Chinanews, Beijing, March 29 - According to a report on top-100 chain-stores in China, as released by the Ministry of Commerce on March 26, the number of foreign retail shops have been increasing very fast, and more and more of them will enter sole proprietorship.

 

In 2006, most foreign retail shops netted a better profit than in 2005. Take 18 famous international retailers as an example, though the number of their business outlets only increased by 20%, their sales value leaped by 27%, much higher than the average figure of the top-100 ones.

 

Currently, there are 567 large supermarkets of foreign brands in China, 102 more than in 2005. Averagely, each one of these super-markets made a sales value of 215 million yuan in 2006, a 5% growth, much better than their domestic counterparts.

 

Besides opening new outlets, foreign retailers have also bought many domestic ones to expand their business.