, [this] will require a large number of talented staff,” said Mok.

    LeEco will also bring its smart television to India this year along with a wide array of products such as a virtual reality headset, smart bicycle and other accessories , according to its spokesperson.

    LeEco is one of many Chinese smartphone makers entering the emerging South Asian market and is likely to face competition with its peers. China’s computer maker Lenovo and popular smartphone maker Xiaomi are already top brands in India.

    According to Flipkart, Motorola’s Moto G is the most popular smartphone on the shopping site. The brand is owned by China’s Lenovo Group. Xiaomi’s Redmi Prime and Lenovo brand’s K3 note occupy second and third place.

    LeEco runs a major streaming website in China and also sells smartphones and TVs. It earned nearly 4 billion yuan (US$607.7 million) in the third quarter of 2015, representing more than 100 per cent growth from the same period last year.

    The company announced this month another partnership with electric car start-up Faraday Future, which is building a US$10 billion factory in the US, its home market.

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  • Online sellers turn Southeast Asia retail industry upside down

    Online sellers turn Southeast Asia retail industry upside down

    Here’s how bad it is in Southeast Asia’s retail industry for sellers. 

    They are paying more to borrow money to keep their business going than consumers do to keep buying from them.

    Courts Asia Ltd., which offers shoppers zero percent long-term credit on higher-end products, has seen its Singapore dollar bond yields rise 28 basis points to 4.34 percent in the past six months and is trying to refinance the note ahead of its May repayment, Bloomberg reports.

    The yield on US currency bonds of Parkson Retail Group Ltd., part of a Malaysian retailer which operates across Southeast Asia, has soared 320 basis points to 10.21 percent.

    Sagging global growth and rising household debt is knocking consumer demand across Southeast Asia, with Indonesian phone seller PT Trikomsel Oke in November becoming the first company to default on Singapore dollar bonds since 2009.

    Retailers that borrowed to finance growth are also losing ground to online market places like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

    The median debt load of the region’s retailers rose to 1.75 times operating profit in latest filings compared with 1.3 at the end of fiscal 2014.

    “I have been very careful about some local currency corporate bonds,” said Singapore-based Desmond Soon, co-head of investment management for Asia at Western Asset Management Co., which had US$446 billion under management at Sept. 30 and held Courts Asia bonds as of Nov. 30.

    “Bricks and mortar retailers do have an issue,” Soon said.

    Retail store sales in Singapore dropped for a third month in November, falling 2 percent from a year earlier, Department of Statistics data show.

    Meanwhile, online transactions in the region are growing.

    Singapore Post Ltd.’s domestic e-commerce orders in Southeast Asia and Australia rose 384 percent in the 12 months through November, according to a company presentation.

    Courts Asia, which sells goods from electronics to home furniture in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, began meeting investors last week ahead of its scheduled S$125 million (US$87.1 million) repayment of notes in May. It’s looking to raise funds to help refinance and repay the bond, Courts’s Singapore-based spokeswoman Tammy Teo said.

     

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  • SingPost fuses e-commerce businesses to form global commerce enabler

    SingPost fuses e-commerce businesses to form global commerce enabler

    It plans to further widen its US logistics footprint.

    The Postman is putting its eCommerce business on laser focus as it integrates its logistics limbs TradeGlobal and Jagged Peak to further expand its eCommerce logistics footprint in the US, the largest retail market in the world.

    According to a press release by Singapore Post, the resulting product from the integration would be SP Commerce, a global commerce enabler for brands and retailers.

    SingPost says SP Commerce is a pioneering project in omni-channel enablement for global brands and retailers, and will provide customers easy access to eCommerce markets around the world.

    “The solutions that SP Commerce offer include end-to-end services spanning webstore development and operations, global fulfilment, omni-channel order management, cross-border commerce, performance marketing, and customer care services,” SingPost said.

    Additionally, SingPost said it now provides end-to-end eCommerce logistics solutions to more than 100 mono-brands including Adidas and Calvin Klein.

