Zhang Xuansong, chairman of the board, also said the superstore operator will close four stores which reported poor turnovers, the newspaper said.

The Fujian-based supermarket chain said earlier that it plans to have 350 stores and 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) in sales revenue in China by 2014.

In the retailer's first quarterly report, net profit attributable to shareholders of the Shanghai-listed company surged 133.5 percent year-on-year to 276.14 million yuan. Its operation revenue for the first three months grew 20.79 percent year-on-year to 7.52 billion yuan.