Price hikes and cost reductions, Master Kong's profits are expected to increase by over 20% in 2025

On the 30th anniversary of its listing, the veteran food giant Master Kong enters a new phase.

Financial reports show that in 2025, Master Kong achieved revenue of 79.068 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 2.0% year-over-year; gross profit margin increased by 1.7 percentage points, driving shareholder attributable profit to 4.5 billion yuan, up 20.5% year-over-year.

Over the past year, prices of core raw materials such as beverage bottles and palm oil for instant noodles entered a downward cycle, providing a buffer for gross profit release.

Meanwhile, the retail prices of main bottled products like iced red tea and rock sugar pear increased from 3 yuan to 3.5 yuan, and 1L products rose from 4 yuan to 5 yuan.

Although such price hikes somewhat restrained sales growth, leading to a slight decline in overall revenue, they effectively offset operating costs and protected core profits.

From a business segment perspective, the beverage division’s revenue declined slightly by 2.9% to 50.123 billion yuan, accounting for 63.4% of the group’s total revenue. Despite the shrinking scale, it contributed higher profit elasticity.

The instant noodle business performed steadily, achieving gradual upgrades under the trend of “value for money.”

In 2025, revenue from the instant noodle segment was 28.421 billion yuan, a slight increase year-over-year, accounting for 35.9% of the group’s total revenue. Benefiting from favorable raw material prices and selling prices, gross profit margin for instant noodles rose to 29.7%, and shareholder attributable profit surged by 10.1% to 2.252 billion yuan.

Master Kong adheres to the strategy of “consolidating major products and cultivating innovative ones” in the instant noodle field.

In the high-priced noodle market, it strengthens brand loyalty through aerospace patent technology and IP collaborations; in the ultra-high-end market, it launched the “Special T” fresh instant noodles and “He Noodles,” which have restaurant-grade quality, to meet white-collar consumers’ demands for health and taste.

As an important indicator of channel confidence, “customer prepayments” experienced fluctuations in 2025: at mid-year, this figure shrank to 912 million yuan, sparking market discussions about the willingness of veteran channel partners to extend credit.

However, the annual financial report shows that as of December 31, 2025, the group’s customer prepayments rebounded to 2.16 billion yuan, an increase from 1.975 billion yuan at the end of 2024.

On the organizational level, Master Kong also saw a significant change.

In early 2026, Wei Hongcheng, son of founder Wei Yingzhou, officially succeeded Chen Yingrang as the group’s CEO.

With the completion of the second-generation succession, the two core positions are now held by brothers Wei Hongming and Wei Hongcheng. The company’s brief era of professional managers has ended, returning to a family governance model.

The annual report explicitly emphasizes the entrepreneurial spirit of “Back to Day 1,” aiming to activate the internal driving force of a hundred-billion-level enterprise through clearer division of responsibilities and organizational efficiency improvements.

By the end of 2025, the group’s bank deposits and cash (including long-term fixed deposits) reached 19.486 billion yuan, an increase of 3.484 billion yuan from the previous year’s end, placing the company in a net cash position.

The board of directors recommends a total dividend of 79.84 cents RMB per share, including final and special dividends, totaling approximately 4.5 billion yuan, essentially returning the full annual profit to shareholders.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

Market risks exist; investments should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not consider individual users’ specific investment goals, financial situations, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions herein are suitable for their particular circumstances. Investment involves responsibility for one’s own decisions.