China's home appliance retailing giant Gome said it plans to expand its network as it has finished upgrading its stores nationwide, Chinese portal Sina.com said Friday.

Gome will open 160 stores in September, including 70 new stores and 90 renovated ones. Of the 70 new stores, 49 belong to the company's listed subsidiary, Gome Electrical Appliances Holding, and 61 of the 90 upgraded stores are under the listed arm, the report said.

Sun Yiding, vice president of Gome, said 130 new stores will be opened in the second half, including some large-scaled flagship stores.

At present, about 300 Gome stores which were previously closed for renovation have finished being upgraded.

Gome's expansion in the first stages will focuses on five regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan area, Shanghai, Sichuan province, Guangdong province and Shandong province, according to Sina.com.

A previously released company filing showed that Gome owned a total of 1,162 stores at the end of June.

(China Daily September 3, 2010)