Economic Observer reporter Zheng Mingzhu

It has been a year and a half since Hunan Mingming Busy Commercial Chain Co., Ltd. (01768. HK, hereinafter referred to as "Mingming Busy") launched its own brand in February 2025.

In mid September, Economic Observer reporters visited several Mingming snack stores and found that its own brand products were not in the core position of the shelves, but were moved to the corner. At the same time, Mingming is very busy with its 2025 annual report and 2026 semi annual report, and there is no mention of "developing its own brand products". In its listing information disclosed in April 2025, this item was also listed as a "strategic sector".

The Economic Observer, based on recent offline store visits and the situation of online stores in multiple cities, found that Mingming's busy self owned brand strategy has shifted more clearly. In the current situation where many retailers are adding their own brands, Mingming is busy and has chosen a different path, investing resources elsewhere.

Where have our own brands gone

A reporter from the Economic Observer visited two Zhao Yiming snack stores outside the North Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, and found that products such as Wahaha beverages, Yili pure milk, and Haihe milk were placed in the center of the stores; On the shelf at the entrance, only one Mingming Busy Jasmine/Oolong tea can be seen, priced at 1.9 yuan per bottle; The innermost shelf of the store has a Mingming Busy Beef Crispy, priced at 9.9 yuan per pack. Besides, no other proprietary brand products have been seen.

On online platforms, Mingming is very busy and the volume of its own brand is not large. On September 23rd, when searching for multiple Beijing Zhao Yiming snack stores under Mingming Busy on the Meituan platform, the reporter found that the "group purchase" option only included "Mingming Busy Jasmine Tea/Oolong Tea" 600ml * 3 packs, with a membership price of 5.4 yuan, which requires registration or binding as a Zhao Yiming snack member. Meanwhile, group buying coupons are only available for pick-up at the store and do not offer delivery. Chengdu, Changsha and other places are very busy with snacks, and so are their stores. Several Zhao Yiming snack stores in Zhengzhou and Jilin cities have launched flash purchase platforms. Although they can provide delivery, their own brand products only have six options: jasmine tea, oolong tea, crispy seaweed, mini dried beef, craft beer, and Pearson beer.

This is in stark contrast to the scene when Mingming was busy launching its own brand for the first time in 2025.

In February 2025, Mingming is busy launching its own brand products in the "Red Label" and "Gold Label" series, covering more than 30 products such as sugar free oolong tea, whole milk, seaweed, beef jerky, etc. This is seen as an important milestone in the transformation of the mass market snack industry from channel branding to product branding. At that time, the most prominent display in the store was the self owned brand products launched by the group.

Mingming is very busy with the shift of its own brand strategy, which is also reflected in its financial report. Mingming is very busy. In the listing information book disclosed in April 2025, the strategic section specifically listed "developing self owned brand products", stating that "we plan to further analyze consumer preferences, taste trends, and other aspects, discover consumer needs that are not yet met by existing products, and strategically develop self owned brand products". However, this statement no longer appears in the 2025 annual report and 2026 semi annual report; The listing information disclosed on January 6th this year stated that the revenue generated from selling its own brand products was "not significant" for the nine months ending September 30th, 2025.

Why did Mingming make such adjustments when he was busy, from entering the game with a high profile to retiring? What are the considerations behind it? Regarding this, Mingming was very busy and did not respond.

However, on April 1st this year, Mingming was very busy. Chairman and CEO Yan Zhou stated at the performance briefing that private brands are not a core strategy. He said that retailers do their own brands for pricing power and high gross profit, but Mingming is very busy. About 80% of the products in the store are different from traditional retail channels, such as unique snacks such as chicken feet, melon seeds, and beans, which have differentiation and do not need to rely on their own brands to achieve differentiated pricing. From a user experience perspective, if the store is filled with self packaged products, the dazzling surprise will disappear. Therefore, the company hopes to become a showcase for Chinese food manufacturers.

A Different Path

In the duopoly pattern of mass market snacks, Mingming is very busy and its own brand path is diverging from Wanchen Group (300972. SZ).

A franchisee of Mingming, who is very busy, told the Economic Observer that the sales of Mingming's own brand products are generally average, and there are more specialized products of different specifications in the stores, while Wanchen Group's Haosiyi has relatively more own brand products.

Wanchen Group mentioned in its 2025 annual report and 2026 semi annual report that "based on deep insights into consumers in various regions, deepening cooperation with upstream suppliers, continuously improving product selection capabilities, developing customized products, proprietary brand products, etc., to meet differentiated market demands.

The reporter visited the Xiangxianglai Snack Park (Beijing Longde Plaza store) and saw a large number of self branded beverages with the "Xiangxianglai Selection" logo displayed on the shelf on the right side of the entrance, along with third-party brands such as Nongfu Spring, Yuanqi Forest, RIO, and the same in the freezer. Walking along the flow line towards the store, the shelves display products such as coffee liquid and black chocolate latte that one really wants. According to the information released on the official WeChat official account on September 17, Haoxianglai launched a series of new products of its own brand with the theme of "Autumn Flavor", including Haoxianglai to select dried golden apricots with juice, Haoxianglai to select juicy and fleshy yellow peaches, Haoxianglai to select super value carambola and apricot juice tea drinks, Haoxianglai to select pumpkin water, Haoxianglai to select taro pudding, etc.

As Yan Zhou said, retailers do their own brands for pricing power and high gross profit. From the gross profit margins of the two top companies, in 2024, 2025, and the first half of 2026, the gross profit margins of Wanchen Group's bulk snack business were 10.86%, 12.32%, and 12.74%, respectively, while Mingming's busy gross profit margins were 7.6%, 9.8%, and 11.5%, respectively. The gross profit margin of the latter has always been lower than that of the former, but its revenue scale is larger. In the first half of 2026, Wanchen Group's revenue was 34.836 billion yuan, while Mingming's busy revenue was 45 billion yuan.

From the overall situation of the retail industry, Mingming's busy choices can be considered a minority, and increasing its own brand is still the common action of most retailers at present. According to industry insiders, from the perspective of the development logic of private brands, their greatest value lies in stabilizing and improving overall gross profit margins, but the prerequisite is that the scale, supply chain capabilities, and customer trust are all mature enough. It is particularly difficult to establish a self owned brand for mass-produced snacks, as it is challenging to ensure extremely low terminal prices while leaving reasonable profit margins for suppliers. Previously, a supplier told the media that Mingming was very busy and demanded extremely low profit margins and costs. Due to the breakdown of the cost that the company could afford, the supplier ultimately gave up cooperation.

From the relevant statements of the management team that Mingming is very busy, it can be seen that more of its funds have been invested in new directions such as cold chain this year. Yan Zhou mentioned at the first performance exchange meeting after going public in April this year that the company will systematically promote cold chain construction in 2026. At present, consumers are pursuing less additives, short-term maintenance, and health. Mingming is very busy planning to make cold chain a long-term construction project, by increasing the frequency of cold chain distribution and infrastructure investment, to build new competitiveness. At the same time, high-quality snack foods such as freeze-dried durian and chestnuts are also its key focus.

(Author Zheng Mingzhu)