The main home product retailers in Chins include both domestic brands such as Macalline, Easyhome, B&Q and foreign brands Ikea.
Ikea
Ikea is a privately held Swedish company. This company is the world’s largest furniture retailer founded in 1943. It is known for its modern architectural designs on various types of appliance and furniture, often related with a simplified and eco-friendly style. The first retail store of Ikea was opened in Shanghai in 1998. And another one was opened in Beijing next year. It is the first chain furniture retailer in China. Now, there are one Ikea in Beijing and two in Shanghai.
Macalline
Headquartered in Shanghai, Red Star Macalline is a leading retailer in China. Mr. Che Jianxin first founded the company as a furniture manufacturer in 1986. Five years later, it began to operate and lease out its first furniture shopping mall, and by 1999 had entered the key markets of Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. Warburg Pincus was introduced as a strategic investor, and by 2009, Red Star Macalline had developed a China-wide network of over 52 furniture malls in 36 cities .With 5,000 unique tenants covering a GFA in excess of 5.0 million square meters, Red Star Macalline is three times larger than its nearest competitor.
Of the current 52 malls, 15 are owned by Red Star, 13 are leased, and 24 are franchised. The total leasable area of self-owned and leased stores is currently approximately 2.5 million square meters with a typical mall area of between 40,000 and 150,000 square meters.
B&Q
B&Q is a British multinational DIY and home improvement retailing company headquartered in Eastleigh, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1969. It is the largest DIY retail chain in China. The store was originally called Block&Quayle. First, in 1995 it co-operated with parent company Kingfisher plc to open its first overseas subsidiary in Taiwan, and in 1996 the first overseas large home improvement center in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. In 1999 B&Q opened a store in Shanghai, and acquired the British hardware mailorder company, Screwfix. B&Q opened the first store in Hong Kong on 1 June 2007, but was scheduled to close it on 13 September 2009. In March 2009, Kingfisher closed 22 of their 63 stores in China blaming the housing slump. By the year 2011, B&Q had 40 stores in total in China.
