Alibaba is spending a further $3.6 billion to take control of Chinese grocery giant Sun Art Retail Group, taking its stake to approximately 72 per cent.

And, as of Monday, all Sun Art physical stores in China have been integrated into Alibaba’s Taoxianda and Tmall supermarket platforms, and now provide one-hour and half-day on-demand delivery through the ecosystem.

“As the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitisation of consumer lifestyles and enterprise operations, this commitment to Sun Art serves to strengthen our New Retail vision and serve more consumers with a fully integrated experience,” said Alibaba chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang. 

“Over the past three years, Sun Art has made significant progress in the digital transformation under a fast-changing market environment by leveraging resources and technology from the Alibaba ecosystem, to capitalise on the growth opportunities in China’s hypermarket and supermarket space.”

Current Sun Art CEO Peter Huang has been named chairman of the business, which operates 481 hypermarkets and three mid-sized supermarkets throughout China.