Aeon slows China expansion, cuts costs

Aeon Co, Japan's largest supermarket operator, is cutting spending on stores at home and slowing expansion in China as it battles the worst retail market in at least 30 years, according to its Chief Financial Officer Masaaki Toyoshima.

The retailer will delay a target for 100 China stores by two years until February 2012 and reduce its three-year, 800 billion yen ($8.8 billion) capital expenditure plan.

"This is the toughest climate I've seen," Toyoshima said in an interview yesterday at Aeon's headquarters in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. "It is looking tougher by the month."