Miaoke Lando's profits surge dramatically; the number one cheese stock has made a comeback?

Produced by | China Visitor Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

From “Milk Gold” to a regular on the national dining table, China’s cheese market has rapidly risen amid the wave of consumption upgrades. As the absolute leader in the domestic cheese sector, MiaoKeLando (600882.SH) once quickly topped the charts with its children’s cheese sticks, but also fell into a dual dilemma of price wars and marketing battles amid industry competition. By 2025, the company delivered impressive results with both revenue and profit increasing, with non-recurring net profit soaring by 235.94% year-on-year, which not only confirms the strong recovery of its core cheese business but also signals a positive shift away from price wars toward high-quality growth. Despite short-term disruptions caused by management changes and legacy issues, under the deep empowerment and strategic upgrade driven by Mengniu, this “cheese first stock” is entering a new development cycle.

In 2025, MiaoKeLando achieved a total operating revenue of 5.63B yuan, up 16.29% year-on-year, breaking through the 5 billion yuan mark for the first time; net profit attributable to shareholders was 118 million yuan, up 4.29%; non-recurring net profit attributable to shareholders was 158 million yuan, a significant increase of 235.94%, with operational quality markedly improved. This achievement not only reversed the decline in revenue in 2024 but also set the best performance in nearly three years, becoming a growth benchmark in the dairy subdivision.

Looking at the business structure, the cheese segment, as the core growth engine, continued to exert effort, achieving revenue of 4.62B yuan, up 22.03% year-on-year, accounting for 82.37% of total revenue, further consolidating its leading position. According to Worldpanel consumer index data, in 2025, MiaoKeLando’s market share in China’s packaged cheese sales exceeded 38%, with its three core categories—cheese sticks, mozzarella, and cheese slices—ranking first in their respective segments, maintaining industry leadership.

Quarterly data shows the company’s performance accelerating each quarter, with Q4 revenue reaching 1.68B yuan, up 34.13% year-on-year, setting a quarterly revenue record. Although net profit attributable to shareholders in a single quarter showed a loss due to non-recurring gains and losses, non-recurring net profit turned profitable, reaching 37.89 million yuan, up 347.78% year-on-year, fully demonstrating substantial improvement in core profitability.

Cost optimization is a key signal of the company’s departure from price wars. In 2025, MiaoKeLando’s sales expense ratio decreased by 1.27 percentage points to 17.76%, and management expense ratio decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 5.15%, with significant efficiency gains. This indicates the company has shifted from the previous “high investment for growth” extensive model to a “refined, efficiency-driven” high-quality development path, with continuous recovery of profitability.

Facing intensified industry competition and reliance on a single category, MiaoKeLando is accelerating its strategic transformation under Mengniu’s empowerment, clearly proposing a development strategy of “C-end + B-end dual drive + M&A and overseas expansion,” upgrading from a “children’s cheese stick expert” to a “provider of full-scenario cheese solutions.”

On the C-end, the company maintains children’s cheese sticks as its core, continuously expanding consumption scenarios across all age groups. On one hand, it consolidates its advantage in the children’s market through celebrity endorsements and IP collaborations; on the other hand, it launches new products such as small cheese triangles, cheese slices, and spreadable cheese, penetrating adult leisure and family dining scenes, enriching its product matrix. In 2025, revenue from family dining series cheeses grew rapidly, with mozzarella and cheese slices sales continuing to rise, effectively breaking the “children’s snack” label.

B-end business has become a new growth pole, showing strong explosive power. In 2025, revenue from MiaoKeLando’s catering industrial channels increased by 36.26% year-on-year, becoming a core supplier for top chain brands like Yum China, and winning industry awards such as the “Excellent Supply Chain Award” and “Golden Pot Award.” Relying on Mengniu’s supply chain advantages, the company quickly entered sectors like baking, tea drinks, coffee, and Western fast food, providing customized cheese raw materials, opening up a trillion-level catering market growth space.

Product innovation and R&D investment are also increasing in tandem, injecting long-term momentum. In 2025, the company invested 50.76 million yuan in R&D, with multiple breakthroughs winning industry awards. Innovations like “Mousse Cheese Key Technology” continuously upgrade product strength. Meanwhile, the company accelerates domestic substitution of raw materials and auxiliary materials, leveraging Mengniu’s upstream milk source advantages to effectively reduce costs and further enhance market competitiveness.

In January 2026, MiaoKeLando completed a major management adjustment, with founder Chai Xiu stepping down as general manager, and Mengniu senior executive Kua Yulong taking over, marking the company’s official entry into the “Mengniu era.” This adjustment not only optimized corporate governance but also fully unleashed Mengniu’s synergy in supply chain, channels, and capital, providing a solid foundation for future development.

As the controlling shareholder, Mengniu continues to inject resources and vitality into MiaoKeLando. In 2021, Mengniu injected 3 billion yuan through a private placement to resolve capacity bottlenecks; in 2024, MiaoKeLando completed the acquisition of Mengniu’s cheese business, eliminating intra-industry competition and achieving multi-brand matrix integration. With Mengniu’s comprehensive empowerment, MiaoKeLando has achieved qualitative leaps in milk source supply, cost control, and channel expansion, laying the foundation for escaping price wars and improving profitability.

Despite facing legacy issues such as arbitration disputes related to the founder, the estimated reduction in fair value change losses will decrease net profit attributable to shareholders by about 119-127 million yuan in 2025. The company explicitly states that this will not turn net profit negative, and this matter is a one-time non-recurring gain or loss, not affecting the good development trend of its main business. As issues are gradually resolved, the company will focus on core business development.

Currently, China’s cheese market is shifting from “incremental competition” to “stock enhancement,” with price wars gradually receding, and industry competition focusing more on product strength, channel power, and brand influence. Leveraging first-mover advantages, scale effects, and full industry chain layout, MiaoKeLando continues to consolidate its leading position amid industry reshuffling.

In terms of competitive landscape, although foreign brands still hold traditional advantages in raw cheese, rising costs and insufficient channel sinking have gradually squeezed their market share. Domestic dairy giants like Yili and Mengniu are accelerating their布局, but in terms of cheese category expertise and market penetration, they still lag behind MiaoKeLando. With a market share exceeding 38%, MiaoKeLando has formed an unshakable leading advantage.

In the long term, China’s cheese penetration rate remains low, with broad growth potential. As residents’ health awareness increases, household consumption scenarios expand, and industrialization of catering advances, the cheese market is expected to continue growing, with the market size projected to surpass 100 billion yuan by 2030. As the industry leader, MiaoKeLando will fully benefit from industry expansion and increased concentration.

The performance recovery in 2025 marks that MiaoKeLando has successfully emerged from the shadow of price wars and entered a new stage of high-quality growth. Driven by deep empowerment and strategic upgrades from Mengniu, the company has achieved a “dual drive” of C-end + B-end, product matrix expansion, and cost efficiency improvements, transforming from “scale expansion” to “value growth.” Despite short-term challenges such as management adjustments and legacy issues, in the long run, the company’s solid market position, strong profitability, and clear strategic layout make its future prospects promising. As industry competition continues to optimize, MiaoKeLando is expected to maintain its leading position in the billion-yuan cheese market, writing a new growth legend in China’s dairy subdivision.