DESPITE the hit taken by most multinational retail giants in Chinese market in 2011, Wal-Mart and Carrefour did not slow down their expansion. Tesco, the third largest supermarket chain in the world, continued to start locations in second-tier cities in Guangdong Province, opening its first store in the province’s western city Jiangmen.
 
 “In our development strategy, we consider the trend in next ten years to make our long-term investment rather than that in just one year. The market fluctuation will not affect our company’s expansion,” said John Lee, the new president of Tesco in southern China who succeeded Liao Huiling this April, in an interview with reporter from ND Daily.
 
 “The coastal region in eastern China, about 15% of its territory, contributes to 60% of the country’s economy,” said John Lee. That’s why Tesco focused on that region when making its development strategies. Right now it has eleven stores in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongwan, Xiamen and Fuzhou, including the new one in Jiangmen.
 
Tesco will open another two new stores in Xiamen and Foshan next month.