Metro AG plans to open two more Cash & Carry stores in Shanghai in the next two years, its China operation chief said yesterday.

The world's third-largest retailer will also launch new stores in Beijing, Jiaxing and Changzhou, Jean-Luc Tuzes, president of Metro Jinjiang Cash & Carry Co Ltd, said. The company now operates 31 stores in 27 cities in the Chinese mainland.

One of Shanghai's two new stores will be located in suburban Qingpu District, he said. The company has chosen Qingpu for its access to a highway network that ensures "commuting time is short enough" for its customers, a requirement for opening a new store, Tuzes explained. Other requirements for a new store include a land parcel large enough to hold 300 to 600 parking spaces for customers.

Tuzes said his company is "trying to buy land" for the Qingpu store, but it may also consider leasing.

Tuzes didn't specify on the location of the other Shanghai store.

Shanghai now has four Metro stores in the city, in Putuo, Hongkou, Minhang and Pudong districts.

Metro Jinjiang will launch two stores late this year: one in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, and one in Beijing.

"The new Beijing store will be located in Shibalidian," a suburb, Tuzes said.

The executive also said a sixth Jiangsu Province store is scheduled to open early next year in Changzhou.

Metro Jinjiang has opened an average three stores a year in China since its first outlet in Shanghai in 1996, but it has decided to launch six to 10 stores in the next few years, after recognizing the country's huge development potential. The move is also part of the company's global strategy, which focuses expansion on emerging markets in Asia and East Europe.

"The beauty of emerging markets" like China and Russia is that they are very "adaptive and fast in movement," Frans Muller, member of the management board of German-based parent Metro AG, said in a recent interview.

Tuzes said expansion in the next few years will give priority to regions headquartered in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. The central region, centered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, apparently takes a back seat.

"We've adopted a plan of spiral growth" spreading from the three regional headquarters, Tuzes said.