Selling snacks is the same business, yet some companies earn an average of over 4 million yuan a day, while others see revenue plummet 27% and swing from profit to loss—this "half sea, half flame" scenario is more brutal in the 2025 half-year reports than in any previous year.

Among the half-year reports of 20 listed snack food companies we compiled, as many as 14 (70%) saw net profit declines or even losses.

In this industry-wide pain, the fates of different players are as different as clouds and mud.

National brand Qiaqia Food saw net profit plummet over 70% due to soaring core raw material costs, while established companies like Lai Yifen and Haoxiangni also failed to escape, falling into losses.

On the other side, there is a scene of triumphant progress. Zhou Hei Ya, despite a slight revenue adjustment, achieved a nearly 228% surge in net profit through astonishing operational efficiency; Youyou Food, relying on its core big single product, delivered an excellent report with both revenue and profit growing over 40%.

Behind this sharp divergence, what information is revealed? What trends are reflected?

Channel Side: Whoever Wins the Ground, Wins Growth

During this reporting period, the divergence in growth is first reflected in channels. The battle has evolved from online-offline competition to a head-on clash between different offline models, and further expanded to the redivision of market territory.

The core is the impact of bulk discount channels on traditional boutique store models.

Take Yanjin Puzi, which is deeply tied to snack bulk channels: its revenue grew 19.6% year-on-year, and profit grew 16.7%, making it a direct beneficiary of new channel dividends.

In contrast, Liangpin Puzi (revenue -27.21%) and Lai Yifen (significant net loss), which rely heavily on traditional supermarkets and direct-operated stores, point to the severe reality of customer loss and declining store efficiency in traditional channels.

For brands and distributors, this means they must confront the structural changes in channels. Supermarkets and direct-operated stores, once seen as "brand image," need their strategic value reassessed if they cannot contribute healthy profits.

Second is the "exit" and "downward expansion" of market territory.

Amid intense competition in core markets, some companies have successfully opened a second battlefield by seeking structural incremental markets.

Financial data shows that Youyou Food achieved explosive growth of 186% in the Southeast regional market, proving the strong adaptability of its products in different regional markets.

Meanwhile, Ganyuan Food's overseas market revenue grew 162.9% year-on-year, demonstrating the huge potential for Chinese snack brands to go global.

This also shows that when shelves in first-tier cities are crowded with competitors, the vast lower-tier markets and overseas markets remain blue oceans worth cultivating.

Product Side: Health and Differentiation Are Key to Breaking Through

When the traffic dividend of channels fades, what ultimately retains consumers is the product itself. In this cycle, the competition in product strength is concentrated in two dimensions: "health innovation" and "cost control."

On one hand, innovation in healthy categories has become the core growth engine.

"Konjac" is the undisputed "star" of this round. Weilong's financial report shows that revenue from vegetable products, with konjac snacks as the core, reached 2.109 billion yuan, a sharp 44.3% year-on-year increase. Yanjin Puzi's konjac product revenue also reached 791 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of an astonishing 155.1%.

In contrast, the traditional high-sugar, high-fat baking track faces challenges, with both Taoli Bread and Yuansu Shares seeing revenue declines.

On the other hand, supply chain cost control directly determines profit survival. This is particularly evident in companies that rely on bulk agricultural products.

Qiaqia Food saw net profit decline over 70% due to rising sunflower seed prices. Similarly, Nanqiao Food saw net profit shrink 72% due to high costs of palm oil and other oils.

This warns all brands, especially raw material-dependent companies, that supply chain security and cost hedging must be elevated to a strategic level; otherwise, even large revenue scales can be swallowed by fragile cost structures.

Operational Side: Say Goodbye to Extensive Growth, Seek Efficiency from Refinement

If channels and products answer the questions of "where to sell" and "what to sell," then operational refinement ultimately determines whether a company can "make money" and "survive long."

First is the ultimate pursuit of internal operational efficiency.

Zhou Hei Ya is the best example of "lean management." Through refined store management and expense control, it achieved a contrarian surge in profit despite a slight revenue decline.

This contrasts sharply with companies like Ganyuan Food (sales expenses +26.59%) and Three Squirrels (sales expenses +25.11%), which saw profit pressure due to marketing and channel expansion.

This marks that the industry is transitioning from the extensive stage of "spending money for scale" to the lean stage of "seeking efficiency from management."

Second is the accelerated integration and clearing of the industry landscape.

As competition intensifies, leading companies are completing product matrices through mergers and acquisitions (e.g., Huang Shang Huang acquired Lixing Food to enter the freeze-dried track), while small and medium brands with annual revenue below 1 billion yuan, such as Qinqin Food and Crayon Shin-chan Food, face squeezed living space.

In the braised food track, Juewei Food's (-15.57%) performance decline contrasts with Zhou Hei Ya's growth, reflecting that even for leading brands, a large but inefficient network can become a drag.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the era when the snack food industry could rely on a single strength (whether channel dividends or hit products) to "win with one trick" is over.

The future of the industry is shifting from pursuing external "scale growth" to intrinsic "value creation." The core issue facing all brands and distributors has changed from "how to run faster" to "how to run more steadily."

First, return to consumers: provide value that is real and perceptible beyond price, whether it's ultimate cost-performance or an irreplaceable health experience.

Second, return to products: truly invest resources in R&D and supply chain to create good products with barriers and differentiation.

Third, return to profit: abandon scale expansion that doesn't generate benefits, and integrate refined operations into every link to create real, sustainable profits.

In this profound transformation, challenges and opportunities coexist. For those companies that can complete this "value return" first, the current turmoil may be the best time to cross the cycle and build long-term competitive advantages.