Home Depot started this week its operation in China, US media report, after revamping a Chinese chain Home Way they bought last year. Unlike the common practise during this kind of presentations, the media report of the Washington Post actually played down the likability Home Depot would be making a profit soon in this very competitive market. The operation counts now 12 stores.
The media actually asked retail expert Paul French, one of our speakers at Chinabiz Speakers, to play down the expectations even more.
"With the number of people moving into apartments in China over the past few years, [home-improvement stores] should have made fortunes, but nobody has because of the low, low prices and the lack of profit margins," said Paul French, a Shanghai economist with Access Asia, a consulting firm.
Although B&Q, a home-improvement chain that is a subsidiary of Britain's Kingfisher
Group, entered China in 1999, "they have only begun to see a dribble of profits over the last 18 months," Mr. French said.
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