NewTimeSpace | Intensive Opening of Nearly 8,000 Stores to Seize Market: BUSY MING (01768.HK) 2025 Revenue Surpasses RMB 60 Billion

Recently, BUSY MING (01768.HK), hailed as the "First Volume Snack Retail Stock" on the Hong Kong stock market, released its first annual report since listing.

NewTimeSpace has learned that BUSY MING debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 28, 2026, with an offer price of HK$236.6. Following the disclosure of its financial report on April 1, 2026, the stock closed at HK$382 on April 2, rising 5.35% on the day and marking a cumulative increase of 61.45% from its IPO price.

Revenue Exceeds RMB 60 Billion; Nearly 8,000 New Franchised Stores Opened

Public records show that the predecessor of BUSY MING traces back to "Busy For Snacks" , founded in Changsha, Hunan in 2017, and "Zhao Yiming Snacks" , which originated in Yichun, Jiangxi in 2019. These two major brands completed a strategic merger in November 2023, forming a dual-brand independent operation structure.

On April 1, 2026, BUSY MING announced its first annual report since listing.

Data shows that in 2025, BUSY MING achieved revenue of RMB 66.17 billion, a year-on-year increase of 68.2%, and a net profit of RMB 2.329 billion, up 180.9% year-on-year. The company has 21,948 stores covering 75% of counties nationwide, consisting of 21,927 franchised stores and only 21 self-operated stores, with franchised stores accounting for 99.9%.

Under this franchise-heavy model, BUSY MING is essentially a "retail supplier" rather than a traditional retail company. Data indicates that by the end of 2025, it had established partnerships with over 2,500 manufacturers and possessed 56 warehouses with a total area of approximately 1.232 million square meters. Stores are typically located within 300 kilometers of the nearest warehouse, generally enabling 24-hour delivery.

In terms of revenue structure, BUSY MING’s merchandise sales in 2025 reached RMB 65.664 billion, accounting for 99.2% of total revenue, while franchise service fees were RMB 510 million, accounting for 0.8%.

In 2025, the company's gross profit margin rose from 7.6% in 2024 to 9.8%, and the adjusted net profit margin increased to 4.1%. This was primarily attributed to economies of scale resulting from the expansion of business size and strengthened cost-control capabilities.

NewTimeSpace understands that within the BUSY MING RMB 60 billion+ revenue, merchandise sales grew 67.7% from RMB 39.151 billion in 2024 to RMB 65.664 billion in 2025, mainly benefiting from the expansion of the store network. Other income rose 163.12% from RMB 193 million in 2024 to RMB 507 million, primarily due to increased service fees.

Data shows that BUSY MING opened 7,813 new franchised stores in 2025, averaging 21.4 stores per day, with a store closure rate of only 1.2%.

During the earnings call, management stated that store profitability in 2025 likely reached an all-time high, with approximately 60% of new store openings coming from existing franchisees. Meanwhile, the company maintains a 500-meter protection distance between stores, refusing to compromise the survival space of franchisees for the sake of higher density.

Rapid Industry Development; GMV Declines Under "Store Densification" Strategy

NewTimeSpace notes that the volume snack retail industry has been one of the fastest-growing segments in China's retail sector over the past five years.

According to CIC (China Insights Consultancy) data, the total number of stores in the industry soared from around 1,000 at the end of 2020 to approximately 56,000 in 2025. The total scale of the snack volume channel is expected to reach RMB 223.4 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77.9% over the last five years. The Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) scale grew from ~RMB 7.3 billion in 2019 to over RMB 600 billion in 2025, with its share of the leisure food retail channel doubling from 7.6% to 14%.

The rapid rise of volume snack stores is essentially a structural replacement of traditional channels. In traditional distribution, a product often passes through 6 to 8 intermediaries from factory to consumer, with markups at every stage often exceeding 50% at the terminal. Volume snack retail utilizes an ultra-short "Factory—General Warehouse—Store" chain, eliminating multiple levels of distributors to achieve the flattest supply chain management.

Huatai Securities divides the industry into three development stages: the 1.0 era was the "territory expansion" phase where store count was the key metric; the 2.0 era was the phase of price wars and M&A integration; and the industry has now entered the 3.0 era, where competition centers on per-store profitability, supply chain depth, and full-category operational capabilities.

2024 saw the most intense competition, with leading firms pushing expansion through store-opening and price subsidies. After a year of "hand-to-hand combat," the dual-leader landscape of BUSY MING and Wanchen Group has been basically established.

China Galaxy Securities predicts that traditional store formats still have significant room for expansion, with a total potential of ~74,000 stores, though a balance between store count and per-store revenue must be maintained.

Notably, BUSY MING did not disclose the average monthly GMV per store for 2025. Its total annual GMV was RMB 93.569 billion. Calculated over 12 months, the average monthly GMV per store is approximately:
$$\text{Avg. Monthly GMV per Store} = 93.569 \text{ billion} \div (21,948 \text{ stores} \times 12 \text{ months}) \approx \text{RMB } 300,700$$

This represents a decline from RMB 313,600 in 2024.

Furthermore, BUSY MING took only about 15 months to grow from its 10,000th store to over 20,000, a speed comparable to Luckin Coffee and Mixue Bingcheng during their peak growth periods.

Industry insiders point out that this extreme "store densification" strategy, while capturing market share, brings an inherent growth paradox. When store density passes a critical point, the customer diversion effect between stores of the same brand becomes increasingly evident, leading to a drop in per-store revenue for franchisees and price wars that even the brands themselves find painful.

CITIC Securities stated in a research report that in the first half of 2025, same-store sales for leading volume snack enterprises fell by more than 10%, and the payback period for new stores has lengthened from 1–2 years to 2–3 years.

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