Lotte’s coming Chongqing store marks shift westward

Lotte Mart, Korea’s third-largest discount store chain, said yesterday that it will open an outlet in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing early next year.

The envisioned outlet will be the discounter’s first store in the southwestern part of China, Lotte Mart said.

The discount division of Korea’s second-largest retailer Lotte Shopping has opened its stores mainly in the eastern region of China since 2007 when it made inroads into the country in 2007 by acquiring eight Chinese stores from SHV, a Dutch wholesaler.

The discount store chain opened its 100th Chinese store in September, raising the number of its overseas stores to 132. The discount store chain has 97 outlets in Korea, 30 in Indonesia and two in Vietnam.

However, the discount store has remained in the red in China so far due to continued investment, the company said. It predicts it will swing into the black in 2014.

The retailer posted 300 billion won ($269 million) in sales in 2008 in China and expects its sales to reach 2 trillion won this year.

Yonhap