Source | Bohu Finance ID | bohuFN Author | Bohu Team
Recently, Wanchen Group, one of China's largest snack groups, officially launched its Hong Kong IPO plan, aiming to advance its international strategy and enhance competitiveness. Before Wanchen Group, another leading bulk snack brand, Mingming Henmang, had submitted a Hong Kong listing application in April this year, but no new progress has been made so far. If Wanchen Group successfully lists first, it will become the "first bulk snack stock" on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Bulk Snacks Become Performance Accelerator
Founded in 2011, Wanchen Group initially focused on edible fungus R&D and sales, and listed on the A-share market in 2021. In 2022, the company formally entered the bulk snack track by establishing subsidiary Nanjing Wanxing, launching its own brand "Lu Xiaochuan," and began acquiring regional brands to rapidly expand scale. In 2023, Wanchen Group integrated four brands—"Lu Xiaochuan," "Haoxianglai," "Laiyoupin," and "Yadi Yadi"—into "Haoxianglai Brand Snacks," achieving synergistic management of supply chain and brands. Wanchen Group's store count jumped from 4,726 in 2023 to 14,196 in 2024. By the end of June 2025, the company had 15,365 stores, including 14,334 "Haoxianglai" and 1,031 "Laoban Daren." Wanchen Group mainly uses a franchise model to expand its store network. As of June 30, 2025, the company had 15,275 franchise stores and 90 self-operated stores. From 2022 to 2024, it opened 163, 4,475, and 9,746 new franchise stores respectively, and in the first half of 2025, it opened 1,467 new ones. During the same periods, it closed 3, 75, 208, and 290 franchise stores respectively. Alongside the accelerated expansion of store scale, revenue also achieved significant growth. According to the prospectus, from 2022 to 2024, Wanchen Group generated revenues of RMB 549 million, RMB 9.294 billion, and RMB 32.329 billion; in the first half of 2025, it achieved revenue of RMB 22.583 billion, a year-on-year increase of 106.9%. In terms of profit, from 2022 to 2024, Wanchen Group recorded adjusted net profits of RMB 39.3 million, -RMB 28.1 million, and RMB 823 million; in the first half of 2025, it achieved an adjusted net profit of RMB 922 million, a year-on-year increase of 286.8%. The snack business has become an accelerator for Wanchen Group. Riding the right trend is a key reason for Wanchen Group's performance takeoff. According to a CIC report, from 2019 to 2024, the retail market size of bulk snack and beverage in China grew from RMB 7.3 billion to RMB 129.7 billion by GMV, with a compound annual growth rate of 77.9%. It is expected that in the next five years, as consumer demand for diversified and high-value-for-money products deepens, the retail market size of bulk snack and beverage will reach RMB 613.7 billion by 2029, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 36.5% from 2024 to 2029. Currently, the bulk snack track has formed a stable situation with two major players: Wanchen Group and Mingming Henmang. However, behind the bulk snack wave, how to achieve sustainable development is a major concern for the outside world. At present, Wanchen Group is already validating some answers.
After the Snack Wave: Wanchen Group's Next Stop
Expanding into full categories, entering instant retail, building snack parks, and going overseas are several paths Wanchen Group is taking to broaden its corporate space. Expanding into full categories and extending to family consumption scenarios is one of Wanchen Group's attempts to break through. Wanchen Group has begun to lay out "money-saving supermarkets" and other discount formats, transforming into a discount business model. It has launched "Laiyoupin Money-Saving Supermarket" and "Haoxianglai Quanshi Youxuan," expanding beyond snacks to include daily chemical, frozen, fresh, and other product categories. These measures indicate that Wanchen Group is shifting from the bulk snack track to full categories, focusing on family consumption scenarios and lower-tier markets, thereby broadening the group's growth. Data shows that after 2-3 quarters of iteration and optimization, the discount supermarket transformation has achieved certain results, with single-store GMV nearly 30% higher than that of typical bulk snack stores. Among these, Wanchen Group's supply chain plays an important supporting role. It is understood that Wanchen Group has compressed six traditional distribution links, controlling logistics costs within 3% and reducing inventory turnover days to 12 days. At the same time, Wanchen Group has established over 50 warehousing centers nationwide, with over 900,000 square meters of modern logistics warehouses and a digital supply chain system, supporting the "T+1" delivery principle, greatly improving overall transportation efficiency. In addition to developing full categories, the currently hot instant retail is also within Wanchen Group's expansion scope. As of the end of July this year, about 5,000 stores under Haoxianglai had integrated instant snack services, with order volumes maintaining over 200% growth for three consecutive months on the platform, and online new customers accounting for over 90%, successfully expanding the incremental market within a 3-5 kilometer range. Youthfulness and IP collaboration are important ways for many brands to connect with young people and attract more young consumer groups. During the 2025 Spring Festival, Haoxianglai launched surprise boxes for the hit movie "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes to the Sea" and Sanrio strawberry surprise boxes, among other licensed IP products, to boost New Year sales at offline stores. Since this year, Haoxianglai has also collaborated with IPs such as Harry Potter, My Little Pony, and Detective Conan. On its official website, Haoxianglai states that it hopes to provide users with more fun and affordable trendy toys, allowing users to obtain richer and more direct happiness at a lower threshold in their "snack park at the doorstep." It is evident that the "snack park" closely related to trendy toys is another lever Wanchen Group is using to transcend the bulk snack track cycle. More precisely, Wanchen Group hopes to create the "Pop Mart" of the snack world, telling a more imaginative snack story. Furthermore, Wanchen Group will also focus on overseas markets in the future. In a previous announcement, it stated that to further advance the company's international strategy, enhance brand awareness and comprehensive competitiveness, and improve the supply chain system, the company plans to issue H shares and apply for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As the bulk snack market becomes increasingly saturated, the development trends of Wanchen Group and Mingming Henmang, as the two largest companies in the track, are clearly attracting attention and will also verify the future growth and breakthrough possibilities of the track. References: [1]. China News Service: After selling snacks, this company's revenue increased 75 times in 3 years [2]. Investor Home: 37.4 billion, China's snack king to IPO [3]. Zhongyuan News Network: Wanchen Group's 10,000-store network lays foundation, supply chain and private brands help improve profit margins [4]. Xinmin Evening News: Instant retail drives growth, Wanchen Group's 2025 profit acceleration is expected [5]. Southern Metropolis Daily: Competing with Mingming Henmang for the first bulk snack stock in Hong Kong? Wanchen Group announces Hong Kong listing [6]. Titanium Media APP: Wanchen Group goes to Hong Kong for IPO, snack giant 'Haoxianglai' next stop towards IP economy?