Hon Hai, Metro Group Team Up to Tap China`s Consumer Electronics Market

The Hon Hai Group has signed an agreement with the Metro Group of Germany to jointly tap mainland China`s consumer electronics market by opening marts there in 2010 to sell computers, communications equipment and consumer electronics.

Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou said the collaboration offers his company a good chance to expand operation into the services sector from contract manufacturing. He noted his group is now the largest private corporation in the mainland by employee headcount.

The partnership is deemed the first step of Gou`s plan to venture into the mainland`s retail market of electronics products. Last year, Gou stated at a Hon Hai internal conference that the group would begin to make foray into the mainland`s retail market of information technology and information products this year.

One of the reasons behind Metro`s cooperation with Hon Hai to tap the mainland market is the huge potential of the market, as Metro Chief Executive Officer Echard Cordes said the Chinese mainland is the world`s fastest growing economy. He added his company would duplicate its success story in Europe in China.

Hon Hai is currently the world`s No.1 contract manufacturer electronics products and has numbered heavyweight suppliers like HP, Sony and Apple among its customers.

Metro Group is Europe`s No.1 retail conglomerate, operating 768 stores in 16 European countries and 1,432 stores outside Europe. Its global operations raked in revenues of 68 billion euros last year. The group operated the Makro mart chain in Taiwan several years ago.

Source: CENS