"Unexpected loss," Bright Dairy's "third place" position is about to be lost.

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Source | Deep Blue Finance

Written by | Yang Bo

The third-largest dairy company, leader in low-temperature fresh milk Bright Dairy, has fallen into annual losses again after first losing money in 2008, marking 16 years of profitability. What’s going on with this dairy giant?

On the evening of March 30, Bright Dairy released its 2025 annual report, with total revenue of 23.9B yuan, down 1.58% year-over-year; net profit attributable to parent was a loss of 149 million yuan (a 120% decrease YoY), whereas in 2024, the company still achieved a profit of 722 million yuan. Deducting non-recurring gains and losses, net profit was -57.53 million yuan, down 133.83% YoY; in 2024, deducting non-recurring items, net profit was 170 million yuan. The sudden loss of a traditionally “steady” consumer blue-chip stock has attracted widespread market attention.

More noteworthy is that Bright Dairy’s revenue has declined for four consecutive years, and its third-place position is now challenged by emerging competitor Junlebao. Can it still maintain its industry standing?

(Bright Dairy product lineup)

One

16 years after returning to loss, where did the problem lie?

Regarding the performance decline, Bright Dairy cited two main reasons in its annual report—simply put, external environment and internal issues.

First, external factors: the overall dairy industry’s consumer demand did not meet expectations, leading to a decline in Bright’s dairy product revenue.

Financial reports show that, by product category, in 2025, Bright’s liquid milk revenue reached 13.22B yuan, a 6.65% decrease YoY; other dairy products earned 8.47B yuan, up 8.67%; pastoral products earned 909 million yuan, down 11.15%; other products earned 1.17B yuan, down 0.92%.

More critically, internal drag factors, especially overseas assets, played a role.

In 2025, Bright Dairy’s New Zealand-based dairy company New Lite’s production base encountered issues, leading to inventory write-offs and a significant increase in production costs, resulting in a loss of 407 million yuan for the year. This loss directly offset the parent company’s entire profit. Bright has been operating its New Zealand overseas base for over a decade, originally aiming to emulate competitors’ overseas sourcing strategies to develop a “domestic base + overseas resources” model. Unexpectedly, this subsidiary became a burden on performance.

In fact, New Lite has been losing money for several years. To ease financial pressure, in September 2025, Bright Dairy announced it would sell New Lite’s North Island assets to Abbott’s subsidiary for $170 million (about 1.2 billion yuan). The previously expected transaction date was April 2026, but no completion news has been announced yet. If it can shed this “bleeding” asset, Bright might temporarily “stop the bleeding.”

Additionally, Bright’s pastoral sector also faces losses. In 2021, Bright increased investments in dairy source construction, building large farms in Ningxia, Anhui, and other regions, but since 2022, domestic raw milk prices have continued to decline, putting significant pressure on the upstream dairy sector. Affected by this environment, Bright’s pastoral revenue fell 11.15% in 2025, with a gross profit margin of -9.71%, indicating losses.

Due to the annual loss, Bright Dairy also decided not to distribute profits in 2025. For shareholders supporting it, the entire year’s stock price “did not rise but fell” by 3.46%, far underperforming the market; dividends were also unavailable, making it somewhat awkward.

(Bright Dairy stock price trend)

Two

Multiple pressures, revenue declining for 4 years

Bright’s difficulties are not limited to this loss. Since its revenue peaked in 2021, it has experienced four consecutive years of decline.

Specifically, Bright Dairy’s revenue was 28.21B yuan in 2022 (a decrease of about 1 billion compared to the previous year), dropped to 26.49B yuan in 2023, further declined to 24.28B yuan in 2024, and was 23.9B yuan in 2025. Revenue has shrunk year by year, with development under significant pressure. Over these years, Bright’s performance can be described as “deteriorating.”

Once, Bright Dairy relied on its low-temperature fresh milk business to stabilize its market position, avoiding direct competition with Yili and Mengniu in the ambient milk sector, and establishing a notable advantage in East China, especially in its “big base” Shanghai market, with high consumer recognition. However, low-temperature milk is limited by shelf life and cold chain logistics, restricting market coverage. This has led to slow nationwide expansion and weaker competitiveness outside its core markets.

Now, with the proliferation and cost reduction of cold chain logistics, competitors are rushing into Shanghai’s low-temperature fresh milk market. On one hand, large supermarkets’ private label fresh milk is increasing and offering more competitive prices, diverting some of Bright’s customers; on the other hand, rivals like Yili and Mengniu are actively expanding their fresh milk markets, impacting Bright; additionally, niche brands leveraging private domain marketing and personalized packaging are also capturing market share.

