Business Description

As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, “we,” “us,” “our,” “Maison,” “the Company” or “our Company” refer to Maison Solutions Inc., a Delaware corporation, except where the context requires otherwise. Our Company We are a fast-growing, specialty grocery retailer offering traditional Asian food and merchandise to modern U.S. consumers, in particular to the members of Asian-American communities. We are committed to providing Asian fresh produce, meat, seafood, and other daily necessities in a manner that caters to traditional Asian-American family values and cultural norms, while also accounting for the new and faster-paced lifestyle of younger generations and the diverse communities in which we operate. To achieve this, we are developing a center-satellite stores network. Since our formation in July 2019, we have acquired equity interests in three traditional Asian supermarkets in Los Angeles, California and three traditional Asian supermarkets in the greater Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona metro areas. We have been operating these six supermarkets as center stores, which we define as a full service store, similar to a traditional supermarket or grocery store covering a metro area, but with its own storage space to be used as a warehouse to distribute products to the satellite stores. The center stores target traditional Asian-American family-oriented customers with a variety of meat, fresh produce and other merchandise, while additionally stocking items which appeal to the broader community. Our management’s deep cultural understanding of our consumers’ unique consumption habits drives the operation of these traditional supermarkets. In addition to our traditional supermarkets, in December 2021, we acquired a 10% equity interest in a new grocery store in a young and active community in Alhambra, California (the “Alhambra Store”). We acquired our interest in the Alhambra Store from Grace Xu, the spouse of John Xu, our chief executive officer. We intend to acquire the remaining 90% equity interest in the Alhambra Store. Our intention is that the Alhambra Store will serve as our first satellite store. The satellite stores in our network will be designed to penetrate local communities and neighborhoods with larger and growing concentrations of younger customers. Our merchandise includes fresh and unique produce, meats, seafood and other groceries that are not found in mainstream supermarkets, including a variety of Asian vegetables and fruits such as Chinese broccoli, bitter melon, winter gourd, Shanghai baby bok choy, longan and lychee; a variety of live seafood such as shrimp, clams, lobster, geoduck, and Alaska king crab; and Chinese specialty groceries like soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, bean sprouts, Sriracha, tofu, noodles and dried fish. With an in-house logistics team and strong relationships with local and regional farms, we are capable of offering high-quality specialty perishables at competitive prices. Our customers have diverse shopping habits based on, among other factors, their age and lifestyle. Along with creating an exciting and attractive in-store shopping experience, customers can choose to place orders on a third-party mobile app “Freshdeals24”, and an applet integrated into WeChat for either home delivery or in-store pickups offering our customers the option of a 100% cashier-less shopping experience. Our flexible shopping options are designed to provide customers with convenience and flexibility that best match their lifestyles and personal preferences. We are working closely with JD.com to improve and update our online apps to continue to specifically target and attract a wider variety of our customer base. While our main focus is on targeting Asian-American communities and catering to both established Asian-American family values and the shifting needs of the younger generations, we also plan to opportunistically address other demographics and populations. The success of our business is supported by a strong core team that brings deep knowledge and experience in supermarket operations, supply chain, warehouse management and logistics as well as e-commerce. The core team members all come from leading market players such as Freshippo (known as “Hema Shengxian” in China), Yonghui Superstores, H-Mart and other similar industry leading supermarket retailers.…