Freshippo Breaks Into China’s Top 10 Chain Stores in 2022

On June 21, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association unveiled its annual ranking of China’s top 100 chain stores for 2022. Walmart China, Yonghui Superstores and RT-Mart ranked as the top three, followed by China Resources Vanguard (华润万家), Wumart Group (物美集团), Freshippo (also known as Hema Fresh), Lianhua Supermarket (联华超市), Jiajiayue Group (家家悦), Zhongbai Warehouse (中百仓储) and Century Supermarket Jiangsu (世纪华联江苏).

In comparison to the previous year’s rankings, Walmart China, Yonghui Superstores and RT-Mart continued to occupy the top three positions, with total sales (including tax) of 109.31 billion Chinese yuan ($15.09 billion), 97.99 billion yuan ($13.53 billion) and 92.01 billion yuan ($12.70 billion), respectively. Among the top 100 chain stores, there were 15 companies that had achieved sales exceeding 10 billion yuan ($1.38 billion), which represents two fewer companies compared with the 2021 list.

Freshippo made a notable entry into the top 10 for the first time, securing the sixth position with total sales of 61.00 billion yuan ($8.42 billion). Notably, when considering the 300 Freshippo outlets used in the analysis, each outlet achieved an average sales value of 203 million yuan (28.07 million). Carrefour China, which ranked ninth in the 2021 list with total sales of 20.08 billion yuan ($2.77 billion), did not participate in the 2022 survey. Meanwhile, Better Life Hypermart (步步高商业连锁) dropped out of the top 10 to the 25th position, with total sales of 6.28 billion yuan ($866.9 million).

When comparing the entry thresholds for the top 10 companies between 2021 and 2022, GOME Retail Holdings (国美零售), which ranked 10th in 2021, achieved a total sales value of 19.37 billion yuan ($2.67 billion) with 343 stores nationwide. However, in 2022, the 10th-ranked company, Century Supermarket Jiangsu, recorded a total sales value of 17.87 billion yuan ($2.47 billion) with 4,158 stores. This indicates a decrease of approximately 1.50 billion yuan ($207 million) in the entry threshold for the top 10 within a span of one year.

Owing to the significant growth of the warehouse membership supermarket model in recent years, Costco China secured the 48th position with only two stores and 3 billion yuan ($414.1 million) in sales. Impressively, each store thus achieved an average sales value of 1.5 billion yuan ($207.0 million). With the opening of the Costco Shanghai Pudong store this year, as well as the planned stores in Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shenzhen in 2023 and Nanjing in 2024, Costco China should have a total of seven stores by 2024. If each store manages to maintain this remarkable sales value, it is anticipated that Costco China could reach total sales of 7.5 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) by 2024, which would result in a significant leap in its ranking.

CHINA’S TOP 10 RETAIL CHAINS IN 2022

According to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association’s top 100 list, the top 10 retail chains in China in 2022 were as shown in the following table.

Image: Freshippo

This article was translated from Chinese.

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