     

  • Martell embarks on Legendary Journeys in Asia Travel Retail

    Martell embarks on Legendary Journeys in Asia Travel Retail

    Martell has designed a limited edition gift box which contains Martell Cordon Bleu and a complimentary Martell XO miniature.

    The Martell Legendary Journeys gift box features a design which celebrates Martell Cordon Bleu’s heritage and will be available exclusively in Asia travel retail throughout January and February.

    Martell all around the world: the gift pack is available exclusively in Asia travel retail

    Created by graphic designer Neil Stevens, the gift pack features a map of the cities and countries linked with Martell Cordon Bleu’s history since its creation in 1912. Officially launched at Monte-Carlo’s grand Hotel de Paris, Martell Cordon Bleu is said to have proved an “immediate success”. Memorable moments in the product’s history include being served aboard the Queen Mary II on its maiden voyage in May 1936 and making its debut on Concorde in 1977 and the Orient Express in 1986.

    Key product showcases of Martell Legendary Journeys, priced at US$229, will take place in Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong Anway border shops, Singapore Changi Airport, Bangkok International Airport, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Taipei Taoyuang Airport, Tokyo Narita Airport, Beijing Airport and Shanghai Airport.

  • Keppel Land FY2015 net profit jumps 45% yoy to $701 million

    Keppel Land FY2015 net profit jumps 45% yoy to $701 million

    Keppel Land’s full year net profit jumped 45% to $701 million from $482 million a year ago. Full year revenue for FY2015 rose 11% to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion a year ago.

    The group sold about 4,570 homes, double the units taken up in 2014. About 3,280 of the units sold in FY2015 were in China, with another 930 in Vietnam, 190 in Singapore, and 130 in Indonesia. Property prices in China’s first-tier cities continue to rise strongly with high absorption rate and falling stock.

    Keppel Land says it will continue to tap demand in recovering property markets across Asia. It currently has about 20,000 launch-ready homes in its portfolio, mostly in China. It will also develop its commercial portfolio which has increased to 9.04 million sq ft of gross floor area (GFA), with some coming on stream over the next two years. In Vietnam, Keppel Land’s Saigon Centre Phase 2 retail mall in Ho Chi Minh City has achieved pre-commitment of 97.5% and will open in 3Q2016. The anchor tenant is Takashimaya Department Store. In Myanmar, Keppel Land’s new 29-storey Inya Wing hotel has opened, adding another 431 guest rooms and suites, along with an exclusive retail gallery at Hotel Sedona Yangon.

    In Singapore, Keppel Land just added 112 Katong to its commercial property portfolio with its acquisition of a 22.4% interest announced last week. The remaining 77.6% interest in 112 Katong is held by its property fund management arm, Alpha Investment Partners (AIP). Keppel Land Retail Management has been appointed as the retail manager. The property fund portfolio managed by Keppel Reit and AIP rose 10% y-o-y to $20.5 billion in FY2015 from $18.7 billion in FY2014.

    Keppel REIT’s portfolio of office buildings in Singapore and Australia continues to maintain a high occupancy of 99.3%. Meanwhile, Alpha’s Asia Macro Trends Fund II has invested in three prime office properties with City Developments Ltd. With the success of the first two Asia Macro Trends Funds, it will be embarking on its third fund in the series.

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  • Korea eyes nationwide sales event to boost consumption

    Korea eyes nationwide sales event to boost consumption

    South Korea will start another round of nationwide discount events later this month in a bid to boost domestic consumption around the Lunar New Year’s holiday, the finance ministry said Tuesday.

    The so-called Korea Grand Sale will begin on Jan. 25 and run through Feb. 7 across the nation before the holiday, with the participation of 300 local traditional markets, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

    For foreign tourists, the event will take place from Feb. 1 in duty-free shops and other retail stores to celebrate the start of the Visit Korea Year 2016-2018.

