RT-Mart's first "three-year roadmap": Aiming to transform nearly 50% of its performance online

The pressure on traditional supermarkets remains significant.

In the six months ending September 30, the parent company of RT-Mart, SUNART RETAIL, achieved operating revenue of 30.502 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 12.1%; among which, sales revenue of goods decreased by 12.4% year-on-year.

The decline in performance is mainly influenced by two factors: intensified market competition and weak consumption leading to a decrease in average transaction value, as well as the overlap of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays dispersing some consumer demand.

For RT-Mart, the phase of large-scale closure of inefficient stores has basically ended, but cost reduction and efficiency enhancement are still ongoing.

During the period, personnel expenses were saved by 186 million yuan through optimizing labor. However, due to revenue contraction, the sales expense ratio still rose by 1.8 percentage points to 23.9%.

As a result, after achieving a brief profit in the fiscal year 2025, SUNART RETAIL recorded a loss of 127 million yuan again in the first half of the fiscal year 2026.

Although it has not yet emerged from the pain of adjustment, in the first interim report after Dehong Capital took over, RT-Mart proposed its "three-year strategy" for future development for the first time.

On one hand, it focuses on enhancing product strength and differentiation capabilities, relying on national joint procurement and upgrading its own brands to construct cost advantages and price competitiveness.

RT-Mart has established a "1+1" dual-brand matrix around its own products, covering the main customer base through the cost-effective "Super Savings" series and the quality lifestyle-oriented "RT-Mart Selection."

On the other hand, it promotes spatial layout adjustments and optimizations around "easy shopping."

For example, changing long shelf sections to short shelf sections, removing main aisles, and weakening mandatory traffic lines; lowering shelf heights and increasing visual transparency; creating seasonal promotion areas with ready-to-sell scenarios, etc.

SUNART RETAIL revealed that in the new generation of large supermarket model stores, the sales proportion of fresh and processed goods has exceeded 30%.

In the future, store areas will be controlled at 6,000 to 7,500 square meters, with the number of product SKUs streamlined to about 15,000, while expanding the shopping street area to create community living centers.

Online sales are expected to become another important growth clue during the transformation process.

During the reporting period, SUNART RETAIL officially launched a front warehouse project, which has been implemented in five locations: Shanghai, Jiangyin, Luoyang, Jinan, and Qingyuan. The average area of a single warehouse is about 500 square meters, with an average daily sales of about 50,000 yuan.

Sources close to RT-Mart revealed to Xinfeng that some front warehouse points were transformed from original stores, and operations rely on the flexibility of large supermarket resources to support daily or multiple deliveries.

In the next three years, SUNART RETAIL plans to increase the online performance ratio to 40% to 50%.

However, at the current stage, although online channels contribute to sales growth, they show a trend of "increased volume but decreased prices."

In the six months ending September 30, SUNART RETAIL's online B2C order volume achieved same-store growth of about 7.4%, but the same-store online sales growth was only 2.1%.

The transformation of SUNART RETAIL is still in its early stages.

In September, the combined sales contribution of RT-Mart's dual brands exceeded 2%.

In comparison, Yonghui Superstores, which had previously made significant "fat reforms," had a sales contribution from its own brand stores ranging from 5% to 15%.

In terms of adjustment progress, SUNART RETAIL opened three new stores in the first half of the fiscal year 2026, completed the rectification of three stores in East China, and adjusted the fresh food areas of three stores in South China, with related capital expenditures reaching 264 million yuan According to the plan, the company will complete the renovation of over 30 stores in the fiscal year 2026 and cumulatively complete more than 200 stores before the fiscal year 2027.

Intensive renovations will inevitably be accompanied by short-term pain and financial pressure. The current loss situation of Yonghui Supermarket reflects the common challenges of industry transformation.

In the near future, SUNART RETAIL may face the dual challenges of rising expenses and intensified competition