As a result, under external pressures, even in Shanghai’s “home turf,” Bright is beginning to show fatigue. The financial report shows that in 2024, revenue in Shanghai declined by 5.39% YoY, and in 2025, the decline widened to 9.22%.

In the ambient dairy segment, it’s worth mentioning the once “king” product—Mosleean. As China’s first ambient yogurt that doesn’t require refrigeration and has a shelf life of 120 days, Mosleean pioneered the ambient yogurt category domestically. Launched in early 2009, nationwide distribution began in 2012, and it once achieved a miraculous 100% compound annual growth rate for several years, becoming a major product with annual sales exceeding 6 billion yuan by 2014. But as competitors like Mengniu’s Chunzhen and Yili’s Anmushixi entered the market with strong channels and massive promotional spending, Mosleean’s good days ended. According to a Northeastern Securities report, Mosleean’s retail sales dropped from a peak of about 8 billion yuan to 5.06 billion yuan in 2019. Since then, Bright has stopped disclosing Mosleean’s sales separately, and this once-popular product has gradually faded away.

Later, although Bright attempted multiple product innovations and marketing upgrades to rejuvenate Mosleean, these efforts failed to meet expectations against powerful rivals. Market competition is brutal—despite pioneering the ambient yogurt category, facing competitors investing several times more, Bright remains helpless.

Three

Is the third-largest dairy company about to lose its footing?

For a long time, China’s dairy market has been dominated by the “Yili-Mengniu” duopoly, with Bright consistently holding third place. But recently, emerging star Junlebao has grown rapidly, posing a significant challenge to Bright’s third position.

IPO data shows that Junlebao’s revenue and profit have maintained double-digit growth over the past three years, with rapid momentum. In 2023, Junlebao’s revenue was 17.55B yuan, rising to 19.83B yuan in 2024, a 13% increase; in the first three quarters of 2025, revenue reached 15.13B yuan. Based on this growth rate, market forecasts suggest its 2025 revenue could surpass 20 billion yuan. Compared to Bright’s 20B yuan, the gap is narrowing.

In terms of profit, Junlebao also performed strongly, with net profit of 600 million yuan in 2023, increasing to 1.16 billion yuan in 2024. Although its 2024 revenue was still below Bright’s, its net profit already exceeded Bright’s. Moreover, Junlebao has been actively shaping its third-place market image through third-party reports and media, making Bright Dairy feel the pressure.

What explains Junlebao’s rapid growth? First, it launched “zero-added cane sugar” concept low-temperature yogurt products; second, it expanded high-end fresh milk under the Yuexianhu brand; third, it pushed into the infant formula business. In marketing, Junlebao has signed stars like Yang Mi, Bai Jingting, Guo Jingjing, Liu Tao, and others, with ads dominating CCTV, satellite TV, airports, elevators, and other media channels, continuously strengthening consumer awareness.

In fact, the entire dairy market is approaching a stock game phase, with industry growth slowing. Data shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, 13 of 19 listed dairy companies in A-shares experienced revenue declines. Yili’s revenue grew only 1.71%, with a 4.07% drop in net profit; Mengniu’s revenue declined 7.2%. To grow, companies must seize market share from competitors—there’s no room for stagnation. For Bright, it faces pressure from the two giants, Yili and Mengniu, and from rising challengers like Junlebao.

Deep Blue Finance notes that, facing difficulties, Bright Dairy’s management took collective salary cuts in 2025. The chairman’s salary dropped from 1.7287 million yuan to 1.3028 million yuan; the general manager’s from 1.6397 million to 1.3028 million yuan; other executives also took pay cuts, reflecting a “weathering the storm together” attitude.

Meanwhile, Bright Dairy is pushing to fully acquire Qinghai’s Xiaoxi Niu. Coupled with its divestment of New Lite North Island assets, it indicates the company’s strategic focus is shifting toward strengthening domestic, especially western, dairy sources and reducing overseas market risks.

Looking ahead to 2026, Bright has set clear operational goals: total revenue of 23.8B yuan and net profit attributable to parent of 313 million yuan. Realistically, if it can successfully sell the loss-making New Lite assets and stabilize its core East China market, achieving this target is possible. However, Bright Dairy also faces challenges such as brand aging and insufficient product innovation.

To reverse its decline, Bright Dairy still faces many hurdles.