(Yicai Global) May 6 -- New Chinese grocery e-retail brand Hema Fresh under e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding will bow out of Fuzhou in Southeast China from strategic considerations, its operator Shanghai Hema Network Technology announced yesterday, adding it will continue to hasten opening of new stores in other cities nationwide to realize its strategy of setting up 100 new branded stores and 100 new Hema Mini stores in one year, Chinese online technology media 36Kr reported today.

Hema has had three stores in Fuzhou, which is the capital of coastal Fujian province. One closed in the end of March and the other two will shut down tomorrow. “Fuzhou’s stores are too far from the supply chain depots and thus cannot gain the advantage of commodities for now and we have thus decided to withdraw from the city and come back when things get better,” Hema explained.

Hema Fresh will achieve its Double 100 strategy and close those stores with an incorrect orientation, while maintaining rapid development, Hou Yi, the company’s chief executive, said in March.

Hema opened seven venues nationwide over the past one month, one being its 15th store in Hangzhou where Alibaba is based, while the other outlets are in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Changsha. The company now has more than 220 locations nationwide, per the 36Kr report.

The firm witnessed explosive growth in its online business amid Covid-19 as its e-tail business volume nearly tripled on that of the same period last year, and the proportion of its online orders jumped to 80 percent from 50 percent, laying a foundation for its accelerating efforts to open new stores, and raising expectations it will start these up much faster as the virus wanes in China.

Editor: Ben Armour