(Yicai) Jan. 9 -- Two and a half years after stepping down as chairman, Suning.Com’s founder Zhang Jindong is reasserting his influence on the embattled Chinese electrical appliances retailer and plans on getting the company back into the black this year.

Suning’s main goals are overall operating profitability and scale profitability at its core 3C (computers, communications, and consumer electronics) business, Zhang said at the Nanjing-based firm’s recent work meeting for the year ahead.

Suning's net loss shrank 43 percent to CNY2.6 billion (USD363 million) in the nine months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, while revenue dropped 12.4 percent to CNY48.7 billion (USD6.9 billion), according to its most recent trading report.

Zhang plans an organizational shakeup, aiming to minimize the management hierarchy and allow more employees to face the market and respond quickly to it. 

The company will continue to develop in lower-level markets, and while accelerating its layout in county and town markets, online retail will form a three-dimensional store network, Zhang noted. The firm will also set up more than 3,000 stores in lower-tier markets this year, he said.

Zhang, who is honorary chairman of Suning Holdings Group, resigned as Suning’s chairman in 2021. In the July of that year, he transferred his controlling stake to industrial capital with a state-owned background in Jiangsu province to solve Suning's funding crisis.

Editor: Martin Kadiev