New tea drink “Six Little Dragons” report card: some profits surge by 110%, while others incur losses of more than 200 million

Issue No. 4550

Author | Catering Boss Insider Insider Jun

New Tea Drinks 2025 Annual Report Wrap-up

“One super, many strong” pattern remains stable

As of this week, all annual reports for the “Six Little Dragons” of new tea drinks in 2025 have been disclosed. Industry competition has entered deep water, with performance differentiation among brands becoming more pronounced, further solidifying the “one super, many strong” industry pattern.

Let’s first look at the most straightforward “report card.”

Mixue Bingcheng continues to lead the industry as always. In 2025, its annual revenue reached 33.56 billion yuan, up 35.2% year-over-year; net profit was 5.89 billion yuan, up 32.7%, achieving steady high growth in both revenue and profit.

Similarly, Gu Ming and Bawang Chaji also surpassed 1.14B yuan in revenue.

Gu Ming was the biggest dark horse of 2025. According to its financial report, annual revenue reached 12.91 billion yuan, up 46.9%; net profit was 3.11 billion yuan, up 110.3%, leading the industry in profit growth.

Bawang Chaji, on the other hand, shows a “revenue increase but profit decline” trend. In 2025, the company’s total net income increased by 4% to 12.91 billion yuan, but net profit attributable to the parent was only 10k yuan, down 52.4% year-over-year, with profit performance under pressure.

Tea Baidao and Shanghai Auntie also delivered impressive growth results.

Tea Baidao’s 2025 annual report shows that revenue was 5.4 billion yuan, up 9.7%; net profit was 810 million yuan, a significant increase of 70.46%, with profit growth notably higher than revenue growth, indicating continuous improvement in profitability.

Shanghai Auntie performed equally well, with annual revenue of 4.47 billion yuan, up 36%; net profit of 500 million yuan, up 52.4%, both achieving double-digit high growth.

Among all listed new tea brands, Naixue’s Tea faces the toughest situation, still unable to escape losses. Its 2025 annual report shows revenue of 4.33 billion yuan, down 12% year-over-year; net loss was 239 million yuan. Although the loss narrowed by 74%, it remains the only large tea drink listed company still losing money.

The new tea drink market in 2025 is no longer a “growth for everyone” incremental game but a zero-sum game where “if you take a bite, I lose a life.” This is also the fate of all mature industries.

Store Wars:

The “Capillary” Battle in the Downward Market

The differentiation in store scale is becoming even more shocking.

Mixue Group, which owns Mixue Bingcheng, has secured its top position in the industry with nearly overwhelming scale, with a total of 59,823 stores worldwide. Excluding about 10k stores from Lucky Coffee and around 2,000 from Fulu Jia, Mixue’s main brand still maintains over 40k stores.

Gu Ming and Shanghai Auntie are the “store expansion maniacs” of 2025.

Gu Ming added 3,640 stores net, reaching a total of 13,554 stores, with a growth rate of 36.7%, setting a recent high. Shanghai Auntie accelerated in the second half of the year, reaching 11,449 stores, a net increase of 2,273. Both brands have entered the “ten-thousand-store club.”

On the other side, some brands are beginning strategic contraction and slowing down.

Tea Baidao clearly hit the brakes, with only 226 net new stores in the year, totaling 8,621 stores, with growth slowing to 2.7%. Naixue’s Tea also saw its first net store closures, reducing by 152 stores to 1,646. Its financial report admits that most underperforming stores have been optimized through closures, renovations, or store type adjustments, with plans to complete remaining store optimizations by 2026.

Downward markets remain an important growth pole for tea brands.

Mixue Bingcheng’s stores in third-tier and below cities account for nearly 60%, Gu Ming has over 80% of stores in second-tier and below cities, and Shanghai Auntie’s stores in third-tier and below cities account for over 50%.

Gu Ming’s financial report even emphasizes: “Towns and villages in second-tier and below cities, as well as various city tiers, represent a huge untapped market.” By the end of 2025, Gu Ming’s rural town stores accounted for 44%.

Another key point worth noting is the changing relationship between brands and franchisees.

On March 31, after Bawang Chaji announced its Q4 and full-year 2025 results, management stated in a conference call that, due to industry price wars intensifying over the past year, franchisees faced both declining sales and rising costs. The traditional supply and sales model was no longer providing enough buffer during downturns, so the company decided to shift from a traditional supply relationship to a GMV-based brand commission partnership.

The core of this new model is to tie the headquarters’ income more closely to store performance. In other words, Bawang Chaji will no longer just steadily sell goods to franchisees but will make profits more tightly linked to store profits, meaning the company only truly profits when franchisees do.

This also indicates that the industry has shifted from scale expansion to quality growth, entering a mature development cycle.

“Efficiency” Hidden Battles

The competition in new tea drinks has never been just about front-end stores but also about the back-end supply chain.

