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Shoppers in Asia Want Europe’s Handbags, Not Its Supermarkets
- Tesco, Carrefour, Metro among those exiting businesses
- Reasons include competition, slower spending in China
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Even as global consumer brands grow more dependent on Asia for sales of everything from fancy handbags to baby formula, European retailers keep retreating from the world’s fastest-growing markets.
The U.K.’s Tesco Plc, which said this month that it’s weighing a sale of its Thailand and Malaysia operations, is just the latest. Earlier this year, Germany’s Metro AG and France’s Carrefour SA offloaded their big-box stores in China. Britain’s Marks & Spencer Group Plc beat them to the exit by completing a regional pullback last year.