    The Lunar New Year, which shifts year to year, falls on Feb. 8 this year, with a five-day break.

    The ministry said the sales event is aimed at maintaining an uptrend in consumption that was seen in the third quarter of last year.

    Last year, the country hosted such events three times, including the K-Sale Day and Korea Black Friday, and saw local retailers post sharp sales increases, along with the government’s excise tax cut programs.

    The rise in sales helped push up the country growth to a five-year high of 1.2 percent in the third quarter, successfully escaping the sluggish mode stemming from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

    “We’ve come up with plans to keep the pace of private consumption alive and revitalize domestic demand as a whole,” the finance ministry said in a release. (Yonhap)

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  • Retail-tech start-up SnapBizz raises $7.2 million

    Retail-tech start-up SnapBizz raises $7.2 million

    SnapBizz Cloudtech Pvt Ltd, a start-up that devises technology for corner grocery stores, has raised $7.2 million in an investment round led by venture capital firms Jungle Ventures, Taurus Value Creation, Konly Venture and Blume Ventures to expand across cities.

    The Bengaluru-based company, which was started in 2013, had earlier received seed funding of $1.7 million from Qualcomm, Jungle Ventures, National Research Foundation of Singapore, Taurus Value Creation and Blume Ventures.

    SnapBizz provides grocery stores an Android-based, cloud-connected business platform in the form of a tablet, barcode scanner, printer and a consumer-facing LED display, with the technology enabling merchants to manage their billing, inventory and customer engagement.

    “We are convinced with the SnapBizz business model, which brings a tailored technology solution to kirana stores and believe that it will play a large role in India’s retail growth story,” said David Gowdey, managing partner, Jungle Ventures.

    SnapBizz is one of a small but growing number of start-ups like IPay Tech India Pvt. and StoreKing that aim to help small businesses like grocery stores to bridge the digital gap by targeting specific uses like payments or enabling e-commerce.

    “We are thrilled that all ecosystem players have shown confidence in our solution and that our existing investors have reiterated their support to us,” Prem Kumar, chief executive officer, SnapBizz, said in a statement.

    “Large retail and online players account for only 10-15% of any brand’s business. The remaining 90% happens through traditional trade and there is zero or minimal last mile connectivity between brands, consumers and retailers. We are on a mission to address this big gap while addressing the pain points of the kirana stores,” he added.

  • Keppel Land acquires 22.4% interest in 112 Katong

    Keppel Land acquires 22.4% interest in 112 Katong

    Keppel Corp’s property arm Keppel Land has acquired a 22.4% interest in 112 Katong Mall from BHG Holdings, Imagine Properties and Perennial Singapore Investment Holdings for $51.4 million in cash. The remaining 77.6% stake is held by a fund managed by Alpha Investment Partners, Keppel Land’s property fund management vehicle.

    Perennial Real Estate’s stake in the mall amounts to 1.46% or $3.4 million. Along with the divestment of its stake in the asset, Perennial Real Estate is also selling its 23% stake in the trust manager of I12 Katong Mall for $1 a share. A Perennial-led consortium had purchased the former Katong Mall for $247.55 million in November 2009. The mall underwent a $70 million asset enhancement exercise that increased its net lettable area by 20% to 206,000 sq ft today.

    “The investment in 112 Katong will add to our quality portfolio of retail and mixed use developments,” said Ang Wee Gee, CEO of Keppel Land in a statement. “We will focus on strengthening the mall’s positioning as a lifestyle and dining destination in the East.”

    Following the acquisition, the mall will be managed by Keppel Land Retail Management headed by Michael Leong, a property veteran with 30 years’ experience in the retail sector. Leong was the former CEO of Array Real Estate, in which Keppel Land acquired a 75% stake in December 2014. Array’s Leong was previously executive director of Guthrie GTS, and over the years, has been instrumental in the development and mall management of 3 million sq ft of retail properties in Singapore such as Jurong Point Shopping Centre, Heartland Mall, Century Square, Tampines One and Tiong Bahru Plaza.

