Sports goods retailer Li Ning, with more than 7,900 stores in China, plans to invest USD10 million in U.S. operations this year, becoming one of the first Chinese companies to enter the U.S. retail sector. At present, international operations made up only 2% of the company’s total revenue. The U.S. expansion began in earnest in 2007 with the opening of an R&D center and design studio in the Portland, Oregon, area, heart of the U.S. athletic shoe industry where Nike is headquartered and Adidas has a regional office. Li Ning has a quality product but “we need to bring in the cool factor, the street legitimacy, the street cred. Bring all these elements together and fuse them into the product. It’s a systemic project and we are working on it,” Li Ning said. “A few brands are attempting it, but no one has come out as a dominant Chinese brand in any industry yet,” he said. “I always optimistically look back on the Japanese brands in the ’50s and ’60s and the Korean brands in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s our turn. We’ll get there.”

Erke, an international sports brand has selected Eurostop’s e-retail and e-pos for its 7,000 outlets across the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Erke is owned by China Hongxing Sports Limited which is listed on the Singapore Exchange. Erke products have won many awards and accolades across PRC, and are also available in Malaysia and in Europe.

e-retail has been developed by Eurostop Shanghai to meet the specific needs of very large retailers with branches in excess of 1,000 outlets. As well as head office features like stock control, warehouse, distribution, sales, merchandising and promotions, the system also includes fully integrated wholesale and franchise functionality. The system will be on show for the first time in the UK at the Retail Business Technology Expo, 16 – 17 March, Earl’s Court, London.

Richard Loh, Managing Director of Eurostop UK commented, “We are delighted that Ms. Hew Poh Yin (Managing Director of Eurostop Shanghai) has secured this contract with one of the largest sportswear retailers in China.
e-retail is our flagship product which is designed for the larger retailers and should enable us to expand our market share within the UK and European markets as well. With this new product Eurostop is now able to provide solutions to retailers of every size from standalone stores, multi-store independents to large retailers with a multi-national presence.”

The scheme is being set up in 12 pilot cities across China including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang and Dalian but will be expanding it out to other cities in the near future. Hungry small hours consumers will be able to call a unified central hotline where they can place their orders and receive their food within 30 minutes of being ordered – unless of course extreme weather gets in their way.

Should the program prove to be popular, you can expect that it will be rolled out across China in 2012.

Home Depot recently closed five stores in China in Qingdao, Shengyang and outlying areas of Beijing and will keep four stores open with a focus on high growth cities such as Xi’an and Tianjin.

Frank Blake, CEO of Home Depot was quoted as saying “I don’t think we’re alone in having it take some time to figure out how to build a profitable business model,” Blake said. “We’ve said from the start that we’re not there to drive square-footage growth. We’re there to figure out a profitable business model and then move.”

B&Q, a British rival to Home Depot in China is also having similar issues in pushing the DIY lifestyle onto Chinese consumers, but one major stinking point is that labor is cheap in China so it is often easier and cheaper to hire a person with the relevant tools and experience to install doors, flooring and other household requirements. B&Q entered China earlier than Home Depot in 2009 but soon closed 22 of its 63 Chinese stores due to the economic crisis and poor sales in the Chinese market after expanding too fast.

The US entertainment giant said its strategy would be to secure locations in upscale shopping centres and department stores, where it will open Disney Stores similar to those in Europe and North America.

“The kids? branded retail market in China is growing and we are uniquely positioned to provide a family shopping environment,” Stanley Cheung, Disney’s Greater China executive vice president and managing director, said in a statement.

“Our Disney Stores aim to deliver the best 30 minutes of a child’s day,” he added.

The company did not say how many stores it aimed to open in China.

Outside China, Disney said it was on track to add more than 25 new and remodelled stores this year and ultimately planned to refresh its more than 350 locations worldwide.

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said in his annual report earlier this month that the city would push to start work this year on a Disney Park that is reportedly scheduled to open in 2014.

However, Disney has said although its discussions with the Shanghai government were advancing, China’s central government has yet to approve the joint venture companies and regulatory requirements for the project.

The Shanghai government announced in 2009 that Beijing had approved the park itself, which reportedly will cost $3.6 billion and occupy a 10-square-kilometre (four-square-mile) area.

The Shanghai Disneyland would be the US entertainment giant’s third theme park in Asia, after those in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Disneyland has had a bumpy ride since opening its gates in 2005, with local lawmakers saying low attendance has not justified the huge public investment.

The mainland is the main source of visitors for the Hong Kong park, last year accounting for 2.2 million visitors, or 42 percent of the total, according to the latest park figures.

Mr. Chen joins Tommy Hilfiger with almost 20 years of fashion, brand management and retail experience in China. He was a member of the founding management team for Esprit in China, serving for the past eight years as Esprit’s General Manager, based in Shanghai. In his new capacity, Mr. Chen will report directly to Mr. Fred Gehring, Chief Executive Officer of the Tommy Hilfiger Group.

“We are very pleased to welcome Steve to Tommy Hilfiger,” said Fred Gehring. “In anticipation of our takeover of the Chinese business in the second half of this year, Steve’s appointment is the first and most critical step to ensure a smooth transition. China holds significant opportunities for our brand, and Steve’s very relevant experience and entrepreneurial approach will be instrumental in establishing Tommy Hilfiger as a leading premium lifestyle brand in this important market. Under his leadership, we are confident that the classic American cool appeal of the Tommy Hilfiger lifestyle can achieve its full business potential in China.”

“I am delighted to join Tommy Hilfiger as CEO of Tommy Hilfiger China,” said Steve Chen. “The tremendous global appeal of this iconic American brand has great potential here. I have been extremely impressed by the strength of the Tommy Hilfiger organization, and believe that the brand is very well positioned for future growth in the market. I look forward to joining such a dynamic management team and leading the expansion in China.”

HTC hasn’t made any noise about introducing HTC stores into the North American or European markets but they could potentially introduce them at at later stage. One major difference between the US and Chinese cell phone market is that Chinese consumers generally prefer pre-paid cell phone plans as opposed to contracts, in the US market HTC relies heavily on stores such as Best Buy and Target to retail its products, so its own retail store network in the US is not needed at the moment, although HTC could introduce stores where consumers could interact get a feel for HTC phones.