Virtually connecting to the exchange in Hong Kong from an IPO celebration ceremony hosted at JD.com’s headquarters in Beijing, nine representatives took the stage to virtually ring the gong. The group included JD Logistics’ customers, clients and frontline employees, Willie Tan, executive officer of Skechers Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Korea, and JD Logistics’ six-axis robot, a logistics robot arm used in the company’s warehouse automation.
During his remarks at the ceremony, CEO of JD Logistics Rui Yu said “JD self-built its own logistics network in 2007. In the past 14 years, JD Logistics has taken the improvement of the customer experience as its responsibility. Through unrelenting investment in logistics infrastructure and technology, JD Logistics has launched services such as “211” (same- and next-day delivery) and 24-hour delivery in tens of thousands of counties and towns, redefining logistics service standards and providing JD.com customers with the best experience in the world.”
Per the company’s prospectus, the proceeds from JD Logistics’ IPO will be used to upgrade and expand its logistics networks, develop advanced technologies to be used in its supply chain solutions and logistics services, expand the breadth and depth of existing solutions, penetrating existing customers and attracting potential customers though investments in sales and marketing personnel as well as industry solutions development, and toward general corporate purchases and working capital needs. JD Logistics is the third JD entity to list on HKEx, joining JD.com (9618.HK), which completed its secondary listing on HKEx last Jun. 18, and JD Health (6618.HK), which listed last Dec. 8.
Of the IPO’s significance, Yu said: “This IPO allows JD Logistics to enter a new stage of development, and also symbolizes taking on more social responsibility. In the future, business scale and people organization will change but the ‘customer first’ philosophy certainly will not. Business logic based on experience, efficiency and cost will not change. Adhering to the ‘noble principle of doing the right thing the right way’ also definitely will also not change.”
About JD Logistics
In 2020, JD Logistics was the largest integrated supply chain and logistics provider in China by revenue. It operates a network of over 1,000 warehouses which cover roughly 21 million square meters, and has over 240,000 personnel including 190,000 in-house couriers who deliver across the country. The company’s large network allows it to reach some of the more remote locations such as villages and islands, allowing JD.com to achieve rates of approximately 90 percent of orders delivered the same or next-day. The company also has 32 warehouses across China, including a fully unmanned warehouse which has the ability to process more than 1.3 million orders per day during peak seasons.
In 2017, JD Logistics became a stand-alone subsidiary and began to offer its integrated supply chain solutions such as warehousing, transportation, delivery and after-sale services to e-commerce sellers and other companies. In 2020 JD Logistics provided such services to more than 190,000 enterprise customers across the globe. In addition to its own warehouse fleet, the company has over 1,400 cloud warehouses operated by third-party warehouse operators, allowing existing warehouses to become intelligent and digitized through JD’s technology. Today JD Logistics external client revenue has already reached 46.6% of total revenue.
About Richard Liu
Richard Liu is the founder, chairman and CEO of JD.com. The e-commerce company is the largest retailer in China by revenue, responsible for providing over 400 million active users in China with everything from fresh groceries to luxury clothing.
Liu has won numerous awards for his work as CEO of JD.com.CCTV, China’s largest television network, named Liu the “2011 China Economic Person of the Year” and was also given the “2011 China Business Leader” award. Fortune China placed him on their “2012 Chinese Businessmen” list, and in 2015 Fortune Magazine named him one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.”
Liu started his business in 1998 as a small booth in a bazaar selling magneto-optical drives, and within five years had grown it to an electronics store with 12 retail locations. In 2004, he made the decision to transition the company completely online, and in 2007 started the process of building an in-house logistical network which became a central feature for the company and its business model. Richard Liu has stated his belief that technology is the great equalizer and has sought to implement technologies such as robots, drones, artificial intelligence and big data into JD.com which updated its strategic positioning in 2020 to “a supply chain-based technology and service company.” The company has since made its foray into other sectors outside of retail such as healthcare and fintech.
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SOURCE JD.com