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  • Technology bringing more personalised experience to shopping

    Technology bringing more personalised experience to shopping

    The launch of the second plan aims to build on the same momentum – helping retailers with manpower-saving technologies. But beyond resolving the industry’s manpower crunch, technology is also changing the way retailers sell.

    Stock-taking is the bane of retailers, as it is typically an arduous task that takes hours. But with radio frequency identification (RFID), the same job can now be done in under an hour.

    Home-grown retailer Decks has managed to save more than 2,300 man-hours a month, since it started using the technology for inventory management.

    “In the future we know that the manpower issue will become more serious than it is now. In order to be more attractive to employ better workers, I think we should engage all this technology to help to lighten the workload of every employee,” said Mr Kelvyn Chee, managing director of Decks.

    RFID is just one of the many technologies available to the retail sector, even though they may not be widely adopted.

    PLAYING CATCH-UP

    Industry players and market researchers have said that retailers in Singapore are behind their international peers in technology adoption. Besides cost, another reason is that they have not seen the need to innovate until now, with the e-commerce sector nipping at their heels.

    “The development of e-commerce in Singapore has been at the lower level than many other parts of the world. But that’s changing very dramatically. I think that’s what’s sort of giving rise to some of this tension where the retailers have not needed to change quite as quickly, when e-commerce was falling behind, but it is really taking up,” said PwC Singapore’s digital business leader Greg Unsworth.

    The innovation arm of the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies is helping retailers to play catch-up. It showcases and advises retailers on the various technologies available.

    “Companies want to embark on data analytics because these are things that will help the business going forward,” said Mr James Fong, deputy manager of programme development at Singapore Institute of Retail Studies. “With knowledge, it does help the business to be more agile, it helps the business to be more able to predict the trend and so forth. So data analytics, having said that, is one of the new areas will take some time for this to evolve.”

    Pushing the frontier of data mining is the use of video analytics, a move that Decks has embarked on. The technology solutions company behind the in-store CCTV camera is able to interpret the images and provide critical business intelligence.

    “Examples of what we can provide them in terms of data and insights would be how many people come to the store, when they come to the store what do they do, how they spend their time going through the store,” explained Mr Tan Liong Hai, sales director of Kai Square.

    With this information, Decks has been able to come up with more targeted marketing campaigns, which it says have helped to boost sales by 10 per cent.

    The retailer continues to look at new innovations, for example, having a smart dressing room to enhance in-store experience, or incorporating the Automated Retrieval and Storage System to streamline backend operations.

    Said Mr Chee: “Everybody thinks that all these technology implemented is to replace the human beings but I think otherwise. We just want the staff or the sales assistant to focus more on customer rather than spend time on unnecessary tasks. So we want to make the shopping experience more personalised, more service-oriented.”

    Mr Unsworth added that technology could result in a convergence of physical and online retailers.

    He explained: “I think retail at the moment – you sort of have the established large retailers, who tend to have a mainly physical presence, you have e-commerce companies who tend to have an online presence. I think everything is going to merge in the middle. So you have this sort of convergence of the two coming together where increasingly, it will be a multi-platform approach that consumers are looking for and that retailers will have to provide.”

    While some retailers in Singapore on both sides of the spectrum have started moving in that direction, experts have said they are still in the early stages.

  • Thai Tycoons Said to Compete for Casino’s Southeast Asia Units

    Thai Tycoons Said to Compete for Casino’s Southeast Asia Units

    Some of Thailand’s richest families are preparing to compete for the Southeast Asian operations of French supermarket operator Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

    Billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s TCC Holding Co. and the Chirathivat family’s Central Group are weighing first-round bids for the Big C Supercenter chains in Thailand and Vietnam, which are due Feb. 5, the people said. The companies have been speaking with banks about advisory roles and financing options, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the process is private.

