China joint venture plans 300 C-stores in Shanghai

Taiwan’s Ruentex Group and China’s Sinopec Corporation are planning to open 300 convenience stores within Sinopec’s petrol stations.

The two companies forged the joint venture agreement in August and are currently jointly operating eight Easy Joy convenience stores in Shanghai as a trial.

The plan comes at a time when Sinopec has sold 30% stake in its retail unit, which operates 30,000 petrol stations and 23,000 convenience stores, to 25 investors including Fosun International for US$17.44 billion.

Ruentex also runs about 600 convenience stores under the C-store brand and 300 hypermarkets in China under Sun Art Retail Group, a joint venture with France’s Groupe Auchan.