SALES OF CHINA'S TOP 30 RETAILERS INCREASE 30% IN 2005.

BEIJING, March 1 Asia Pulse - Sales of China's top 30 chain store enterprises topped 491.04 billion yuan (US$61 billion) in 2005, an increase of 30.9 per cent over the previous year, and their total number of shops reached 16,665, up 20.7 per cent, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Commerce.

Shanghai Brilliance (Group) Co Ltd led the top 30 retailers with sales hitting 72.07 billion yuan and outlets reaching 6,345, rising 7.2 per cent and 15.4 per cent year on year, respectively.

According to an official with the Ministry of Commerce, among the top 30, retailing enterprises of household electric appliances presented a strong pep of expansion. Five big household electric appliance retailers, namely Gome, Suning, Shanghai Yongle, Jiangsu Five-Star and Shandong Sanlian snatched 66.8 per cent of the total sales in China in 2005, and 61.0 per cent of the total number of shops in the country.

Department stores, which have been in weak operation for many years, have started making recovery in 2005, with sales increasing 25.7 per cent year on year, 11 percentage points higher than the growth in the previous year.

Growth of foreign-funded retailing enterprises slowed down last year.

Wal Mart (China) opened 13 new supermarkets in China in 2005 to add the total to 56, but it refused to release figures on its sales in China according to relevant regulations of Wal Mart headquarters in the United States. It didnt take part in competition of the ranking of retailers in China.

Following is a table showing the ranking of the top 30 retailing enterprises in terms of sales in ...