Yonghui Supermarket (601933, SH), the leading fresh food retailer with a market value of over 38.7 billion, ushered in important personnel changes.
On the afternoon of August 5, Yonghui Supermarket announced that Chief Executive Li Guo resigned as chief executive officer, but still served as a director. Li Songfeng, the chief technology officer of Yonghui Supermarket, has a background in JD.com. However, the appointment was not collectively approved by the board of directors, and one director voted against it. The director who voted against it was Liao Jianwen, who was previously the chief strategy officer of Jingdong Group. Liao Jianwen’s objection is that Li Songfeng needs to make up for his experience, leadership and organizational skills in retail, especially in the supermarket industry.
The “Daily Economic News” reporter noted that in the first quarter of this year, Yonghui Supermarket’s net profit was 23.318 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 98.51%, and the decline has not stopped.
The former chief strategy officer of Jingdong Group voted against
On the 5th, Yonghui Supermarket announced that CEO Li Guo resigned as CEO, but still served as a director.
In addition, Li Guo will become the chairman of Fuping Yunshang Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., focusing on the purchase, packaging and sales of large single products at the source.
Li Guo joined Yonghui in 2001. During his tenure as CEO, the company entered the “Thousand Stores Era”. Especially in 2016 and 2017, Yonghui Supermarket’s performance growth rate ushered in ultra-high growth. In 2016 and 2017, the revenue growth rate of Yonghui Supermarket was 16.82% and 19.01%, respectively, and the net profit growth rate was 105.18% and 46.28% respectively.
However, in 2018, the profit growth rate of Yonghui Supermarket ushered in an inflection point. The net profit for the year fell 18.52% year-on-year, and the net profit after deduction fell 49.56% year-on-year. In the last year’s epidemic, Yonghui Supermarket’s net profit after non-deduction fell by 45.35% year-on-year.
This time, Yonghui Supermarket also appointed a new CEO Li Songfeng. However, regarding the appointment of Li Songfeng, the opinions of all directors did not reach a consensus. Director Liao Jianwen voted the only negative vote.
The reason for Liao Jianwen’s objection is that the current candidates have a strong technical background, especially the construction of the enterprise technology center, which helps to promote the technical realization behind the omni-channel strategy. But it needs to be supplemented with experience and leadership and organizational skills in retail, especially in the supermarket industry.
Liao Jianwen suggested that the board of directors conduct further research, and the nomination committee will search for candidates extensively, and then submit the candidate’s suggestions and related materials to the board of directors 1 to 2 months in advance according to the established working procedures, and then the board of directors will further review.
The “Daily Economic News” reporter noted that Liao Jianwen and Li Songfeng are not only colleagues of Yonghui Supermarket, but also colleagues of JD.com.
According to the announcement, from 2011 to 2021, Li Songfeng served as senior director of Jingdong Group and CTO of Yonghui Supermarket, and experienced Jingdong’s development from a tens of billions of e-commerce company to a trillions of supply chain-based technology and service companies. It is deeply involved in the transformation of JD.com’s mobile Internet, the construction of China-Taiwanization, and the enabling of technology to the outside world. Because of his outstanding abilities and outstanding contributions, he was selected as the future leader of JD Pilot in JD.com.
According to the 2020 annual report of Yonghui Supermarket, Liao Jianwen is appointed as the chief strategy officer of Jingdong Group. However, according to reports from the interface and other media on July 12 this year, JD.com released an internal document stating that Liao Jianwen, the chief strategy officer of the group, applied for personal retirement due to physical reasons. In the future, Liao Jianwen will continue to support and guide JD’s strategic development as an honorary consultant of the group.
Emphasis on technological transformation in a difficult situation
This time, Li Songfeng was elected as CEO, mainly related to the transformation of Yonghui Supermarket.
Yonghui Supermarket said that Li Songfeng has professional technology in retail technology, systematic thinking ability and good team organization ability. The company believes that Li Songfeng can better take the lead in establishing an organizational system for technology-driven operations, and lead the company to a technology-driven development.
In fact, Yonghui Supermarket mentioned the development of science and technology many times in its 2020 annual report.
According to the disclosure, the company’s large technology center will complete the introduction of five first-level department heads in the fourth quarter of 2020. Yonghui’s efforts in the field of science and technology are mainly to promote the development of online business and supply chain business.
During the epidemic last year, Yonghui Supermarket’s online sales reached 10.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 198%.
At the annual general meeting of shareholders in May this year, Zhang Xuansong, chairman of Yonghui, said that the current retail market has begun to enter the stage of stock competition. Yonghui will continue to adhere to the user-centric approach and strengthen technological capabilities and supply chain capabilities through innovative business models. Make an increase in the stock. At the same time, guided by the digital transformation strategy of “Technology Yonghui, Digital Empowerment”, further promote the omni-channel business strategic transformation.
However, for Li Songfeng, how to make Yonghui Supermarket out of its performance decline is more critical. In the first quarter of this year, Yonghui Supermarket’s net profit was 23.318 million, a year-on-year decrease of 98.51%. In the fourth quarter of last year, the company’s net profit even lost 234 million, a year-on-year decline of 1021.21%.
Source of cover image: Every photo by reporter Zhu Wanping