Wal-Mart Appoints an Outsider From Region to Lead China Unit
BEIJING -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. named an outsider as the new head of its China operations, hiring a regional executive from pan-Asian retail giant Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd.
Ed Chan, 43 years old, will become president and chief executive of Wal-Mart China, succeeding Joe Hatfield, 62, its long-time head. Mr. Chan was responsible for a string of greater China acquisitions for Dairy Farm. With more than 3,000 stores throughout Asia and 253 in China, Dairy Farm includes supermarkets, beauty chains, convenience stores and restaurants.
Mr. Chan's appointment comes at the heels of the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant's agreement to purchase Taiwanese hypermarket chain Trust-Mart. If the deal is approved by China's Ministry of Commerce, the transaction will make Wal-Mart the largest hypermarket owner in China, ahead of the company's French archrival Carrefour SA. Wal-Mart is currently the world's largest retailer.
Mr. Hatfield is a 32-year company veteran who built Wal-Mart's China operations from the ground up over the past 12 years. He will maintain a senior advisory position, but the company says he has stepped down to pursue "other personal and business interests," as well as spend more time with his family.
Wal-Mart runs 66 retail units in 34 cities throughout China, with 36,000 employees. In recent months, it sold its operations in Germany and South Korea. The retail giant's business gains are slowing in the U.S. and costs there are rising, and its failures in Germany and South Korea have been seen as evidence that its U.S.-style retailing doesn't necessarily translate everywhere.
In fact, Wal-Mart experienced a shaky beginning in China after its launch in 1996. But after Mr. Hatfield initiated a revamping of its stores and retail style, the company made a name for itself among Chinese customers.
Wal-Mart has since gone on an aggressive expansion plan, saying it will have 20 new stores by the end of the year and increase its work force to 150,000 employees over the next five years.
Mr. Chan was Dairy Farm's North Asia regional director for almost four years. He was responsible for the group's retail business in greater China and South Korea, which included 1,440 units and generated about $2.7 billion in sales, and was regional director during several of the company's acquisitions.
沃尔玛中国业务换帅
沃尔玛(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)日前任命泛亚零售巨头牛奶国际控股公司（Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd.）的一位管理人士接管其中国业务。
相关报导
? 沃尔玛的扩张难题
? 沃尔玛将收购中国连锁超市好又多
? 沃尔玛在中国推出首张信用卡
? 沃尔玛在中国的首个工会组织成立
现年43岁的陈耀昌(Ed Chan)将接替钟浩威(Joe Hatfield)的职务，出任沃尔玛中国公司总裁兼首席执行长。陈耀昌曾参与牛奶国际在大中华地区的一系列收购交易。牛奶国际在亚洲拥有超过3,000家店铺，经营超市、美容店、便利店和餐馆，其中在中国就有253家。
在任命陈耀昌接管中国业务之前，沃尔玛刚刚宣布同意收购在大陆的台资超市连锁店好又多(Trust-Mart)。这笔交易如获得中国商务部的批准，沃尔玛就将超越法国竞争对手家乐福(Carrefour SA)，一举成为中国大陆地区最大的超市运营商。沃尔玛如今已是全球最大的零售商。
沃尔玛中国业务之所以能从无到有并发展到现在的规模，已在沃尔玛供职32年的钟浩威在过去12年里的努力功不可没。他将保留高级顾问一职，沃尔玛称其辞职是希望另谋发展，并拥有更多时间陪伴家人。
沃尔玛目前在中国的34个城市拥有66家分店，雇佣员工36,000人。在过去几个月中，它先后退出德国和韩国市场。它在美国的业务增长正在放缓，美国业务的成本也在上升。在德国和韩国水土不服说明其美式零售经营方式未必能放之四海而皆准。
实际上，沃尔玛在1996年进入中国市场后的初始阶段也经历过动荡。但在钟浩威对店铺和经营模式进行大规模调整之后，沃尔玛的在华业务才得到了中国消费者的认可。
在此之后，沃尔玛的中国业务取得了飞速发展。该公司表示将在今年年底之前再新开20家分店，在未来5年内把在华雇佣的员工总数扩大到150,000人。
陈耀昌担任牛奶国际北亚区地区董事一职已接近4年的时间。他负责该集团大中华及韩国的零售业务，这块业务涉及1,440家店铺，销售额约为27亿美元。他以地区董事的身份参与了该公司的几笔并购交易。
沃尔玛副董事长迈克尔?杜克(Michael Duke)表示，陈耀昌丰富的零售经验将为沃尔玛在中国这个重要市场的发展注入新动力。
Loretta Chao
(back)Retail's One-China Problem
Immense, Fragmented Market
Poses Problems for Wal-Mart,
Other Chains Seeking to Expand
As China's economy surges, an average of one so-called hypermarket opens each day to sell the world's most populous nation everything from seafood to suits.