    The prospect of a competitive auction for the assets spurred Casino shares Friday, lifting the stock as much as 7.5 percent in Paris. Casino’s controlling stake in Bangkok-listed unit Big C Supercenter Pcl could fetch more than $3 billion, while a sale of its Vietnam business could raise as much as $800 million, the people said. The Vietnamese operations have also drawn interest from Tokyo-based retailer Aeon Co., two of the people said.

    A deal would add to the $54.9 billion of acquisitions in Southeast Asia over the past 12 months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The proposed disposals are part of Casino’s plan to cut debt by more than 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) this year, after its share price slumped 45 percent in 2015. Attacks on the grocer’s accounting by short-seller Carson Block’s Muddy Waters LLC have accelerated that drop in the past month.

    Department Stores

    Casino may sell its businesses in the two countries together or separately, depending on the offers it receives, the people said. The French company owns 58.6 percent of Bangkok-listed Big C Supercenter.

    A person who answered the phone at Charoen’s office in Bangkok said he wasn’t available for comment. Spokesmen for Aeon and Big C Supercenter declined to comment, while representatives for Casino, Central Group and TCC didn’t answer phone calls seeking comment. An investor-relations official for Berli Jucker Pcl, the Bangkok-listed consumer goods distributor controlled by TCC, also didn’t answer a phone call seeking comment.

    Central Group is among Thailand’s biggest conglomerates, employing over 70,000 people in businesses from retail to real estate, according to its website. It bought Italian luxury department store La Rinascente in 2011 and Danish department store Illum in 2013.

    Richest Man

    TCC, led by Thailand’s richest man, agreed last year to buy Metro AG’s Cash & Carry wholesale business in Vietnam for 655 million euros. The conglomerate acquired control of Singapore food and beverage maker Fraser & Neave Ltd. in 2013.

    Big C Supercenter, founded by the Chirathivat family, opened its first store in Bangkok in 1994. Casino took control of the Thai-listed company five years later.

    Shares of Big C Supercenter have gained 15 percent this year, giving it a market value of 191.4 billion baht ($5.3 billion). The company had 580 stores in Thailand at the end of March 2014, ranging from hypermarkets to convenience stores, according to its website.

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  • BlackRock’s Laurence Fink sees buying opportunity

    BlackRock’s Laurence Fink sees buying opportunity

    Laurence D Fink, who runs the world’s largest asset manager, said the recent stock market decline presents a buying opportunity because markets are poised to gain over the course of the next year.

    “You can’t walk away from these movements,” Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock, said Friday in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Use these as an opportunity.”

    Fink said while markets have currently capitulated amid slumping oil and inconsistent messages coming from China, he doesn’t expect a bear market in equities. BlackRock, which oversees $US4.6 trillion for clients, saw institutional investors starting to come back into markets on Wednesday, when US stocks briefly fell as much as 3.7 per cent before recovering most of the losses.

    Top investors such as George Soros and Jeffrey Gundlach have advised investors to use short-term market rebounds to sell assets. Soros said Thursday that China’s economy is headed for a hard landing, a slump that will worsen global deflationary pressures, drag down stocks and boost US government bonds. Other investment managers, including Guggenheim Partners’ Scott Minerd and Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, have warned that the market likely has further to fall.

    Soros, who shorted the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, said it is still too early to buy equities, while Gundlach said he expects a “protracted decline in the S&P 500”. Dalio cautioned that global markets face risks to the downside as economies near the end of a long-term debt cycle.

    The warnings come as oil prices have plunged and China’s growth has slowed.

    Fink said China needs to expand its international markets faster and allow more foreign investors, which would create a more stable, less volatile market, he said. “What China struggles with is an immature capital market that is heavily dependent on leverage retail,” he said.

    Fink said it would “be horrible” if China devalues its currency because it would have a huge global deflationary impact and would mean the country is moving back to an export-driven economy.

