Customers shop at a Carrefour store in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Li Hao/GT

 
Supermarket chain Carrefour China said it has reached cooperation with a state-owned facility in East China’s Anhui Province to help with its business upgrading. It comes amid online speculation that Carrefour China is facing bankruptcy and might withdraw from the Chinese market.

Carrefour China has reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Yingjiang district government of Anqing city, East China’s Anhui Province. The agreement involves equity investment in the supply chain and business operation, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

The two sides will also carry out cooperation in areas including industrial internet and digital economy innovation, it said.

The introduction of state-owned investment in Carrefour China will help ease its operation pressure, enhance market confidence, accelerate the pace of transformation, and promote and drive the high-quality development of the retail industry, analysts said.

Since late December, the supermarket chain has been in the spotlight on Chinese social media after a number of consumers complained that they were unable to pay with the supermarket’s shopping and value cards, with some interpreting it as a sign of problems at the retail company.

The firm denied the online speculation about closure in an interview with the Global Times in January.

The pandemic, high operating costs and competition from China’s rapidly growing e-commerce sector has put offline brick-and-mortar businesses including Carrefour under a lot of pressure in recent years.

In 2020, Carrefour China posted a net loss of 795 million yuan ($115.29 million) and the figure climbed to 3.34 billion yuan in 2021, Yicai reported.

Carrefour said it is actively seeking an upgrade and transformation, aiming to promote new supply chain models and explore other business formats such as community stores and membership stores in addition to traditional supermarkets. 

In 2023, China’s online retail market is expected to expand further. Rural e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce and instant retail services will continue to thrive, according to the China Online Retail Market Development Report issued by the Ministry of Commerce on Monday.

China's online retail sales reached 13.79 trillion yuan in 2022, up 4 percent year-on-year, maintaining a growth trend despite the impact of the epidemic, the report said.