The encyclopedia · Sales & Retail · Strategic decision · 1950–2025
A 75-year-old store shut its doors: Xuzhou Central closed after ¥66.6M of losses
Founded in 1950, once northern Jiangsu's first ¥100M store. After three years losing ¥66.6M and a 35% vacancy rate, Xuzhou Central closed December 19, 2025.
Xuzhou Central Department Store (徐州中央百货大楼) · 2025-12-19
What happened
The store began in 1950 as the Xuzhou Department Store, grew into the city's biggest state-run shop, and in 1987 became the first store in northern Jiangsu to pass ¥100 million in annual sales. Nanjing's Central Mall group bought and reorganized it in 2004; in 2019 it moved into a larger 110,000-square-metre home at Tiancheng International Trade Center, betting that a bigger store could reverse a shrinking one.
The numbers moved the other way. The store lost ¥66.6093 million in total across 2022–2024; in the first three quarters of 2024 alone it took in ¥40.5284 million of revenue against a ¥27.275 million loss. By late 2025 about 35% of the floor stood empty, lease contract disputes involving more than ¥50 million had piled up, and the parent — itself carrying a 93.6% debt-to-asset ratio at the end of 2024 and a ¥53.5 million net loss for the first three quarters of 2025 — announced a suspension plan on December 10, 2025. The store closed on December 19.
The official statement called the closure a prudent decision to stop losses and refocus on core businesses and stronger regional markets. A 75-year-old landmark of one city's retail ended with a clearance sale and a plan to reopen the format in a county town.
Why it happened
- Three straight losing years — ¥66.6093 million across 2022–2024 — left no path back to profitability.
- The 2019 move to a bigger store raised costs while sales kept falling; a third of the floor was vacant by 2025.
- Lease disputes worth over ¥50 million concentrated the pain and accelerated the decision.
- A parent company at 93.6% debt-to-asset ratio could no longer subsidise a branch that made up 2% of group revenue.
The lesson
A bigger store is not a turnaround plan. The 2019 relocation expanded the footprint of a business whose demand was shrinking, and five years later the only decision left was which losses to keep.
Aftermath
Central Mall is leasing 140,000 square metres in Peixian's Xirun City mall — bigger than the Xuzhou store it replaces — on a 10-year lease, to absorb the business and staff. The group says the closure optimises its store network; the 75-year Xuzhou landmark is gone from the city center.
Sources
- Sohu — Xuzhou Central Department Store suspension: the business lessons behind a 75-year landmark's exit, 2025-12-10
- Sohu — Central Mall cuts its loss on the Xuzhou store after ¥66.6M in losses, bets on Peixian, 2025-12
- Jiangsu Economic News — Central Mall's Xuzhou store suspends operations, cumulative losses ¥66.6093M, 2025-12-12
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