Portfolio update September 2025
A weak month for the portfolio, but with three deep dives published, plenty to think about.
Troubled sector with recovery potential. Estimated reading time: 18 mins
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1. Grocery is a commodity industry
2. The local competitors
2.1. Sun Art
2.2. Yonghui
2.3. Jiajiayue
2.4. Better Life
2.5. Other competitors
3. Benchmarking of listed supermarkets
4. The golden years of grocery shopping
5. Recent trends in the industry
5.1. Online grocery retail
5.2. Private label
5.3. Fresh food as a driver for foot traffic
6. The onset of COVID-19
7. Group-buying carnage
8. A new dawn?
9. Opportunities in the sector
10. Conclusion
Supermarkets are simple. They purchase products from suppliers and put them on display for customers. There are not many barriers to entry, so competition tends to be fierce.
Since supermarkets rarely own the real estate in which they operate, they instead take on long-term leases, which adds risk and leverage to the business.
Supermarkets offer a combination of the following selling points:
Several of these factors are contradictory. For example, a grocery store cannot combine city-centre real estate with the lowest possible prices.
In other words, retailers have to specialise. There is no one-size-fits-all format that’s perfect for every customer.
I’ve been able to identify four separate business models within grocery retail that have worked across the world:
Deep reports for serious, Asia-focused investors.
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