Now, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is trying to become the nation's biggest hypermarket chain with its bid to buy Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese competitor, for close to $1 billion. (Wal-Mart has named an outsider to head its China operations, see article.)
Trust-Mart's wide network of stores in China, such as Dalian, above, could help Wal-Mart quickly expand its footprint in the country.
Wal-Mart -- which has 66 stores, including 61 hypermarkets in China -- faces stiff competition, not just from its leading foreign rival Carrefour SA's more than 80 stores, but a host of local players. Last year, China's top 30 domestic chain stores expanded the stores in operation by a fifth to more than 16,000 outlets, dwarfing the operations of all the foreign players combined, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
But perhaps the biggest challenge is the sheer difficulty of building and running national chain in China.
Roughly the size of the continental U.S., China still doesn't have a nationwide logistics network of trucks, highways and warehouses that can efficiently deliver supplies from farm to shop shelf.
Bribery and kickbacks between suppliers and retailers are still common.
Local tastes -- in a country with over half a dozen major dialect groups and climates ranging from tropical to subarctic -- are extremely diverse, making it hard to stock shelves in large quantities. In the northeastern province of Shandong, for example, the top carbonated soft drink isn't Coke or Pepsi. It's a local brand called Laoshan.
And, in a country where refrigerated trucks are still scarce, it is hard for modern hypermarkets to match the fresh produce -- not to mention low prices -- of typical wet markets, the no-frills, open-air venues featuring livestock in cages, where most Chinese traditionally shop. The lack of refrigerated trucks also encourages each region to develop its own dairy, beer and meat industry, making bulk purchasing harder.
Half of every dollar spent on food in China goes to live and fresh products, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. estimates. "So it's very difficult to run a national chain and get efficiencies," says Merrill analyst Denise Chai.
That's why China's retail stores are still highly fragmented, with the top 100 companies accounting for less than 10% of total retail sales, according to official statistics.
In a business where size and scale are paramount, "nobody has a national footprint yet," says Yang Fan, a retail analyst at Euromonitor.
To be sure, the hypermarket concept is still relatively new in China, where the first foreign department stores are slightly more than a decade old.
Wal-Mart, which declined to comment for this article, plans to buy 31 Trust-Mart stores initially and the remainder as each outlet meets criteria, ranging from improved fire standards to tougher accounting practices, according to a person familiar with the matter. Getting the stores up to snuff may take a while -- currently several of the stores don't even have sprinkler systems, according to the person.
At a Trust-Mart outlet in Beijing's Chaoyang district, the aisles are crammed and narrow, with people lining up patiently for the daily special: two dozen eggs for $1.20. The air in the basement is muggy, with the ceilings painted black to disguise the overhanging network of pipes. Rows of pointy, narrow men's leather shoes are lined up next to the dumpling counter. Not far from the $2 DVDs of the latest Superman movie is the tofu counter, where shoppers can choose between paper-thin sheets to pale yellow slabs resembling butter.
"It's small, but can satisfy my needs for daily life, besides, the prices here are very cheap. And the market always has discounts or promotions," said a 68-year-old retired man shopping there recently. "...If Wal-Mart really purchased Trust-Mart, then it's not a bad thing, maybe the services could be better!"
Trust-Mart was started by Taiwanese entrepreneur Yu Yue-jiang, who has also dabbled in businesses including shoes and real estate. Mr. Yu opened the first Trust-Mart in 1997 in southern China in partnership with Winston Wang, son of plastics tycoon Wang Yung-ching, Taiwan's richest man. The company grew to 131 outlets, but ran into difficulties because of its rapid expansion and lackluster management, according to industry observers. In 2005, Mr. Wang sold off his stake amid rumors the entire company would be put on the block.
In many ways, Wal-Mart's plan to acquire Trust-Mart is at its heart a land grab: an effort to amass more outlets and vault ahead of Carrefour, which got off to a quicker start in China.
Despite a decade-old presence, Wal-Mart's China sales are less than a third of 1% of the company's total global sales and about half that of rival Carrefour's, which last year saw China turnover of $2.2 billion.
"What Wal-Mart is buying is a footprint. They're not trying to buy a brand or operations; they're just getting a footprint really fast," says Merrill's Ms. Chai.
