Source: La Voz de Galicia Used the commercial network of the German multinational Metro Group
The Spanish multinational Calvo Group, this week signed an agreement with the German distribution company Metro Group to introduce its products in Chinese market. The agreement will be carried out through Metro China. Metro has great expectations for the future and seeks to expand the Spanish company’s products within the medium to long term.
However, the Calvo Group is very cautious about this operation and although it sees its great potential, wants to take “one step at a timeâ€, given that China’s tuna consumption is small and that the markets requirements for tuna is of a different quality than the one that has made the Calvo Group so successful.
The German firm, Metro, which the Calvo Group has chosen to enter the Chinese market with, is the third largest distributor in the world. Last year Metro Group reached a turnover of Euro 68,000 million.
The German group operates in 33 countries in Europe and Asia, through 2,100 commercial establishments under their brands Metro/Makro, Cash & Carry, Real Supermarkets, Media Market, Saturn and Galeria Kaufhof, in which they employ around 280,000 people.
China has 44 stores under the Cash & Carry name and plans to open more outlets.
Calvo intends to introduce to China; tuna, salad, sardines, pate and salmon produced in one of its four plants. The agreement reached with Metro is part of the expansion plan initiated by the company in 2006, when it was immersed in a deep financial crisis which it overcame later.
Currently, 70 per cent of Calvo’s total revenue comes from sales abroad. The company now exports to 58 countries, “but the goal is to reach 70,†said group chief executive, Manuel Calvo GarcÃa-Benavides.
Calvo leads the Spanish canned seafood market with a tuna market share of between 16 per cent and 18 per cent, and is also the market leader in Brazil with Gomes da Costa, which dominates a 50 per cent market share with sardine as its star product.
