Yonghui plans to open department store

Yonghui Superstores Co Ltd, the Fuzhou-based supermarket chain, said on Thursday that it will open a department store this year.

The Shanghai-listed company said the new, 60,000-square-meter store will open late this year in Fuzhou, Fujian province, and might offer luxury products such as Louis Vuitton goods.

The supermarket chain said earlier that it plans to have 350 stores and 50 billion yuan ($8.1 billion) in sales revenue in China by 2014. Zhang Xuansong, chairman of the board, said recently the superstore operator will expand greatly through mergers and acquisitions.

In the retailer’s first quarterly report, net profit attributable to shareholders surged 133.5 percent year-on-year to 276.14 million yuan. Its operation revenue for the first three months grew 20.79 percent year-on-year to 7.52 billion yuan.

CTR, a Chinese research firm, said that Yonghui is emerging as the fastest-growing retailer in the country.