These international retailers are facing some growing pains in the country, such as the high cost of deliveries. In China, transportation and distribution costs make up at least 16% of overall product costs, compared with less than 4% in many more developed countries, according to American Chamber of Commerce estimates. Refrigerated trucks are still rare, and only about a fifth of China's freight trucks are containerized, so the majority of cargo is vulnerable to damage on open flatbed vehicles.
Carrefour, which is starting to penetrate China's interior, is finding it hard to keep transportation costs down. The company opened several outlets in Xinjiang province, which is about three times the size of France, and it takes about a week to truck produce between Beijing to Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital.
As well, foreign firms may have to ensure their Chinese acquisitions meet international regulatory and accountancy standards. For hypermarkets, that could mean cleaning up unsavory practices such as suppliers bribing retailers to ensure good product placement, which industry observers say is common. Late last year, the Chinese government proposed new rules to try to limit these practices.
"The business behavior of many Chinese domestic supermarkets is not well regulated, and the lack of credibility has become an important barrier that prevents them from expanding their business nationwide," said Yao Wenhua, a member of the Beijing Supplier Commission under the Beijing Chamber of Commerce.
Then, of course, there are the differing tastes. "There is no national supplier to a large degree. Local tastes are key," said Glen Murphy, managing director of ACNielsen China.
Take milk powder, for example. Consumers in northern China like it sweet, but southern Chinese prefer low-fat varieties. Soybean oil and sunflower oil sell well in Shanghai, but not in Beijing, according to suppliers. Tsingtao may be China's best-known beer globally, but Yanjing beer is far more popular in Beijing.
That's why Beijing-based retailer Wumart is planning to stay regional. It recently spent over $70 million buying up other retailers in a bid to expand its reach in the northeastern region. And that's where they'll stay for now, said Wumart founder Zhang Wenchong, who has studied Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's business ideas.
"We'll stick to what we understand," he said. "There is no one China market."
沃尔玛中国扩张遭遇难题
中国经济增长十分迅猛，平均一天就会有一家所谓的超市在中国大地上开业，出售从海鲜到套装在内的各类商品。
眼下，沃尔玛连锁公司(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)正摩拳擦掌，意欲成为中国最大的超市连锁店。该公司打算斥资近10亿美元收购台资超市连锁店好又多(Trust-Mart)。
