Yonghui’s losses and dual pressure from sub-brand financing weigh on it; Miniso’s dream of becoming a global IP retail player is yet to be proven.

Recently, Miniso Group released its 2025 financial report. The company achieved operating revenue of RMB 21.44 billion, its first time to break the RMB 20 billion mark. Profit attributable to owners fell year over year by 54.1% to RMB 1.21 billion, with revenue increasing but not profits. The financial report shows that the sharp decline in profit during the year was mainly due to the allocation of investment losses from Yonghui Superstores, as well as related expenditures tied to the strategic financing of its toy-trading brand TOP TOY.

During the earnings call after the report was released, Miniso’s founder and CEO, Ye Guofu, responded to issues that the industry has been paying close attention to, such as the investment in Yonghui and the IP effect. He emphasized that Miniso’s priorities are the highest, saying he would “absolutely not divert attention due to investing.” Going forward, Miniso will continue to intensify its in-house IP incubation, with a focus on increasing the share of high-margin categories such as plush toys and blind boxes.

Industry views suggest that Miniso’s financial structure of “revenue growth but no profit growth,” the “blow-up” created by its Yonghui investment, and its “IP competition” approach that is highly dependent on external well-known IP, as well as the risks of declining product quality control and service levels under scale expansion—all are its disadvantages. From “ten-yuan stores” to a “global IP retail player,” Miniso may still have a long way to go.

Investment loss in Yonghui exceeds RMB 800 million

On March 31, Miniso Group released its 2025 financial report. For the full year, the company generated operating revenue of RMB 21.44B, up 26.2% year over year; adjusted net profit was RMB 2.9B, up about 6.5%. Based on the data, Miniso’s core business still maintains strong resilience and solid profitability. Revenue from its main brand Miniso was RMB 19.52 billion, up 22% year over year. Gross profit for the year was RMB 9.65B, up 26.3%, with a gross margin of 45%, up 0.1 percentage points year over year. As of December 31, 2025, Miniso’s total store count reached 8,485, an increase of 705 stores net from the previous year.

Miniso’s profit fell 54.1% year over year during the year, decreasing from RMB 2.64B in 2024 to RMB 1.21 billion. In its annual report, Miniso stated that it needs to bear losses from Yonghui of RMB 813 million, as well as expenditures related to TOP TOY’s strategic financing.

Miniso’s asset and liability structure is also changing. The annual report shows that Miniso’s asset-liability ratio was 62.56% at the end of 2025, up 19.71 percentage points year over year; its interest-bearing asset-liability ratio was 30.36%, up 23.67 percentage points year over year. Long-term borrowings surged 1,255 times and short-term borrowings surged 208.85%, mainly due to financing needs brought by the Yonghui investment.

In September 2024, Miniso acquired a 29.4% stake in Yonghui Superstores for a price of RMB 6.27 billion, becoming its largest shareholder. It took only three months to complete the decision and closing. At the time, some commentators said, “An ‘outsider’ that started out selling small consumer goods ended up acquiring Yonghui, which was already in a loss-making state.” Ye Guofu also said on a social media platform, “If everyone can’t understand it, then that’s right. If everyone could understand it, then I wouldn’t have the opportunity.”

The day before Miniso released its 2025 financial report, Yonghui Superstores issued a performance forewarning. For 2025, Yonghui achieved operating revenue of RMB 53.51B, down 20.82% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was a loss of RMB 2.55 billion, increasing the loss by 74.01% compared with the same period last year.

At the earnings call after the report was released, an analyst asked about topics related to Yonghui Superstores. In response, Ye Guofu said, “I spend over 90% of my time on Miniso, and it will always be the work with the highest priority for me. I absolutely will not divert attention because of the investment.”

TOP TOY financing expenditures weigh on performance

In addition to taking on losses from Yonghui, expenditures related to TOP TOY’s strategic financing under its umbrella are another major reason that Miniso’s profit last year decreased significantly. Miniso’s financial report shows that in 2025, TOP TOY brand revenue was RMB 1.92 billion, operating profit was a loss of RMB 106 million, and pre-tax segment profit was a loss of RMB 267 million.

Operating profit loss for TOP TOY in 2025 was RMB 106 million. Screenshot of Miniso’s financial report

On the day Miniso released its financial report, TOP TOY (Dachao Toy International Group Co., Ltd.), which is seeking an independent listing, resubmitted its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

TOP TOY’s prospectus shows that from 2023 to 2025, TOP TOY’s revenue was RMB 1.46B, RMB 1.91B, and RMB 3.59B, respectively. Gross profit was RMB 459 million, RMB 624 million, and RMB 1.15B, respectively, while gross margin was 31.4%, 32.7%, and 32.1%, respectively. In 2025, the company’s annual profit was RMB 101 million, down 65.6% from RMB 294 million in 2024. Net profit margin crashed from 15.4% in 2024 to 2.8%. Regarding the sharp drop in net profit, TOP TOY explained that it was mainly attributable to an increase in equity-settled share-based payment expenses and the book value change of foreign exchange settlement liabilities arising from preferred shares.

