Metro Cash & Carry opens HOT campus By Tian Xiuzhen (China Daily) Updated: 2004-11-04 09:35
Metro Cash & Carry, the world's leading self-service wholesaler, launched
its Shanghai Campus of the "House of Training (HOT)" on Monday to facilitate its
aggressive expansion plan in China.
"Today this country is at the centre of our expansion strategy in Asia and in
2005, we plan to open 10 new stores here in China," said Hans-Joachim Korber,
chairman and chief executive officer of the Management Board of Metro Group.
Following the two campuses in Germany and France, the Shanghai HOT Campus is
the third facility Metro has established as a major move to create a global
management training network.
The company also plans to launch such a training campus in Moscow in 2005.
Korber said in around five years as a mid-term goal, the wholesaler will open
40 more stores with a total investment of 600 million euros.
The number of Metro employees in China has soared to more than 5,200, serving
2 million commercial customers in the country.
"The HOT campus in Shanghai is a milestone in the development of our sales
activities, as we are fully aware that our Chinese staff are the strong base for
our expansion in this country," said Jean-Luc Tuzes, president of Metro Jinjiang
Cash & Carry Co Ltd, a joint venture Metro Group set up with Shanghai-based
Jinjiang Group.
Tuzes said with instructors regionally sourced, the Shanghai campus will
train new staff and also customize courses with regional experience and Chinese
culture.
Since 1996 when Metro, the first foreign company to obtain a national permit
for chain operation, opened its first store in Shanghai, the wholesaler has
invested 350 million euros and opened 21 stores in major Chinese cities.
Top Metro executives also revealed that the success of Metro in China is the
B-to-B selling concept, which is flexible and pays optimal tribute to the
country-specific and regional customer expectations.
To precisely meet the requirements of business clients in various regions,
Metro sources over 95 per cent of its goods in China from domestic producers and
suppliers.
Metro also directly and indirectly sources around 2 billion euros of goods
per year to export worldwide.
"According to our expansion plan in China, these purchases will grow in
future," said Korber.
As revealed, Metro is going to endow a professorship to the Chinese-German
School for Postgraduate Studies at Tongji University.
It will also institute and support a chair for Innovation and Computer
Science in Economics for five years through a partnership with the German
Academic Exchange service.
