This week, foreign media reported that Metro, a German retail wholesale supermarket group, began to sell its business in China through tender. It is said that the value of the transaction is about $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
It's not the first time that has been heard for Metro “Selling scandal. The "gossip target" has also changed from Fosun International and Tencent to Ali and Suning.
Looking at the report of Metro Group in fiscal year 2017-2018, we can see that the revenue of Mainland China Branch of Metro, registered in Shanghai, has reached 2.65 billion euros in fiscal year, which is about 3.03 billion US dollars according to the current exchange rate.
If the value is true which China's business transfer is between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, it would be a "tearful sale".
The reason for the "sell-off" may be that Metro's performance is not so good. In 2018, Metro's net revenue fell 1.6% year on year, while its profit before tax, interest, depreciation and amortization fell 5.3% year on year. During the period, profits increased only slightly by 0.9%.
Compared with Metro Group's revenue of 36.53 billion euros last year, China's market business accounted for only 7.3% of the total revenue, about 1/14, which is not a big deal at all. In terms of revenue scale, Mainland China ranks behind Germany, France and Russia as Metro's fourth largest market in the world.
Therefore, it can be said that the status of Germany and Europe as the focus of Metro's business is difficult to shake. Especially if the population size of these markets is taken into account. Abandoning China is not incomprehensible.
In 1996, in Putuo District, Shanghai, Metro opened its first store in China. It is around this time that Carrefour and Wal-Mart have also started "Chinese life".
Unlike Carrefour and Wal-Mart's "retail store style" for C-end customers and IKEA's "Nordic Style", Metro still maintains its typical "industrial warehousing style" in China, which is a slightly different shopping environment for Chinese people who like to celebrate.
In the location of stores, because of the requirement of store area, in order to save costs, Metro often chooses the main road away from the city center - typical European and American shopping scene rather than Chinese shopping scene. In addition, there is a "membership system" that makes the Chinese feel stubborn and almost dogmatic.
Various factors make it difficult for Metro to choose whenever it stands at the fork of the Chinese retail market.
In recent years, with the change of people's consumption concept, the success of Sam and other high-end member stores has made Metro "a big pressure mountain", so the changing membership threshold and temporary card operations are all to attract a new generation of consumers.
But Metro, who is used to doing business in enterprises, really doesn't know much about the people nowadays. Some people in the industry believe that China's retail environment is special, and the distribution density of the same industry is high, so the competition is fierce, which has a certain impact on the membership stores. Only by more precise matching with members' consumption needs, can membership stores maintain enough loyalty and growth space.
In simple terms, company customers pay more attention to cost considerations, while ordinary consumers want more cost-effective goods and good shopping experience.
Metro's procurement standards usually pay more attention to macro brand and commodity attributes, and tend to neglect micro-level commodity grade and quality. This is the service and operation habits developed under the B-end strategy. In the long run, it is impossible to match the more detailed needs of consumers in the new era.