As the industry matures, supply chain efficiency and cost control directly determine the survival of brands.

In this dimension, Mixue Bingcheng and Gu Ming are two brands worth paying close attention to.

First, let’s look at Mixue Bingcheng, which has perfected “asset-heavy layout.”

The annual report shows that the core ingredients for its drinks are 100% self-produced, with five production bases and 28 warehouses, and ongoing investments. About 301 million yuan of capital is mainly used for building factories and purchasing equipment. This full-chain autonomous supply chain mode gives Mixue Bingcheng cost control power.

Another brand with a very stable supply chain is Gu Ming.

Gu Ming’s expansion logic is that warehouse layout takes priority over store expansion. Founder Wang Yun’an mentioned: “Where the warehouse is, Gu Ming’s stores will open there.”

By the end of 2025, Gu Ming had set up 24 warehouses, with a total building area of about 258k square meters, including cold storage with over 70k cubic meters capacity; 75% of stores are within 150 km of warehouses, and 98% can achieve “two-day, one-delivery” cold chain distribution. This high physical density has compressed its warehouse-to-store delivery costs to below 1% of GMV.

Huachuang Securities pointed out in a research report: “Gu Ming is the only leading tea brand capable of providing ‘two-day, one-delivery’ fresh fruit and milk to lower-tier city stores.” This gives Gu Ming a “freshness” advantage in township markets.

When the industry enters price wars, brands without supply chain moats are the first to bleed.

One reason for Naixue’s “bleeding” is exactly this. Its financial report discloses that in 2025, Naixue’s material costs reached 1.47 billion yuan, accounting for 34.0% of total revenue. The high wastage from premium fresh fruit and milk cannot be evenly spread across a limited number of stores, unlike brands with thousands of stores.

More critically, its reliance on delivery is a problem. In 2025, delivery orders accounted for 52.6% of Naixue’s direct store revenue, totaling 40k yuan. The large store format designed for “third space” experience ultimately became a “front warehouse” for delivery, forcing the company to pay high delivery service fees of 462 million yuan, accounting for 10.7% of total revenue.

This contradiction in the model has caused Naixue to fall into a “high-cost, low-efficiency” dilemma, gradually falling behind in the supply chain dark war.

Seeking the Second Growth Curve

As new tea drinks have entered a stock competition phase, major leading companies are also beginning to seek a second growth curve.

Coffee has become a key track targeted by many brands.

Mixue adopts a “multi-brand synergy” strategy, handing its coffee business to Lucky Coffee, focusing on “premium affordable” products, and deepening penetration into lower-tier markets. By December 31, 2025, Lucky Coffee’s global store count exceeded 10,000, making it one of the top five coffee chains in China with over 10,000 stores.

Gu Ming directly added coffee series to existing stores. As of December 31, 2025, over 12,000 Gu Ming stores were equipped with coffee machines, covering more than 88% of its total stores, achieving nationwide fresh coffee coverage and penetrating county and township markets with affordable freshly ground coffee.

In terms of coffee, Tea Baidao takes a “small steps, pilot verification” cautious approach.

During the reporting period of 2025, Tea Baidao officially launched its fresh coffee business, initially rolling out products in over 200 pilot stores in core regions like Guangdong and Sichuan, testing and refining products, equipment, and operations.

Besides coffee, exploring new store formats and scenarios is also an important direction for brands to break through.

Naixue’s Tea has been exploring new store types. In the first half of 2025, it opened 30 “Naixue Green” light drinks and light food stores, targeting white-collar customers’ needs for “low-calorie,” “healthy,” and “everyday” options, offering products like light energy bowls and grains bagels, expanding consumption periods. Whether this can become a second growth curve remains to be seen.

Going overseas is another growth curve for new tea brands.

The overseas market became the most prominent growth driver in Bawang Chaji’s 2025 financial report. In Q4 2025, its overseas GMV reached 370 million yuan, a year-over-year increase of 84.6%, with three consecutive quarters of over 75% YoY growth.

Its largest store in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, incorporates local elements like the Twin Towers and hibiscus; in Singapore, it opened its first “tea retail fusion concept store,” selling tea and cultural creative products. The Malaysia Tourism Board even publicly stated that Bawang Chaji has become part of the local tourism experience, serving as a “refueling station” for tourists.

Conclusion

Looking back at the new tea drink scene in 2025, scale is no longer the moat; efficiency is. The “hard power” of supply chain is the key to winning or losing.

In 2026, the differentiation will continue, with淘汰 and upgrades coexisting. Brands that can survive the cycle will be those who stick to core competitiveness, continuously optimize operations, and accurately grasp market trends—long-term believers.

After all, in the tea drink world, there are no eternal advantages—only continuous iteration.

Chief Editor on Duty | Sun Yu

Visuals & Illustrations | Zhang Jinying

Operations | Snow Ice