沃尔玛目前在中国拥有66家店铺，其中超市61家。沃尔玛在中国市场面临的竞争可谓十分激烈，不仅来自其主要的竞争对手、已在中国开设了80多家店铺的法国家乐福(Carrefour)，同时还有来自许多中国本土企业的竞争。据普华永道(PricewaterhouseCoopers)的一项研究，去年，中国排名前30位的本土连锁店的店铺数量增加了1/5，达到16,000家以上，超过了所有外资连锁店的总和。
不过，沃尔玛的最大挑战可能还是在中国建立和运营全国性连锁店所会遇到的各种艰难险阻。
相关报导
? 沃尔玛中国业务换帅
? 沃尔玛的扩张难题
? 沃尔玛将收购中国连锁超市好又多
? 沃尔玛在中国推出首张信用卡
中国国土面积与美国相当，但目前还没有一个遍布全国、能高效地将货品从产地运至卖场的卡车运输、高速公路和仓储网络。同时供应商和零售商之间收受贿赂、吃取回扣的现象仍十分普遍。
而中国有6个以上的大方言区，而且南北气候差异巨大，从热带到亚北极区，各种气候条件都有，因此各地的商品需求也有很大的差别，很难大量地供应某类商品。比如在山东省，卖得最好的碳酸软饮料品牌不是可口可乐或百事可乐，而是名为崂山的当地品牌。
另外，由于中国的冷藏货车依然较少，因此现代超市很难像外面的菜市场那样为顾客提供新鲜的农产品，更不用说以那里的低价格了。多数中国人一般都是到简陋的露天菜市场采购农产品。冷藏货车的匮乏也推动各地纷纷开发自己的奶制品、啤酒以及肉类产业，这也使得批量采购变得更加困难。
据美林公司(Merrill Lynch & Co.)的估算，中国人的食品开销有一半花在了生鲜食品上。因此，在中国要想高效地运营一家全国性的连锁店会十分困难，美林分析师Denise Chai这样说道。
这也正是中国的零售店经营依然高度分散的原因。官方统计数据显示，目前中国排名前100位的零售商所占据的零售市场份额还不足10%。Euromonitor的零售业分析师Yang Fan表示，在规模和数量占据最重要地位的零售业中，中国市场上目前还没有出现一家全国性的企业。
当然，超市的概念在中国依然相对较新，十多年前中国才出现了第一家外国百货商店。
沃尔玛计划第一步先收购31家好又多。据知情人士称，之后当其他好又多店铺达到了沃尔玛制定的从消防标准到会计制度在内的各种标准后，沃尔玛将依次把它们收入囊中。据这位知情人称，这些好又多店铺要达到标准可能需要一段时间，现在一些店铺甚至连消防喷淋系统都没有。沃尔玛拒绝就本文置评。
在北京朝阳区的一家好又多店，过道狭小拥挤，人们耐心地排队购买当日特价商品：1.2美元两打的鸡蛋。这个位于地下室的超市非常湿热，屋顶被涂成了黑色，以掩盖悬挂在顶部的各种管线。售卖饺子的柜台旁边就是一排排男式皮鞋。DVD货架上摆放着售价2美元的最新《超人》系列电影，离它不远的地方就是豆腐柜台，人们可以在这里选购各式各样的豆腐，从纸一样薄的豆腐片到看上去像黄油的豆腐块等等。
“这个店很小，但它能满足我的日常所需，另外，这里的价格也十分便宜，还总有打折和促销活动，”一位来店购物的退休老人这样说道。
好又多由台湾商人于曰江创立，他同时还涉足鞋业和房地产业。于曰江1997年与台湾首富、塑料大王王永庆之子王文洋合伙在中国大陆南方开设了第一家好又多店。迄今好又多店铺的数量已经增至131家，但据行业观察人士称，由于扩张过快、加上管理不力，公司目前开始陷入困境。2005年，在有关整个公司可能将被拍卖的传言中，王文洋将他在好又多的持股悉数卖出。
从许多方面看，沃尔玛收购好又多的计划实际上都是为了攫取市场占有率，以此获得更多的店铺数量，从而超越在中国起步较早的竞争对手家乐福。
尽管沃尔玛进入中国市场已经有10年的时间，但其中国市场的销售额占其全球销售额的比例还不到0.33%，也只有家乐福的一半左右。家乐福去年中国市场的销售收入为22亿美元。
美林的Chai表示，沃尔玛收购的其实是市场占有率，他们感兴趣的不是品牌或者业务，而是迅速地获取市场份额。
这些跨国零售企业在中国也遭遇了成长的痛苦，比如高昂的发货成本。据美国商会(American Chamber of Commerce)估计，在中国，交通和分销成本占据了生产总成本的至少16%，而在许多发达国家，这一比例还不到4%。冷藏货车依然稀缺，而且中国只有1/5的货车是集装箱运输，那些很多通过开放式货车运输的货物很容易遭到损坏。
家乐福目前已经开始向中国内陆地区渗透，它也发现很难压低运输成本。家乐福在新疆开设了几家分店，将货物从北京运至新疆首府乌鲁木齐大概需要一周的时间。
同样，外国企业还要确保在中国市场进行的收购必须符合国际监管和会计标准。对于超市而言，这就意味着要清除各种不良行为，包括供应商为了获得好的货架位置而向零售商行贿等，而据行业观察人士称，这样的行贿行为在中国很是普遍。去年年末，中国政府为了限制这样的行为特意提出了一项新的法规。
北京市商业联合会(Beijing Chamber of Commerce)下属北京供应商委员会委员姚文华（音）表示，中国国内许多超市的商业行为没有得到很好的监管，缺乏诚信已经成为制约这些企业在全国扩张的主要障碍。
当然，制约因素还包括全国各地口味需求的不同。AC尼尔森中国区董事长高恩(Glen Murphy)表示，之所以没有出现一家全国性的供应商，地方口味不同是一个关键影响因素。
以奶粉为例。中国北方的消费者喜欢口味偏甜的奶粉，而南方消费者则喜欢低脂的。据供应商称，大豆油和葵花油在上海卖得很好，但在北京就不行。青岛啤酒可能是全球知名度最高的中国啤酒品牌，但在北京，燕京啤酒更受消费者欢迎。
这也就是北京零售企业物美(Wumart)仍坚持作地区性零售商的原因。该公司近期斥资逾7,000万美元收购其他零售商，以期在中国东北部地区进一步扩大势力范围。物美创始人张文中曾经研究了沃尔玛创始人山姆?沃尔顿(Sam Walton)的经营理念，他表示，公司将继续留在中国东北部地区开展业务。
他表示，我们将坚持自己的信念，中国不存在单一市场。
Mei Fong / Kate Linebaugh / Gordon Fairclough
