Beijing Eagle Electronics, a high-end subsidiary of GOME Electrical Appliances owned by China's electronics retailing tycoon Huang Guangyu, has transformed its identity into "Beijing Store No. 50 of GOME." The new outlet is set to open this Saturday on January 20, 2007, according to an announcement made by Gome Beijing on Jan. 14.

The predecessor of Beijing Store No. 50 of GOME is Eagle Electronics Beijing Store whose operation was suspended in mid-December 2006 for a major overhaul. Located in Madian, a booming area of Beijing, and covering a business floorage of 20,000 square meters, Eagle-turned-Gome Beijing Store is now the largest outlet chain of Gome Electrical Appliances and the most expansive home appliance store in Beijing. Gome plans to build up this store into its 5-A flagship store by enhancing its product variety, shopping environment, business floorage, service quality, and sales volume.

Over the four weeks of Eagle's preparation for its merging into Gome, the Madian commercial area has witnessed an enormous change: Suning, the country's second-largest electrical retailer, is opening the outlets in a bid to steal a march on larger rival Gome; Hongtu Sanpower, a giant retailer of IT products such as PCs, notebooks, handsets, digital cameras, cellphones, has also set up an outlet tower to the east of Eagle to snatch a share of the digital and IT sales market in this area. To meet this challenging competition, Gome Beijing is said to have get ready to stage a giveaway promotion based on large-scale discounts estimated at 50 million yuan ($6.36 million), using the pricing incentive to attract largest consumership on the retailers' battlefield of the capital city.

Eagle, which was previously well known for its retailing of only high-end electronic appliances, had set up several big stores in Beijing and reached Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in late 2006. Northeast China's Shenyang Eagle will be the second Eagle outlet in the other parts of the country to be merged into Gome, and all the other Eagle outlets nationwide will be renamed "Gome Eagle Store" in the coming months.

After the merger and integration, Eagle Gome stores will continue to focus on their high-end brand operation, under banner and aegis of GOME Electrical Appliances, to guarantee their sustainable growth, said He Yangqing, brand supervisor of GOME in Beijing on Sunday.

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