Luxury goods: A file picture showing people waiting to cross a road in front of a Louis Vuitton store in Hong Kong. Companies that have a luxury or premium position are doing much better in Asia. — Bloomberg
LONDON: 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 UK’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.
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