Pang Donglai's founder, Yu Donglai, has addressed recent controversy surrounding alleged employee salary reductions.
On June 11th, widespread online discussions emerged regarding topics such as "Pang Donglai implementing significant salary cuts," "adjusting employee compensation," claims that "employees are not worth that much money," and that "an income of six thousand is already very good for employees." That same evening, Pang Donglai founder Yu Donglai stated on social media that the online discussions about employee wages were unfounded, and that Pang Donglai has not implemented any policy to reduce salaries. He explained that Pang Donglai is merely guiding employees through training to continuously learn, improve their personal character and professional skills, keep pace with the company's operational standards, and develop the ability to achieve personal confidence and a better life. He urged the public not to misinterpret the situation.
In response to the various online interpretations, Pang Donglai Commercial Group Co., Ltd. issued a clarification on June 12th. It stated that on November 12, 2025, during an internal discussion and sharing session for the "Civilization Flywheel" talent group, Yu Donglai shared insights on human resources. He discussed how a scientifically advanced compensation system should revolve around fairness and freedom. On the foundation of ensuring fairness and justice, it should both reflect employee value and stimulate their enthusiasm, allowing employees to accurately assess their own capabilities and freely choose their careers in any enterprise...
The clarification pointed out that this Civilization Leadership series is internal training and sharing material from the company's recent two years. Pang Donglai recently made it public via its official Douyin account in the hope that it could be helpful to others in the field of human resources. Regarding interpretations by various media outlets and bloggers online that strip the original context and facts, and some users privately adding facts and fabricating "salary cut" remarks related to the sharing session, the company stated this has deviated from commentary on the public video. These actions have caused serious harm to the Pang Donglai enterprise and have severely misled the public. "Pang Donglai has never made any decision to cut salaries. The compensation policy is based on fairness and justice, ensuring that income matches the value created, with the aim of nurturing and enabling people."
According to its official website, Xuchang Pang Donglai Commercial Group Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive retail enterprise founded in March 1995. To date, it has 14 stores in Xuchang and Xinxiang, and has established its own brand development system and online sales platform. Its business formats cover supermarkets, department stores, appliances, clothing, catering, medicine, jewelry, tea, movies, video games, books, and eyewear. The website shows that as of January 2025, Pang Donglai has approximately 8,300 employees, with a total employment arrangement of about 18,000 people.
In recent years, challenges and difficulties in China's retail industry have become fully apparent, with domestic supermarket and retail companies reporting mixed performance results. However, Pang Donglai has won over many customers with its quality and service. Pang Donglai supermarkets have gained widespread recognition for their care for employees and attentive service to customers, being hailed as the "pinnacle of the supermarket industry." Its talent management methods have also been emulated by numerous other supermarkets.
To adapt to changes in the retail market, since last year, several listed companies including Yonghui Superstores Co.,Ltd. (SH: 601933), Zhongbai Holdings Group Co.,Ltd. (SZ: 000759), and Better Life Commercial Chainshare Co.,Ltd. (SZ: 002251) have proactively learned from their peer Pang Donglai, actively transforming and adjusting their operations.
In terms of performance, sales data released by the Pang Donglai Group earlier this year showed that the group's total sales in 2025 exceeded 23.531 billion yuan, calculated to be an increase of over 40% year-on-year. Specifically, supermarket format sales reached 12.643 billion yuan, jewelry format sales reached 2.451 billion yuan, and annual tea sales were 1.063 billion yuan. In 2024, Pang Donglai's annual sales data was 17 billion yuan, with tax payments exceeding 600 million yuan, profits over 800 million yuan, and an average monthly employee income of 9,000 yuan.
In October 2025, Yu Donglai posted on social media, stating, "Based on Pang Donglai's current net assets, the average distribution per employee is nearly 300,000 yuan, and the average for the management and technical team is over 1.5 million yuan per person. Achieving common prosperity for all, allowing everyone to work and live with dignity—this is the result of scientific management." Yu Donglai also noted that Pang Donglai's annual employee turnover rate is only 2%, indicating that Pang Donglai employees greatly love their work and the company.
In early March of this year, Yu Donglai posted an article sharing details of Pang Donglai's 4-billion-yuan asset and profit distribution. According to the asset allocation details, the Pang Donglai Group has a total of 10,194 people, with total assets of approximately 3.793 billion yuan. Yu Donglai pointed out that Pang Donglai began distributing profits to all employees based on their positions starting in 2000. The purpose is to stimulate everyone's positive thinking and creativity, and further inspire them to learn and pursue a scientific and beautiful way of life. Management receives fifty percent and employees receive fifty percent. In the future, these assets will serve as company equity, with 50% of annual profits distributed as bonuses to the team and 50% as returns to shareholders.
On February 11th of this year, Pang Donglai founder Yu Donglai announced on social media that he was "about to retire." Yu Donglai stated on his personal social media account that he is sixty years old and, to promote a scientifically advanced development model and allow young people to bravely shoulder the mission, he would formally retire after the Lunar New Year, transitioning to an advisory role. Pang Donglai's operations would be presided over by the Pang Donglai Decision-Making Committee. Subsequently, Yu Donglai also shared parts of Pang Donglai's strategic plans, such as the rule that, regardless of timing, Pang Donglai's top management must step down from power positions before the age of sixty to maintain team youthfulness and vitality. He stated that Pang Donglai is school-like in nature and therefore will never go public. Yu Donglai also mentioned that Pang Donglai has completed its planned sample goals and will cease expanding the scale of the enterprise.
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