Japanese retail giant AEON Co Ltd has revealed plans to almost quadruple the size of its wider Asian store network before the end of  February 2011. AEON, which is primarily a grocery retail specialist despite also having extensive speciality store and shopping mall networks, plans to increase the size of its 54-outlet-strong Asian network, excluding Japan, to 190 stores.

AEON is targeting around 18 new hypermarket and 10 new supermarket openings annually in China over the next three years, while Thailand and Malaysia will get 17 and 37 new stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets respectively. The retailer is also reportedly considering expanding into Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Vietnam is Asia's highest growth retail market, and some industry analysts suspect thatd an early foothold there would translate to immense long-term growth prospects, despite the likely absence of short-term profitability. Japan still accounts for 89% of the company's total revenues, with AEON's Asia & Other region accounting for just 6% of revenues in 2007.