Chinese home appliances and electronics retailer Gome announced that the company's first owned store will be launched in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, this week.
Mong Kok has been one of the sites in recent weeks of protests in Hong Kong for freer elections.
Wang Junzhou, general manager of Gome, did not make any statement about the protest's impact on the store opening and he told local Chinese media that the positioning of the Gome Hong Kong store is as an international store instead of store of domestic products. For a certain period of time, Gome Hong Kong store's main products will be foreign-branded digital and audio-visual products. Wang also pointed out that as for Chinese brands, Gome will focus on those that have already entered the Hong Kong market such as Haier and Midea.
The new Gome Hong Kong store will have an area of 25,000 square feet. With the new store, Gome aims to seize a 30% market share in the Hong Kong home appliances market in two to three years. Meanwhile, the company plans to open at least three stores in the same period, with individual store annual sales of CNY1 billion.
As a major competitor of Gome, Suning has developed 27 chain stores in Hong Kong. During the first half of 2014, Suning's sales in Hong Kong reached CNY4 billion and its annual sales target is CNY10 billion.
