On February 27, wandecheng China announced that it would close its seven stores in Shanghai on March 11, 2013. Wandecheng Shanghai Huaihai store will continue to operate as a major customer service center until it closes on April 30. The decision was made with the approval of Metro China's two major shareholders, Germany's Metro Group and Foxconn Technology Group.
Metro Group, the main shareholder of wandecheng China, announced in mid January this year that it would not continue its business activities in China.
Wandecheng China has 750 employees in its Shanghai headquarters and seven stores. On behalf of the whole board of directors, Mr. Frank bussalb, President and CEO of wandecheng Electric China, expressed his thanks to all employees: "thank you for the excellent work of all employees of wandecheng China in the past two years. Excellent customer support and service have made great contributions to the development of wandecheng in China. The work, support and loyalty of employees deserve our praise. The decision to close stores is based on the fierce market competition environment and the huge investment required to establish and operate the necessary business scale. Please rest assured that all the promises made by wandecheng China to its employees, customers and business partners in the past two years will be fully fulfilled. '
In November 2010, wandecheng entered China and began to expand its business in China from Shanghai. In November last year, it announced the opening of the online mall. Only two months later, Metro, its controlling party, issued a formal statement that the company's two-year trial of wandecheng China had ended and decided to terminate its business in the Chinese market.
According to the previous Tencent technology report, wandecheng has been operating in a 'buy-out' mode. Although this mode obtains the exclusive right to operate in a certain period of time in a certain regional market, cash and cash intangibly increases the purchase cost and is prone to overstock. In addition, the model innovation of 'experience store' created by wandecheng has not set off a 'wave' in the market, but has begun to fall into the camp surrounded by competitors. The high cost, small scale and the online squeeze of traditional stores make it difficult for wandecheng to move in China.