53.7 F
San Diego
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
-Advertisement-

Trade PriceSmart opens three more stores abroad



Tadpole Makes Software Available to the National Utilities in South Korea

By the end of May, San Diego-based PriceSmart Inc. will have opened three new membership club warehouses abroad.

The company launched its first stores in the Virgin Islands and the Philippines earlier this month, and will open its third store in Guatemala on May 29.

The additions are part of a rapid expansion for the company , 19 of the 21 stores they operate have opened in 10 countries the last 26 months.

Expect five to 10 more stores to open in the Philippines, said Ron deHarte, senior vice president of marketing. He said there was no time frame for the new stores, but another store will open in Barbados in August.

The expansion comes as PriceSmart has repositioned itself from simply licensing the rights to the stores to opening and managing the warehouses themselves.

The warehouses it operates are located in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Philippines.

PriceSmart also licenses five warehouses in China and one in Micronesia.

The company targets what it calls the “rapidly emerging consumer class” in Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

There are three factors the company reviews in selecting a location, deHarte said. First, consumers must be predisposed to buying U.S. name-brand goods. Secondly, the stores must be able to offer lower prices than what is already on the market. The country must also have laws that allow for majority ownership by foreign companies.

PriceSmart is modeled after the Price Club stores, founded by Robert and Sol Price. The two are significant shareholders in PriceSmart.

– – –


Tadpole To Seoul:

Tadpole Technology plc announced that its software would be available on the South Korean market to the country’s national utilities.

Carlsbad-based Tadpole-Cartesia, the software business unit of Tadpole, will team with Hemann Technologies of Seoul.

Hemann provides geographical information systems to South Korea’s national electric, gas, water and telecommunications industries.

Tadpole-Cartesia offers mobile information systems for utilities, telecommunications and public service industries.


Sol To Seoul:

San Diego-based SolarFlex Technologies, Inc., ventured into business with Trans Marketing International of Seoul.

SolarFlex, which develops and manufactures solar power technologies, and Trans Marketing, a conglomerate of high-tech companies, have formed SolarFlex Corporation Korea.

The company will focus on solar power technology in consumer products such as cell phones.

“We will start manufacturing a machine that will create solar cells, which are then put into products like cell phones to create solar power,” said Jeff Korber, SolarFlex’s board chairman.

He said the product would likely be sold in Asia, where there is high demand for this sort of technology.

The machine will likely be ready to produce solar cells by late spring, Korber said.

The joint venture’s main office will be in Chula Vista. Trans Marketing has provided $5 million toward the construction of a facility in Carlsbad.

It will be the first manufacturing plant for SolarFlex, which plans to build 10 solar facilities in the next five years. The company was founded in 1998.

– – –


Partners In Greece, Poland:

Document service provider Altris Software, Inc., signed with three new partners: Key Systems of Greece, MCX in Poland and Knowledge Management Systems Consulting of Los Angeles.

Altris is headquartered in San Diego and has partners in the Middle East and Singapore and several in Europe.

Marketing Director Corinne Schmidt said the company expects the partnerships to expand the company’s customer base in Greece and Poland, but couldn’t say by how much.


Battery Production Starts:

Gold Peak Industries Inc. began the mass production of an advanced lithium ion rechargeable battery typically used in laptop computers.

The Hong Kong company has its North American headquarters in San Diego.

The company said it is one of the first in the industry to begin mass production of the Millennium Cell, which bears the technical name the 2100mAh Lithium Ion 18650 battery. It is mainly used in laptops, camcorders and cell phones. Design and technology for the battery has evolved since it hit the market in 1992.

– – –


China Mission:

Three regional economic development groups are putting together a China business mission that will depart San Diego on June 17.

The trip is sponsored by the South San Diego County Economic Development Council, the Economic Development Team of the Californias and the Southern California Chinese Association of Commerce.

The 11-day trip will offer meetings with local government officials and business leaders.

Please send international business news to adonohue@sdbj.com or fax it to (858) 571-3628.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-