Chai Xiu's "Final Dance": 129 million yuan guarantee becomes a burden for Moke Blue's annual report

After going quiet for more than a month, Miaokelan Duo (600882.SH) has finally turned in the “last dance” of the Cai Qiu era.

In its 2025 annual report disclosed on March 25, full-year revenue reached 5.63B yuan, up 16.29%, mainly attributable to increased revenue from its cheese products; non-GAAP attributable net profit was 158 million yuan, up 235.94%. In response, the official explanation was: “Affected by a series of cost-reduction and efficiency-enhancement strategic initiatives.”

Miaokelan Duo’s cheese business revenue performance; image source: Tonghuashun iFind

In terms of classification, in 2025, with a focus on its cheese core business, Miaokelan Duo’s cheese business revenue was 4.62B yuan, up 22.84%. The cheese revenue share rose from 80.12% to 82.37%, becoming the absolute driving force for growth. Even just in the fourth quarter of 2025, revenue was 1.68B yuan, up 34.13%, climbing rapidly for three consecutive quarters.

Behind this, there is no doubt that it is related to its dual push on both the C-side and B-side.

Over the past year, Miaokelan Duo not only completed full-scenario coverage of its cheese products. Beyond the children’s snack segment, it has gradually expanded into adult casual foods and home dining-table scenarios, and has rolled out new products including cheese small triangles, cheese slices, and domestically produced mild-flavored butter. At the same time, by tying up with catering and restaurant chain giants such as Yum China (09987.HK), it has enabled stable volume growth of industrial cheese products through B-side channels.

According to Worldpanel consumer index data, in the first half of 2025, among packaged cheese brands in China, Miaokelan Duo’s market share exceeded 38%. However, competition is also intensifying, as major players such as Baiji Fu, Yili, and Junlebao have stepped up their cheese deployments in recent two years. In addition, there are also the Miofe Foods founded by former Miaokelan Duo executives Chen Yun and Zhang Zhigang, which are all forming a pincer against it.

Miaokelan Duo’s cheese business gross margin performance; image source: Tonghuashun iFind

As a result, Miaokelan Duo’s cheese business gross margin has been declining for five consecutive years. In 2025, it was only 33.81%, down 14.7 percentage points overall compared with 2021. But the average gross margin level of its other side businesses (trading products, liquid milk, and others) at 21.18% to a certain extent has eased the pain during the company’s product-structure adjustment process.

However, the key issue lies in profitability.

Tonghuashun iFind shows that in 2025, Miaokelan Duo’s attributable net profit was only 118 million yuan, up 4.29%. This not only fell below the previously expected average of more than 220 million yuan, but also presents a sharp contrast with the non-GAAP net profit that more than doubled by over two times.

In response, the company said that during the reporting period, the net amount of non-recurring items was a loss of 39.1263 million yuan. Among this, losses from changes in the fair value of financial assets reached 110 million yuan, directly dragging down the overall profitability level. It is understood that this loss stemmed from a merger fund “Shanghai Xiangmin,” in which it invested about 100 million yuan in 2018 as a participant. Due to a debt default issue caused by guarantee arrangements by a related party of cheese founder Cai Qiu, the listed company adjusted the fair value of this investment from 129 million yuan to zero at the end of last year.

In January 2026, Miaokelan Duo relieved Cai Qiu of all positions in the company, keeping only the director role.

Promotional materials related to Cai Qiu from Miaokelan Duo’s past; image source: the company’s official WeChat account

With these spillover effects, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Miaokelan Duo still recorded a new revenue high, but its attributable net profit turned to a loss of 57.4443 million yuan. In the same period, the net cash flow from operating activities was 459 million yuan, down 13.46% from 531 million yuan in the same period last year.

The annual report shows that among the company’s 18 directors and related executives, “Mengniu-related” personnel hold 7 seats. These include Chen Yi Yi, Kuai Yulong, Shen Xinwen, Gao Wen, Yang Jilong, and others, all of whom have work experience related to Mengniu. This means that from the CFO to the general manager and deputy general manager positions, Mengniu has already completed a full round of reshuffling of Miaokelan Duo’s key roles.

Miaokelan Duo’s newly appointed president Kuai Yulong; image source: company announcement

After removing the founder, whether Miaokelan Duo’s operating strategy has shifted is reflected in the ESG report by newly appointed president Kuai Yulong, who said, “Miaokelan Duo is committed to building a systematic, multi-tier, full-coverage compliance governance framework to ensure the company’s sustained, steady operations and high-quality development.”

From an operational perspective, the Mengniu-related approach places more emphasis on refined operations and financial stability. The brand-expansion strategy that Cai Qiu’s era pursued aggressively is making way for cost control, tighter fee-and-spend investment management, and optimization of channel structure. In 2025, the company’s selling expense ratio was effectively controlled, and the growth rate of non-GAAP profit far outpaced that of revenue.

Also, according to a recent report by Beijing Business Today, at the first public event following Kuai Yulong taking over as Miaokelan Duo’s president, he also proposed the company’s five-year plan for the future: revenue to exceed 100 billion yuan, and net profit to achieve a doubling of growth.