KARACHI: Europe’s leading superstore, El Corte, has signed an agreement with Pakistani company Firoz International, to operate its buying offices in Karachi and Lahore, a Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) statement said on Monday.
El Corte, which is based in Spain, is the world’s fourth largest superstore chain.
The statement termed the agreement a big achievement, as El Corte currently operated its procurement wing of South Asia from India. The opening of the office in Pakistan is also the beginning of better opportunities for Pakistani exports to Spain, it said. The office will be responsible for introducing new sourcing partners and products from Pakistan, it added.
El Corte has an annual turnover of over $25 billion and is a trusted name in the European market. It has more than 400 stores under the brand names of El Corte Ingles, Hipercor, Supercor, Opencor among others. The annual imports of El Corte Ingles are more than $12 billion, 80 per cent of which are from Asia.
The statement said that TDAP had sponsored and organised the visit of an El Corte delegation to Pakistan in February. The head of the international supply chain division of El Corte, Borja de la Cierva, who led the delegation, had meetings with 272 different Pakistani companies in Lahore, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Karachi besides visiting 59 selective production facilities in these cities.
According to El Corte’s director of sourcing, export orders from Pakistan have already exceeded €10 million since February.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