Japan and China are being targeted by Tesco as it accelerated its overseas expansion. Deputy chairman David Reid said: "We believe there are opportunities to open hypermarkets in these countries ­ that's the attraction. We have people out there and we will see what comes out of their research." Reid said the research projects under way could take up to a year to complete. However, as we revealed earlier this year, Tesco has been sniffing around Japan for months so it may be close to clinching a deal (The Grocer, March 11, p5). China has also been on Tesco's priority list for years, and Reid pointed out that its partner in Thailand already operated a "handful" of stores in China. He added: "We can see that things are moving fairly fast in China in terms of the development of modern retailing and a modern retailing infrastructure." Reid also revealed that a research project under way in Malaysia was now at an advanced stage. And he said Tesco was spending time looking at acquisition opportunities in Western Europe. Reid made it clear Tesco would continue to focus its global expansion on two key regions: Asia and Europe. The retailer spent £500m last year building hypermarkets around the globe and has earmarked £800m worth of investment for the coming 12 months. With 130 hypermarkets due to be operational by 2002, Reid said 45% of Tesco's space would be overseas. By then, he said, its international business would be generating sales of £5bn (compared with £2bn today) and profit of £150m. Reid claimed: "Tesco is growing space faster at 15% per annum than its global rival hypermarket operators. "We are developing real scale in our own right with this organic growth programme. We are large, we are improving our capability and our performance, and that puts us in a stronger position generally." {{NEWS }}

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