CP Lotus books a loss after expanding network

Hong Kong-listed Chinese supermarket operator CP Lotus Corporation has posted a loss of RMB 288.4 million (US$43 million) as it rolls out new stores.

But the Thai-led company has promised to continue to open new stores on the mainland, revealing plans for a new brand of shops selling only food and will explore new opportunities to open specialty areas within existing stores.

Sales for the group rose 4.8 per cent to about RMB 10.122 billion for the year to December, largely due to the opening of eight new hypermarkets, two boutique supermarkets and a new neighbourhood store. Same-store sales rose by 0.6 per cent, with fresh food and dry-grocery categories fuelling the growth.

As at December 31, CP Lotus Corporation owned and operated 80 retail stores and three shopping centres on the mainland.

Last year, the group’s strategy shifted from primarily developing the hypermarket sector to a more comprehensive multi-sector development of large, medium, small and micro stores, as Lotus stores now include boutique supermarkets Lotus Plus, neighbourhood stores and Lotus Mini stores. In the online-to-offline sector, the group continued to promote the integration of online and offline channels and upgrade the operating standard of the self-developed e-commerce shopping app Lotus-Go, while also working with with large e-commerce platforms such as JD, Tmall and Meituan.

The company also expanded into new regions, including Guangxi, where it opened a hypermarket in Qinzhou City. The company also opened a boutique supermarket in Changsha and two hypermarkets in Yongzhou, each located in Hunan Province where the Group has been actively developing.

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