Haaland shines at World Cup, Baiyunshan revived by Wanglaoji?

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is in full swing, and Norwegian forward Erling Haaland (Chinese translation: Haaland) has become a major focus on the pitch for his outstanding performances. Off the field, his mind-blowing advertisement for Chinese herbal tea brand Wanglaoji has also swept through social media. Haaland’s “WALOVI” ad for the international version of Wanglaoji has brought over 290,000 Instagram likes to the product, but after the buzz, a more realistic question arises: With Haaland’s global fame, can Wanglaoji’s parent company Guangzhou Baiyunshan (00874) truly turn things around?

Baiyunshan’s performance and share price have remained under pressure in recent years

Baiyunshan’s recent performance has been lackluster. For full-year 2025, the group achieved revenue of 77.656 billion yuan, up 3.55% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 2.983 billion yuan, up 5.21%. However, entering the first quarter of 2026, while the group’s operating revenue rose 3.6% to 23.278 billion yuan, profit attributable to shareholders fell 2.1% to 1.784 billion yuan.

What is even more concerning is the “natural beverages” business, with Wanglaoji herbal tea at its core. In full-year 2025, this business recorded revenue of 9.672 billion yuan, a slight year-on-year decline of 0.34%, and since 2024 it has already fallen below the 9 billion yuan mark. Overall, Baiyunshan’s H-share stock price has dropped by more than 30% over the past five years; as of July 6, 2026, the share price was 15.26 Hong Kong dollars. The 52-week high was 20.4, and the low was 14, representing a decline of more than 17% year-to-date.

Domestic market bottlenecks force a shift away from international growth

Wanglaoji faces serious challenges in the domestic market. The growth rate of China’s herbal tea industry fell from 15% in 2015 to 3% in 2025. Younger consumers pursue low-sugar, healthy beverages, and fierce competition from new-style tea brands such as Nayuki and Mixue has gradually saturated the traditional herbal tea market.

At the same time, Wanglaoji also has trademark problems overseas. Competitor JDB Bao claims it has registered trademarks such as “WANG LAO JI” in 60 countries worldwide, forcing Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical to build a new international brand, “WALOVI,” to differentiate itself. Against this backdrop, hiring Haaland as a global spokesperson is precisely aimed at opening up international markets by riding the World Cup wave.

International expansion shows signs of hope

In fact, Wanglaoji’s international expansion began as early as August 2025: the international cans were officially launched worldwide. In October, it was rolled out to the markets in Germany and Saudi Arabia one after another. Data shows that over the past decade, the scale of Wanglaoji’s overseas markets has grown by 6.5 times, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 25%.

Screenshot of Haaland’s Wanglaoji advertisement:

Haaland’s signing as a spokesperson became the “final step to kick down the door” for the internationalization of “WALOVI.” The ad remixes the fan chant “Haaland Song” into catchy lyrics: “Ha… Haaland… It’s hot weather—Ha (homophone with drink) Wanglaoji!”—successfully bringing the concept of “reducing internal heat” to the international stage. As of July 7, one of Haaland’s posts on the IG account of “WALOVI” recorded 317,000 likes, which is the most popular post since the account was created for 1.5 years.

The road to turning things around is still long

However, expanding herbal tea in international markets still faces structural challenges. Data shows that in 2022, herbal tea accounted for less than 0.5% of the overall global soft drinks market, with the consumer base highly concentrated in Chinese communities. Whether a single sports star endorsement can genuinely open up the market among non-Chinese consumers remains to be seen.

Haaland’s viral ad has brought Wanglaoji unprecedented international attention, but to convert this surge into sustained overseas sales, Baiyunshan still needs to work harder on areas such as adapting product flavors, strengthening channel building, and improving brand recognition. Whether Baiyunshan can truly turn things around is likely not as simple as a “Ha.”