(Yicai) March 19 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s supermarket chain Freshippo, also known as Hema Fresh, has replaced its chief executive officer with its chief financial officer. 

Yan Xiaolei succeeds founder Hou Yi, who stepped down as Freshippo CEO yesterday, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said in a letter sent to employees the same day.

Yan, 45, takes over after plans to list Freshippo were left up in the air. Alibaba said last May that it intended to take the Shanghai-based company public in Hong Kong within six to 12 months, but the plan was later put on hold. 

Recent market rumors said Alibaba has decided to sell Freshippo and hypermarket chain RT-Mart to Chinese state-owned food processing giant COFCO for about CNY20 billion and CNY10 billion (USD2.8 billion and USD1.4 billion), respectively. Executives at both units denied this to Yicai on March 17.

Wu noted Hou’s contribution to Freshippo’s launch and development, adding that he will remain at the company as chief honorary adviser.

Hou, 60, was director of logistics planning and general director of online-to-offline business at e-commerce platform JD.Com and has over 30 years of experience in retail. He set up Freshippo in 2015 and secured investment from Alibaba the following year. Freshippo has more than 360 outlets in 29 cities.

Yan has worked for electronics firm Siemens China and accountants KPMG. She joined Alibaba in 2016 as head of finance for the UC business unit, a position she previously held at shopping mall chain China Yintai Holdings, before being named CFO of Freshippo in 2018.

Editor: Martin Kadiev