Tasty investment for fruit shop chain

China's largest fruit shop chain Pagoda said on Wednesday it had obtained 400 million yuan in A Series funding, the single largest financing secured in the domestic fruit chain retail industry.

Tiantu Capital, which specializes in consumer goods investment, invested 350 million yuan in this round of financing, and became the second-largest shareholder of Pagoda.

Yu Huiyong, president of the Shenzhen-based greengrocery chain, said the funding will be used for supply chain construction and optimization, IT team building and the establishment of more stores across the nation.

"We will add 600 new stores next year, and from 2017, the number of stores will be not less than 1,000 each year," said Yu.

Founded in 2001, Pagoda has opened more than 1,200 stores in 19 cities nationwide. At present, annual sales revenue has surpassed 2 billion yuan.

"We will focus on Beijing next year and Nanjing the year after. The number of newly-opened stores will exceed 100 in Beijing next year," according to Yu.

Yu added the company will continue to expand offline business and provide a supply chain service for e-commerce platforms. "Online expansion will also be one of the important development channels in future. We will become a supply chain provider and strengthen cooperation with a fresh fruit e-commerce platform".