Asos plans growth in China and Russia

The online fashion retailer Asos expects to have own-language websites in two of the fastest-growing and biggest markets, China and Russia, by October.

Its plans were unveiled yesterday after second-quarter sales came in ahead of expectations. Asos, which ships to 230 countries, singled out barnstorming growth from its websites in France and Germany, while its domestic market continued its recent revival.

The retailer tried to keep a lid on expectations about growth opportunities in China and Russia but both have a rapidly rising middle class and massive populations of 1.4 billion and 143 million respectively.

On China, Asos's chief executive, Nick Robertson, said: "We don't want to get carried away with that. It is all about getting there and building it up."

China will be the only place where Asos holds stock locally, as opposed to delivering from the UK.