A Chinese supermarket chain has scrapped planned deployments of robot coffee machines after trials found they took too long to clean.

Jiangsu Horizon deployed the Haike Hongxin coffee machines at three stores late last year and the initial market response was so good that it bought an 18% stake in the company for RMB25m and started a wider trial in March this year.

However, this brought to light problems with frequent manual cleaning and the machines large size hindered wide spread deployment in convenience stores.

“These issues increased operating requirements, reduced the expected labour-saving benefits and limited the scalability of the machines across the group’s convenience-store network,” said a statement from the supermarket.

The supermarket chain also criticised “the slower-than-expected research, development and commercialisation progress of Haike Hongxin’s other artificial intelligence and intelligent robotics products and the change in Haike Hongxin’s product-development focus, which reduced the expected strategic and operational synergies”.

The chain had plans to increase its investment to 40% but realised that would not be enough to solve the problems it saw in the robotics company.

As such, it has sold the 18% stake for an identical RMB25m, however it said it still planned to install robot coffee machines as part of its general move towards unstaffed retail.

The statement said it was conducting a preliminary technical and commercial assessment of third-party options for robotic picking, stocking and shelf organisation, and is seeking project partners. The group is in discussions with potential providers and, subject to technical feasibility and commercial terms, intends to conduct a pilot at the group’s supermarkets. The pilot would assess accuracy, reliability, compatibility with the group’s inventory systems, labour savings, cost and expected payback period.

The group operates two unmanned smart stores at Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, which started operations late last year and use self-service checkout, smart access control, digital inventory management and other relevant functions. The group is evaluating potential locations and preparing to open two additional stores by June 2027.

The group (jiangsu.aconnect.com.hk) has also deployed three unmanned logistics vehicles for warehouse-to-store and last-kilometre delivery routes and locations. It intends to deploy additional vehicles, subject to operating performance, regulatory requirements and budget approval.