SPAR Group Extends Services to Retailers in China

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. -- Marketing services company SPAR Group, Inc. here has received approval from the Chinese government to start a company aimed at providing its services to retailers in China.

SPAR plans to establish an enterprise that will offer marketing services, including in-store merchandising, data collection, and in-store demonstrations, to retailers and manufacturers throughout China, covering more than 50 cities, including Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Beijing, Dalian, Chengdu, Chungqin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and the Pearl River Delta.

The enterprise is a direct investment of the SPAR joint venture company with SIMS Trading Company Limited, a division of CITIC Pacific Limited. SPAR Group will hold a 50 percent ownership interest in the new entity, which will be headquartered in Shanghai and operate under the name, SPAR (Shanghai) Field Marketing Company Ltd.

"Plans have been under way since early this year to launch the new company," said Robert G. Brown, SPAR Group's chairman and c.e.o. "In anticipation, we have been working diligently on all of our systems, which have been converted to Chinese and are now fully operational. Demonstrating SPAR Group's hallmark of innovation, we have developed a unique system that allows simultaneous use of Chinese and English. SPAR (Shanghai) Field Marketing will operate all of its new dual-language systems and provide reports to its customers in real time, 24/7, throughout the world."

SPAR Group has been expanding its international presence, having initiated operations in India, Turkey, and South Africa last year and more recently, in Romania since establishing its first joint venture in Japan in 2001. SPAR also has a wholly owned subsidiary in Canada.
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