From 2023 to 2025, revenue from the top five customers accounted for 76.5%, 66.2%, and 59.5% of TOP TOY’s total revenue for each corresponding period. Among them, the largest customer, Miniso Group, accounted for 53.5%, 48.3%, and 45.5%, respectively.

In its prospectus, TOP TOY states, “Our business depends on a small number of major customers, especially Miniso Group. If we are unable to maintain our relationship with the major customers, or if they significantly reduce their purchases, our revenue, operating performance, and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected.”

How far is “from an IP brand company”?

In the 2025 performance earnings call, Ye Guofu again mentioned the IP effect, with the discussion involving Pop Mart. “Everyone knows that one of our competitor’s IPs (referring to LABUBU) is driven globally into sales through Lisa (a member of the Korean girl group BLACKPINK). So collaborations with global top-tier artists can amplify the promotional effect of our own IP that comes next, bringing tremendous value.”

Just on March 20 of this year, Miniso and BLACKPINK member Jennie’s “Jennie Ruby” jointly launched a pop-up store at Shanghai Harbour City Plaza in Shanghai. The collaborative series covers more than 70 products across multiple categories, including apparel and accessories, toy-trading blind boxes, stationery, and everyday-use items. This move has been interpreted by the outside world as Miniso imitating Pop Mart’s IP operation model for incubating LABUBU.

Public information shows that Miniso uses a dual-wheel-driven model of “international IP + in-house IP.” On one hand, it deeply collaborates with more than 180 global top IPs such as Disney and Sanrio. On the other hand, as of March 2026, it has signed 18 toy-trading artist IPs and launched original IPs such as YOYO, Luobo Street, Gifoert Bear, and Dun DUN Chicken. In this earnings call, Ye Guofu disclosed that YOYO-related IP products are expected to generate RMB 165 million in revenue in the first quarter this year, and the full-year forecast is RMB 800 million to RMB 1 billion. Its core in-house IP, “Nommi,” surpassed RMB 200 million in sales in 2025. He also mentioned that Miniso will continue to further invest in in-house IP incubation and will重点 increase the share of high-margin categories such as plush toys and blind boxes.

Ye Guofu has previously proposed to “nurture original IP with abundant resources,” “even if there may be trial and error costing hundreds of millions.” In January, in his 2026 New Year message, Ye Guofu again proposed upgrading the company’s corporate vision to “the globally leading IP operation platform,” focusing on building a co-creation-style IP ecosystem.

Industry commentary points out that Miniso and TOP TOY are still mainly harvesting dividends through “IP collaborations,” and that the driving force of original IP is insufficient. Especially for TOP TOY, it is more like a “toy-trading super market,” taking an “IP collection store” route. As of March 2026, TOP TOY has 24 proprietary IPs and 42 licensed IPs, relying on more than 660 other-party IPs. In 2025, TOP TOY’s revenue share from proprietary IP, licensed IP, and other-party IP was 5.7%, 51%, and 43.3%, respectively. In addition, TOP TOY also needs to pay substantial authorization fees to copyright holders, directly compressing gross margin space.

Pop Mart is a typical “IP brand company.” Its core competitiveness lies in independently incubating and operating phenomenon-level proprietary IPs such as Molly, Dimoo, and Labubu. The financial report shows that in 2025, Pop Mart achieved revenue of RMB 37.12 billion, up 184.7%. Revenue from its own IP accounted for 99.1% of total revenue. Pop Mart benefits from having exclusive ownership of IP, allowing it to avoid high licensing fees. Its gross margin continues to rise, reaching 61.3%, 66.8%, and 72.1% from 2023 to 2025, respectively.

Industry believes that whether it is Miniso or TOP TOY, they are organizing products and selling them through various channels around IP to achieve conversion. In essence, they are still operating like retail platforms, treating IP as products with high margins and repeat purchases. Pop Mart, on the other hand, starts with IP itself: it gradually builds recognition through characters and fans, and then uses products to capture the premium. From the perspective of long-term IP development and sustained monetization, Ye Guofu may still be missing the most critical step to become an “IP operator.”

Xinjing News reporter Zhang Jie

Editor Wang Lin

Proofreader Zhao Lin

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