Tomihiro Saegusa, the former General Manager of the Chengdu Ito Yokado Co was appointed as the China general representative by the company on March 26 from Imai Makoto. He also serves as the chairman of the Beijing Huatang Ito Yokado Co, Beijing Wangfujing Ito Yokado Co, Chengdu Ito Yokado Co, and vice-chairman of the Chengdu Seven & iHoldings.

The former deputy general manager and director of the Sales Department of the Chengdu Ito Yokado was appointed as general manager.

"Our priority is to set Chengdu as the base and to expand our market horizontally in Chongqing, Xi'an, Kunming, and Wuhan," said Saegusa.

The Chengdu Ito Yokado's personnel reshuffle this spring involved 220 employees, including more than half of its 120 employees above the general-manager levels.

Using Chinese executives is a remarkable step forward of this reshuffle, Jin Xiaosu, the former director of the company's management department was appointed as the company's deputy manager. He is the first Chinese holding a senior management position in the company.

Two Chinese citizens, Zhong Qing and Chen Shi, have been added to the board of directors. Zhong is the former director of development department and the first Chinese store manager of the Chengdu Ito Yokado. Chen is the former director of food department. Zhong currently serves as the director of the management department and Chen currently serves as the director of the online supermarket and food department. The number of chairmen on the board has increased from 9 to 10 and three of them are Chinese.

The company has also established new departments including the market department and exchange and communications department. It also adjusted its organizational structures to optimize the internal management process.

Imai Makoto said that the Chengdu Ito Yokado has already opened five outlets and the sixth outlet is expected to open in 2012.