MCMC Adds ShanghaiMart to Roster
Dallas-based Market Center Management Co. (MCMC), which operates the California Market Center (CMC) and the Dallas Market Center, recently announced a 10-year deal to manage the ShanghaiMart, Asia’s largest international trade mart.
At a press luncheon held July 19 at the CMC, officials said the top objective of the move is to centralize the sourcing process for retailers who are being wooed to the region by China’s low cost potential, which will grow with the elimination of quotas by 2005.
“Most retailers and apparel manufacturers are expecting significant growth out of China,” said Bill Winsor, MCMC’s president and chief executive officer. “Most have some sort of quality control offices there already and will want to expand, and if they don’t, they will want to add a presence by 2005.”
With a population of 16 million and per capita income higher than most Chinese cities, Shanghai represents a business platform for international trade that needs the scope of real estate management MCMC provides, said Yu-Lon Chiao, the ShanghaiMart’s director and general manager.
“The MCMC represents a vast scale of operations and this scale represents a network of possibilities for the ShanghaiMart,” Chiao said.
Winsor said the agreement doesn’t offer ownership at the ShanghaiMart but doesn’t rule it out for the future. The facility will continue to be owned by the Shanghai Hongqiao Economic & Technological Development Zone United Development Co. Ltd. and real estate holding company Continental Land Development.
The 3-year-old complex consists of a 30- story office tower, two exhibition halls and a 2,000-unit showroom facility. The 3 millionsquare- foot center is about half occupied with apparel, accessories, gift, furniture and building- supplier vendors. Cindy Morris, MCMC’s chief operating officer, said officials plan to expand into other industries at the ShanghaiMart.
Already, Wal-Mart has expressed interest in the building’s office tower, according to ShanghaiMart officials.
Winsor said that vendors at MCMC’s U.S. marts can also benefit from the partnership by opening up showrooms at the ShanghaiMart and participating in local fashion events, including Shanghai Fashion Week.
For the past three months, two consulting firms have conducted interviews with retailers and importers in the United States on behalf of MCMC to define their sourcing needs, Morris said.
Private buying programs and new trade shows were among the buyer requests, she added.
The ShanghaiMart deal highlights the divide occurring between Hong Kong and China as the former tries to maintain its ties to the apparel and manufacturing industries by boasting its services to foreign investors. However, as trade barriers diminish in China, retailers and manufacturers are more apt to forge relations there in spite of the ease of transacting business in Hong Kong, according to Winsor.
“If they can a read a sign at an airport and place a call, they’ll be willing to put up with less than in Hong Kong,” he said. —Nola Sarkisian-Miller
