Suning Xiaodian, which is owned by Chinese retail major Suning.com Co., has acquired more than 60 convenience stores in Guangzhou from Hong Kong conglomerate Fung Group.
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Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Suning Xiaodian convenience store chain has purchased the Circle K stores from Fung Group, in bid to expand its retail reach in southern China and continue its online-to-offline retail strategy.
In the last two years, Suning has been pushing to increase the number of its retail stores, covering all types including department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. In addition to setting up new outlets, the retailer continues to acquire existing locations from rival chain store operators.
Last year in April, the Alibaba-backe Suning acquired Spanish multinational Dia Group’s China retail operations, taking over more than 300 Dia Tiantian outlets in Shanghai.
Then in 2018, Suning bought 31 Grea Convenience stores, located in the central Chinese city of Xi’an. More recently, Suning went on to buy 37 department stores from the China’s Wanda Group in early 2019, before acquiring an 80% stake in hypermarket
operator Carrefour China just last month.
Circle K Stores operates 61 convenience stores in Guangzhou and approximately 300 stores in Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai. Fung Group has also closed more than a dozen stores in Guangzhou since 2015.
Suning expects the resources and experiences of Circle K management team to facilitate our foray into Guangzhou and the broader South China market in merchandizing, supply chain and regional network,” said Bian Nong, president of Suning’s consumer goods business group.
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Today, Suning boasts more than 7,500 self-operated and franchised stores, as well as some 5,400 Suning Xiaodian neighbourhood stores and discount chain Dia Tiantian outlets.