Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma on Thursday visited a Freshippo supermarket in central Hunan province, days after he appeared at the Chinese e-commerce giant's Hangzhou campus in a show of support for the business empire he created more than two decades ago.

Ma - wearing a grey T-shirt, navy blue coat, white cap and black face mask - was spotted touring a Freshippo store in Hunan's capital Changsha, according to photos shared by shoppers on social media. In one picture, he was seen walking past the drinks aisle. In another, he was browsing the sushi section.

This comes just two days after Ma showed up at the Hangzhou offices of Xianyu , the online flea market established in 2014 by Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post. He was seen smiling and waving at employees.

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The retired entrepreneur in December also visited Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, where he gave a rare public speech on the 20th anniversary of Ant Group's fintech business, saying he had faith in the "next 20 years" of the company and expected "more miracles".

Ma tours a Freshippo chain in Changsha. Photo: RedNote alt=Ma tours a Freshippo chain in Changsha. Photo: RedNote>

Freshippo, known as Hema in its home market, was launched in 2015 and remains an important bricks-and-mortar retail operation of Alibaba, even as the company has moved to divest various noncore offline businesses, including department store Intime and hypermarket operator Sun Art .

The grocery chain recorded nine straight months of profit in 2024, according to an internal letter from the unit's chief executive Yan Xiaolei, who assumed the role in March. Freshippo has been expanding aggressively, opening 72 new stores across China last year - the most in five years, she said in December.

Freshippo had previously logged profits in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.

Alibaba in 2023 postponed a planned initial public offering of Freshippo. Company co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai said in early 2024 that the company was not in a hurry to float shares of the supermarket chain, known for selling fresh food.

Ma, 60, has resigned from all corporate roles at Alibaba, but remains a key shareholder and spiritual leader of the company. At a conference in Dubai on Thursday, Tsai recalled meeting Ma at the Hangzhou flat where they established Alibaba.