China: Pagoda Orchard merger with Chaoqi Fruits

On 22 June, Pagoda Orchard, leader in the fruit industry, added another area to its territory, by opening the mountain city Chongqing. It announced that it would start a strategic partnership with Chaoqi Fruits from Chongqing, another leader in the industry. Through this partnership, the end sales from Chongqing Chaoqi will merge into Pagoda Orchard's regional department. They will then be handled by Song Ligang, general manager of the Pagoda Orchard Chongqing region. Both parties will enter into a close cooperation on matters such as purchasing and the distribution of fruit produce.

Tian Weihua, vice general manager of Chongqing Chaoqi stated that Chaoqi has become the biggest fruit distributor in Chongqing. This means that it can steadily supply Pagoda Orchard with excellent products and strong logistic support. The cooperation will improve the efficiency of end sales, and the two parties will complement each other greatly.

Song Ligang, general manager of the Pagoda Orchard Chongqing region explains that on 24 February 2017 Pagoda Orchard opened 16 stores at the same time. In March 2017 they reached 34 stores, while simultaneously starting an online service app. In April 2017 they had 44 stores, and also brought their shops into three main platforms: Meituan, Jingdong and Walmart. It is estimated that Pagoda Orchard will reach over 450 stores in Chongqing by 2020. By using O2O and next day delivery they will be able to cover the entire Chongqing area.

In the past few years, Chaoqi Fruits has handled production, processing, storage, distribution, sales, chain retailers and so on. It is a diversified, leading company that has its roots in the southwest, in Chongqing. It cooperates with over ten large scale supermarkets, such as Walmart, New World Department Store and Zhongbai Warehouse. It manages many distribution markets and fruit delivery centers, processing centers in production areas, and has 120 million refrigerated warehouses that can store 28000 tons of fruit, so it can satisfy the delivery demands of its 450 stores in Chongqing.