Sun Art Retail, the Chinese big-box venture once joint-owned by Auchan, posted its last FY figures before it becomes part of the wider Alibaba ecosystem. Alibaba exec Lin Xiaohai will become an executive director and new CEO of RT-Mart. The financial year-end date of Sun Art now changes from 31 December to 31 March to align with its new parent.

As of 31 December 2020, the group had 484 hypermarkets, six superstores and 24 mini stores. It is Year One for the group’s multi-format and omnichannel development. Online daily order per store (DOPS) was more than 1,000 at year-end. It also committed to accelerate a community group buying business, and leverage the group’s advantages to create a differentiated business model.

Impacted by the pandemic, H1 2020 performance exceeded expectations. Due to uncontrollable factors in H2 such as new virus outbreaks and fierce competition in the community group buying space, FY2020 revenue grew a mere 0.1% to CNY95.49 billion with comp growth of 1.0%.

Source: Sun Art Retail