Guming's net profit of 3.1 billion yuan in 2025 is six times that of Auntie Shanghai. The new tea beverage "King of Downward Expansion" truly deserves its reputation.

Ask AI · How does the “King of Penetration” Gu Ming achieve high profitability through the supply chain?

Produced by | Zhongfang Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

On March 25, the leading new tea beverage company Gu Ming (01364.HK) released its first full annual financial report after going public, delivering a performance far exceeding market expectations: total revenue of 12.914 billion yuan, up 46.9% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of 3.109 billion yuan, surging 110.3% year-on-year; and adjusted profit of 2.575 billion yuan, up 66.9% year-on-year. At a key turning point in the new tea beverage industry as it shifts from “scale expansion” to “profitability first,” Gu Ming, with comprehensive high growth across revenue, profit, store count, and store efficiency, has established its industry position as the “King of Penetration,” and also provided a replicable model for the high-quality development of chain tea brands.

In 2025, Gu Ming’s profitability performance is arguably an industry benchmark. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 3.109 billion yuan, up 110.3% year-on-year; with a growth rate 2.3 times that of revenue, it achieved high-quality growth where “profit growth far outpaced revenue growth.” The adjusted profit margin jumped from 17.5% in 2024 to 19.9%. Among listed new tea beverage companies, it led the pack, confirming both the improvement of scale effects and the enhancement of operating efficiency. A horizontal comparison shows even greater advantages: compared with Shanghai Auntie, which has a similar product structure and price band, Gu Ming’s 2025 revenue was 2.9 times higher, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 6.2 times higher. Its store count was only 18% larger, yet its revenue and profit scale were far ahead. This gap precisely reflects Gu Ming’s concentrated competitive strength across the supply chain, regional layout, and product matrix.

Store expansion is the core engine behind Gu Ming’s growth. In 2025, Gu Ming added 3,640 net new stores, bringing the total to 13,554 stores. It successfully entered the “Ten Thousand Store Club” and continued to lead. Its expansion strategy is highly distinctive: it adheres to deep cultivation in lower-tier areas and increased layout density. The proportion of stores in second-tier cities and below is 82%, and the proportion of stores in towns and townships rose to 44%, far above the industry average. Gu Ming’s “penetration” is not blind store opening; instead, it follows a precise layout of “build the roads first, then open stores.” With a 150-kilometer warehouse-and-distribution radius at the core, it has continued to increase density in the 17 provinces it has entered, enabling consumers to “buy Gu Ming within a 5-minute walk.” This strategy both improves repurchase rates and builds competitive barriers. By the end of 2025, Gu Ming covered more than 200 cities nationwide, with dense networks formed across East China, Central China, and South China. In provinces such as Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi, store counts each exceeded 1,000, further solidifying its position as a regional leader.

The underlying logic behind Gu Ming’s performance surge is the core barrier created by a heavy-asset cold-chain supply chain. By the end of 2025, Gu Ming operated 24 warehouses, with a total gross floor area of 258,000 square meters. Its cold storage capacity exceeded 70,000 cubic meters, able to meet multi-temperature storage needs. About 75% of its stores are located within a 150-kilometer range of its warehouses, and 98% of its stores can achieve “two-day, one-delivery” cold-chain service. This makes it one of the few brands in the industry capable of large-scale distribution of fresh milk and fresh fruit in lower-tier markets. The efficiency advantage directly converts into a cost advantage: warehouse-to-store delivery costs are less than 1% of GMV, far below the industry average. From source procurement and processing to warehousing and distribution, Gu Ming has established refined, end-to-end standards. Most fruits are procured directly from their origin places, which not only locks in quality but also reduces spoilage and cuts costs—making “high-quality at fair prices” possible. This is also the key to maintaining competitiveness in penetration markets and achieving sustained high profitability.

In 2025, Gu Ming seized the expansion dividend in the coffee segment, and its coffee business became a second growth curve. By the end of the year, more than 12,000 stores had coffee machines installed. Throughout the year, it launched 27 new coffee products, effectively expanding its customer base, increasing repeat purchases, and significantly improving overall store efficiency. Full-year total GMV reached 32.732 billion yuan, up 46.1% year-on-year. The average daily GMV per store was 7,800 yuan, with store efficiency and scale rising in tandem. The “fruit tea + coffee” product matrix not only reinforces the core base of fresh fruit tea, but also enters the high-growth coffee segment, creating synergy and injecting sustained momentum for long-term growth.

Behind the impressive results, there are also challenges that need attention. On March 25, due to a collective adjustment in Hong Kong’s consumer sector, Gu Ming’s share price fell 8.13%, closing at HK$26.2 per share. Its total market capitalization was HK$62.3 billion. However, the share-price fluctuation is a short-term market behavior and has no direct link to the company’s fundamentals. Meanwhile, rapid store expansion places higher demands on franchise management and on standardization of quality control. How to maintain stable quality at the “ten thousand stores” scale is a long-term issue that enterprises need to address. In addition, changes in policies related to food-delivery subsidies may also bring short-term effects on terminal sales. Still, Gu Ming has always responded cautiously to subsidy-driven competition in the industry, prioritizing the profit space of stores. In the long run, this is more conducive to its steady operations and the healthy development of the industry.

Gu Ming’s overall performance in 2025 signals that the new tea beverage industry has officially entered a new stage of high-quality development, shifting from “competing on scale and store openings” to “competing on profitability, efficiency, and supply chain strength.” Its success validates that penetration markets remain an important incremental blue ocean, with the consumption potential of lower-tier cities and towns continuing to be released. The product positioning of “high-quality at fair prices” aligns highly with broad consumer needs. The heavy investment in the cold-chain supply chain does create some cost pressure in the short term, but in the long run it can build efficiency and cost barriers that are difficult to replicate. A diversified product layout is also key to enhancing per-store profitability and expanding growth space.

Looking ahead to 2026, Gu Ming plans to continue advancing store expansion, accelerate penetration into blank regions, and further densify its advantages in key regions. At the same time, it will further magnify the growth momentum of its coffee business and continuously optimize supply-chain efficiency. Relying on its mature penetration operating model, solid supply-chain barriers, and diversified product structure, Gu Ming is expected to sustain the trend of both scale and profitability increasing, further consolidating its leading position in the new tea beverage market. For the entire new tea beverage industry, Gu Ming’s practice proves that the sector is not trapped in a red ocean of internal competition. As long as companies deepen their supply chains, keep product innovation, and do refined operations well, sustainable high-quality growth remains achievable. In the era of ten thousand stores, only brands that balance scale and efficiency, quality and profitability, can truly make it through cycles and lead the industry.