    His views diverge from others, including hedge fund manager Mark Hart and Goldman Sachs Group president Gary Cohn. Hart, who is betting against the yuan, said China should weaken its currency by more than 50 per cent this year. A one-off devaluation would ease pressure on China’s foreign exchange reserves and remove an incentive for capital outflows, he said. Cohn said that China will likely have to devalue its currency in the next six months to address slowing growth.

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  • ‘Maintenance Fee’ for All Foreign Tourists Proposed by Tourism Governor

    ‘Maintenance Fee’ for All Foreign Tourists Proposed by Tourism Governor

    A plan to charge foreign tourists 360 baht each time they enter the kingdom as a fee to maintain and improve tourist attractions has been proposed by the head of the tourism authority.

    Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, suggested in an interview that money collected from the fees could be reinvested in the tourism throughout the kingdom, but almost as soon as the idea was suggested, it was played down by his own organization.

    In an interview with Voice TV, Yuthasak said foreign tourists would be charged USD$10 (360 baht) each time they enter Thailand, whether by air, land or sea. Among its uses, he said, would be enhancing security measures.

    “It will be collected under the name of a tourist attraction administration fee,” Yuthasak said. “We will use the money to maintain and improve security systems of tourist attractions across the country, in order to support the tourism sector, which has been growing steadily.” 

    He also did the math for its potential windfall. 

    “If there are 30 million tourists, Thailand will earn 10.8 billion baht per year from this fee, and it will help each province earn around 142 million baht to improve its tourism,” he said.

    The plan’s prospects were unclear, however. Hours after the Voice TV published the interview, an official at the tourism authority said the idea was only Yuthasak’s personal idea.

    “This is not an official policy. It still needs additional study,” said authority spokeswoman Sunantha Montri. “It’s only an idea.”

    She said Yuthasak is attending a summit in the Philippines and not available for comment.

    In the Voice TV article, Yuthasak dismissed any concern the fee would adversely affect tourism, saying many countries already had similar policies.

    “I believe it won’t affect tourism that much, because at the present time many countries already collect this fee in subtle ways,” he said without elaborating. 

  • Where Chinese tourists are spending their shopping dollar

    Where Chinese tourists are spending their shopping dollar

    Mainland China has become one of the main global suppliers of tourists, and that has been paying dividends for retailers globally.

    But as the Chinese are roaming further afield, Hong Kong and Macau retails have seen their sales dropping.

    A fresh analysis from international market research company GFK shows China had 109 million outbound tourists last year… and they spent US$229 billion in retail stores. These statistics consolidate China as one of the main global sources of tourists, both in terms of number of trips and money spent while travelling internationally.

    “At the same time, there have been profound changes in the behaviour of the typical Chinese traveller, with millennials firmly established as the core drivers of spending,” says GFK.

    Because of its cultural similarity, accessibility and lower travel costs, Hong Hong was the preferred destination for Chinese tourists up until 2013. Shopping was a big motivation for visiting. However, since 2014, says the report, more Chinese tourists have been opting for other destinations offering historical and cultural experiences – as well as shopping.

    Air travel and accommodation statistics show that at the start of November, the top five favourite destinations for Chinese travellers were South Korea (visits up 112 per cent since 2011), Thailand (up 263 per cent), Japan (up 157 per cent) and Taiwan (up 54 per cent. Surprisingly, given its loss of retail sales, Hong Kong had 37 per cent more Chinese visitors. This is explained by the new emerging middle class – consumers who do not have enough disposable income to travel further abroad, nor to spend on high-end purchases.

    Europe is the most popular destination outside Asia for Chinese tourists, with 97 per cent more visits in the past four years. This is followed by North America (up 151 per cent) and the Middle East (up 177 per cent).

    “China’s tourists remain strategic to Hong Kong and its businesses, as other destinations are jumping ahead in winning their favour,” says GFK global head of travel and hospitality Laurens van den Oever.

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  • H&M India plans largest store yet

    H&M India plans largest store yet

    H&M India says it will soon open its first flagship store in the country – its largest yet.

