HANOI, May 16 (Xinhua) -- French supermarket group Auchan Retail, the last western distributor in Vietnam, has decided to withdraw from the Vietnamese market, local media reported on Thursday.
Auchan's loss-making business in Vietnam has been acquired by a domestic retailer, online newspaper VnExpress reported.
During the four years of operation in Vietnam, Auchan has been operating a network of 18 supermarkets across the country, mostly in Ho Chi Minh City. Last year, the supermarkets generated total revenues of 50.4 million U.S. dollars.
Auchan's exit from Vietnam came few days after the sale of almost all of its subsidiary in Italy to the cooperative retail group Conad.
According to Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, the country's total revenues generated from the retail sales of goods and consumer services are estimated to grow at an average of 13 percent from now to 2020.
In 2018, the revenues rose to nearly 4,396 trillion Vietnamese dong (roughly 191.1 billion U.S. dollars), up 11.7 percent year-on-year, Vietnam's General Statistics Office said.
