Strengthening long-distance runners' confidence, Mingming is very busy. In 2025, net profit will significantly increase, with scale and quality improving simultaneously.

The article is from Times Finance. Author: Zhong Cai

Two months after listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Mingming Very Busy is busy compiling its performance report for the past year.

                      Image source: Tuochuang Creativity           

On March 31, Mingming Very Busy (01768.HK), a leading retail company in China’s leisure food and beverage sector, released its first annual results since going public. In 2025, Mingming Very Busy’s total merchandise transaction value (GMV) for its stores reached RMB 93.569 billion, up 68.5% year over year; the company’s operating revenue was RMB 66.170 billion, up 68.2% year over year. Against the backdrop of a more rational consumer market, Mingming Very Busy’s performance highlights strong growth resilience in the leisure food and beverage retail industry.

While achieving rapid growth in scale, Mingming Very Busy also made a leap from scale expansion to improving profitability. The financial report shows that in 2025, the company recorded net profit of RMB 2.329 billion, up 180.9% year over year; adjusted net profit of RMB 2.692 billion, up 194.9% year over year. The adjusted net profit margin rose to 4.1%, reflecting continued optimization of its operating structure.

Driven by both the dual forces of the value-for-money consumption trend and offline channel innovation, China’s leisure food and beverage industry is steadily expanding in scale. According to reports from the National Bureau of Statistics and Frost & Sullivan, the market size is expected to grow to RMB 4.9 trillion by 2029.

In the trillion-yuan leisure food and beverage segment, Mingming Very Busy is kicking off a new round of high-quality growth cycle, backed by a solid foundation, extreme efficiency, and healthy financials.

Improving efficiency through the supply chain and digitalization; profitability moving into the release phase

For Mingming Very Busy, future growth opportunities are not only in enhancing quality and efficiency in existing stores, but also in deeper penetration into lower-tier markets.

The financial report shows that by the end of 2025, Mingming Very Busy had entered into contracts with a total of 10,327 franchisees. The total number of stores had reached 21,948, covering 30 provinces nationwide and all city tiers. One key metric is: the store network has covered 1,401 counties, and the coverage rate among all county towns in China is about 75.0%. This means Mingming Very Busy has already built one of the largest county-level store networks in China’s retail industry, validating the feasibility of its lower-tier market model.

As a “little joy” form of consumption characterized by low average spend per customer and high repeat purchase rates, leisure food and beverages still have a solid base in the county-level market. Based on Mingming Very Busy’s 75% coverage rate of county towns and calculations from the “one county, multiple stores” dimension, there is still some room for future development.

From a vertical perspective, in the retail leisure food and beverage industry, low price is only the surface; efficiency is the essence.

First, the high coverage rate brings significant network effects. Relying on Mingming Very Busy’s 56 warehouse-and-distribution centers across the country, the company can achieve efficient delivery around the clock, further widening the time-efficiency gap with regional small brands. As store density continues to increase, delivery costs per store will be further diluted, and the advantages in supply chain efficiency will grow in a geometric progression.

Strict supply chain management is also a key factor for Mingming Very Busy to maintain its gross margin improvement. By the end of 2025, the group had established cooperation relationships with more than 2,500 manufacturers. Behind this figure is the result of the company integrating digitally so that suppliers can participate comprehensively in the entire supply chain process. In addition, the credit system of large-scale purchasing and timely payment enables Mingming Very Busy to build strong relationships with the supplier group, thereby gaining stronger bargaining power and more secure, priority access to inventory sources.

This kind of deep supply chain integration gives the company two core competitive strengths: first, it can maintain a diversified high value-for-money SKU portfolio and frequently introduce new products to keep the offerings fresh for consumers; according to the company’s requirements, each Mingming Very Busy store must maintain at least 1,800 SKUs. Second, scale effects continue to be amplified on both the procurement side and logistics side, improving the gross margin on product sales.

In 2025, the gross profit from product sales increased significantly from RMB 2.868 billion to RMB 6.112 billion; the gross margin on product sales rose from 7.3% to 9.3%.

Deleveraging, increasing cash—building confidence for a long-distance run

Whether a company can go far also depends on whether its finances are healthy. While maintaining expansion in scale, Mingming Very Busy has achieved continuous optimization of its financial structure.

In 2025, the company’s asset-liability ratio decreased from about 43.7% in 2024 to about 35.8%. This change indicates that as operating scale expands and internal momentum strengthens, the company is reducing its reliance on external debt financing; its finances are stable and sound, providing ample safety buffer to handle future market volatility.

In addition, as of December 31, 2025, Mingming Very Busy’s cash and cash equivalents increased 93.0% year over year to RMB 3.7444 billion. Its ample cash reserves not only indicate the company’s strong ability to withstand risks, but also provide solid financial support for business development.

On January 28 this year, Mingming Very Busy successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising about HKD 3.67 billion. This funding will be mainly used for digital upgrades to the supply chain, expansion of its warehousing network, and potential strategic mergers and acquisitions. At the same time, the brand endorsement and diversification of financing channels brought by the listing will also significantly enhance the company’s financial flexibility.

Competition in the trillion-yuan leisure food and beverage track has long ceased to be a simple store-opening contest; it is a comprehensive contest of supply chain efficiency, digital capabilities, the franchisee ecosystem, and financial health. Especially in today’s Chinese consumer market entering a rational era, companies that can truly get through cycles are not those fast players that pursue short-term surges, but long-distance runners like Mingming Very Busy—anchored in lower-tier markets, deeply focused on supply chain efficiency, and growing in symbiosis with franchisees.

From scaling up to ten thousand stores to building a trillion-yuan ecosystem, this industry leader that has emerged from lower-tier markets, backed by capital strength, scale effects, and efficiency advantages, is expected to play an even more critical role in future industry consolidation.