(Yicai) Nov. 29 -- Yonghui Superstores, one of China’s biggest supermarket chains, plans to expand its network of stores permitted to tailor what they sell to suit local conditions by five times next year, according to a vice president at the company.

Yonghui aims to increase the number of so-called self-adjusted stores to 100 from nearly 20 now, Wang Shoucheng told Yicai in an interview yesterday, the same day that the Fuzhou-based company opened another in Anhui province.

The firm expects to have 40 or 50 of these stores before the Chinese New Year in February, Wang said. As of this month, Yonghui has about 800 outlets in total nationwide.

About four-fifths of the products sold in the new Anhui store differ from those in a typical Yonghui supermarket and it stocks more white-label items, Yicai found. “We have redesigned the store's traffic flow and introduced additional convenient services,” Wang said, adding that staff work a maximum eight-hour shift and earn a fifth more than is usual.

The company has been looking at ways to differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive retail landscape. Its self-adjusted stores can adapt to local demand in an effort to overcome the issue of homogenization, where outlets have similar layouts and offerings. The initiative aims to improve customer satisfaction, reduce operating costs, and minimize waste.

Yonghui is also exploring potential business collaboration with variety store operator Miniso, Wang said. Guangzhou-based Miniso announced in September that it plans to acquire a 29.4 percent stake in Yonghui, which owns premium supermarket Super Species and hypermarket Bravo YH, for about CNY6.3 billion (USD871 million).

In the first three quarters of this year, Yonghui reported a net loss of almost CNY77.9 million (USD10.9 million) on revenue of CNY54.6 billion (USD7.5 million), up 12 percent from a year ago, according to its most recent earnings report.

Editor: Emmi Laine