    The new shop is under construction at the DLF Mall of India, the company said in a statement. It will comprise 37,000 sqft (3440 sqm) spanning four floors in the mall, and is expected to open in Spring.

    This year, the Swedish retailer also plans to open stores in Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Mumbai.

    H&M opened its first store in India on October 2  last year in New Delhi’s Select Citywalk mall.

    “After successful store launches last year, we continue the trend by expanding to some of the most exciting retail destinations across the country with H&M’s business concept of fashion and quality at the best price in a sustainable way.” said Janne Einola, country manager, H&M India.

    The company says it plans to open 50 stores in India after  gaining Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval to open mono brand stores in december 2013.

  • Tesco Thailand wins record market share

    Tesco Thailand wins record market share

    Embattled Tesco achieved a record market share in Thailand in the latest quarter – as Asia shined in a mixed set of financials.

    Analysts appeared in agreement that the UK’s largest supermarket operator delivered patchy results overnight, despite the solid Asian performance.

    “Foreign adventuring hasn’t been all bad,” observed David Gray, retail analyst at Planet Retail.

    “Asian expansion did deliver a big windfall last autumn with a sale raising some £4 billion,” he said, referring to the divestment of the Korean business

    “And Tesco still holds valuable assets in Asia – the Tesco Thailand business (which has long-term growth potential), plus Malaysia (though potential here is less obvious), while India (though not valuable at the moment) is set to receive more attention,” Gray concluded.

    Conlumino senior consultant George Scott added: “In Asia, improvement in its food offer helped Tesco achieved positive like for likes across the region.”

    But the majority of Tesco’s business is still the UK, where its market share is under attack by super discounters Aldi and Lidl from Germany. Like-for-like sales in the UK slipped 1.5 per cent, despite a 1.3 per cent increase in the Christmas period.

    “Tesco showed signs of a fightback against discounters Aldi and Lidl over the festive period, delivering a UK Christmas like-for-like performance well ahead of market expectations and comfortably beating the comparable trading of rivals Morrisons (+0.2 per cent) and Waitrose (down 1.4 per cent),” said Scott.

    Planet Retail said it saw the third quarter domestic decline as indicative of the wider challenges hitting the UK grocery market.

    “With growth of Aldi/Lidl at the value end, M&S Food lording over the premium segment and Sainsbury’s holding its own in the mid-market, this comes as little surprise,” said Gray.

    “As anticipated, Tesco’s Q3 domestic recovery has slowed, with like-for-like declines widening on Q2, even if the shorter Christmas period delivered a more positive number,” said Gray

    “This was to be expected considering Dave Lewis has always said recovery would be choppy. Even so, a slowdown is a slowdown. The difficulty for Tesco is that, by being the UK’s largest retailer, it has most to lose from wider food price deflation and structural shifts.

    “With Aldi/Lidl gaining share at the value end, M&S Food ruling premium and Sainsbury’s holding the middle ground, Tesco is stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Gray concluded.

    Scott says despite the patchy figures, Tesco has shown a marked improvement in putting the customer back at the heart of its proposition, particularly over Christmas.

    “To this end, a further shift away from give-away promotions to deeper investment in base price cuts and its brand match, coupled with improved availability were particularly key. The introduction of 4000 additional ‘Here to Help’ in-store colleagues, will have undoubtedly boosted in-store standards. Elsewhere, demand for online grocery home grocery shopping led to a record number of orders on December 22, which was certainly helped by an improved price and service reputation.”

    Tesco CEO Dave Lewis was upbeat about the figures, especially for the festive trading season.

    “Our Christmas performance was strong, benefiting from lower prices on an outstanding range of products. Our customer service improved materially and our colleagues went the extra mile.  Put simply, we put customers at the heart of everything we did and they responded by buying more of what they needed at Tesco.”

    Lewis said Tesco would continue to focus its efforts to serve its customers “a little better every day”.

    “There is plenty more to do, but we are making good progress and are trading in line with profit expectations for the full year.”