Chinese electronics retailer Suning has announced that it has signed an exclusive cooperative agreement with the world's leading home appliances maker Electrolux.

According to the agreement, Suning will gain the exclusive rights of selling Electrolux's washing machine products in China.

Staring from February 2009, Electrolux will withdraw from all other channels over three months. At the same time, Suning, as the only channel provider for Electrolux's washing machines in China, will sell the full range of Electrolux's washing machine products in its chain stores.

Gunilla Nordstrom, Electrolux's newly appointed China president, announced last week that the company plans to close its refrigerator plant in Changsha, Hunan province, in March 2009.

At the end of December 2008, Electrolux's sixth China president Li Yan resigned and Nordstrom, Electrolux's president for Asia Pacific, held a concurrent post as China president from then on. Having taken the position for about one month, Nordstrom recently paid a first visit to Shanghai and announced Electrolux's new strategy in the Chinese market. Nordstrom says, from 2009, Electrolux will focus on the high-end electronics and appliances segment market in China, mainly providing high-end kitchen appliances, washing machines and refrigerators in the market. Its businesses will be centralized in China's four municipalities and eight core provinces, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi.