Plan to achieve over 20% revenue growth in 2026; can Dongpeng Beverage's second growth curve continue its brilliance?

Ask AI · Can Electrolyte Drinks Become the New Growth Engine for Dongpeng?

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At the end of March, at the World Superbike Championship (WSBK) Portugal round, Chinese motorcycle brand Zhang Xue Motor won two consecutive round championships in the SSP category, breaking the decades-long monopoly of Western, American, and Japanese manufacturers on the project.

Subsequently, news that Dongpeng Beverage sponsored Zhang Xue Motor with 50,000 yuan widely spread online. In response to this matter, Jiang Weiwei, Director and Co-President of Dongpeng Beverage Group, said in a media interview that the actual sponsorship amount for Dongpeng Special Drink is far more than 50,000 yuan. For the protection of business secrets, the specific amount was not disclosed to the public.

Meanwhile, Dongpeng Beverage also released its 2025 annual report during the same period. Its revenue was 20.875 billion yuan, up 31.8%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 4.415 billion yuan, up 32.72%.

With the dual positive drivers of Zhang Xue Motor’s championship win and the growth in performance, Dongpeng Beverage’s performance in the capital market has not been very optimistic. Since the beginning of the year, the A-share price of Dongpeng Beverage has recorded a cumulative decline of 22.84%; since its listing in Hong Kong, its Hong Kong share price has recorded a cumulative decline of 16.61%. Why has Dongpeng Beverage not received recognition from the capital market?

01

Performance Growth Slowing Down

In its financial report, Dongpeng Beverage (605499.SH) mentioned that it has ranked in the top ten global soft drink brand value lists, and ranked 44th in Kantar’s 2025 Most Valuable Chinese Brands ranking.

Behind the impressive results, Dongpeng Beverage also faces concerns. First is the slowdown in performance growth. From 2023 to 2025, Dongpeng Beverage’s revenue growth rates were 32.42%, 40.63%, and 31.8% respectively; the net profit attributable to shareholders’ growth rates were 41.6%, 63.09%, and 32.72% respectively.

In 2025, Dongpeng Beverage’s growth rate clearly slowed down, mainly because its fourth-quarter performance showed obvious fluctuations. According to data from Eastmoney, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Dongpeng Beverage’s revenue was 4.031 billion yuan, up 22.88% year on year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 654 million yuan, up 5.66% year on year.

Guosen Securities said that the pressure on reported performance in the fourth quarter was expected to be mainly affected by the shifting of the post–Spring Festival timing and the advance of freezer-related expenses.

The information shows that in 2021, Dongpeng Beverage proposed and began implementing a freezing-based strategy. In that year’s annual report, it also mentioned that it would develop terminal outlets as an assessment indicator, using the idea that “freezing is the best display,” and achieving an increase in revenue share through measures such as strengthening freezer deployment at the channel level and product merchandising.

In its Hong Kong listing prospectus, Dongpeng Beverage stated that as of September 30, 2025, it had cumulatively deployed 400,000 freezers. In the next 3–5 years, it plans to purchase and deploy about 600,000 additional freezers nationwide in provincial-level cities.

In its 2025 annual report, Dongpeng Beverage once again stated that the company is comprehensively accelerating the implementation of its freezing-based strategy, further increasing the scale and intensity of freezer deployment at terminal outlets, strengthening freezing-based display support for the development of “1+6” multi-category growth, and building a solid physical carrier for high-frequency brand exposure and sales conversion.

Accelerating freezer deployment has also increased Dongpeng Beverage’s costs. In 2025, Dongpeng Beverage’s selling expenses were 3.405 billion yuan, up 27% year on year. The main reason is that channel promotion expense increased by 57.55%, mainly due to increased freezer investment; employee compensation expense increased by 23.04%, because to advance the implementation of its national expansion strategy, the company further expanded its sales scale and the number of sales personnel increased.

In addition, Dongpeng Beverage said in its financial report that its operating target for 2026 is to achieve revenue growth of no less than 20%. Compared with past growth rates, Dongpeng Beverage is clearly actively slowing down.

02

Electrolyte Drinks Contribute More Than 70% of Revenue

In terms of product structure, Dongpeng Beverage still relies on the energy drink category.

In 2025, Dongpeng Beverage’s energy drink revenue was 15.599 billion yuan, up 17.25%. Its revenue share fell from 84.08% in 2024 to 74.78%; its electrolyte drink revenue was 3.274 billion yuan, up 118.99%, and its revenue share increased from 9.45% to 15.7%; revenue from other beverages was 1.986 billion yuan, up 94.08%, and its revenue share increased from 6.47% to 9.52%. The three categories’ gross margins were 50.79%, 34.77%, and 15.53% respectively.

Within the energy drink category, in 2025, the core flagship product Dongpeng Special Drink achieved revenue of 15.599 billion yuan. Nielsen IQ data shows that in 2025, Dongpeng Special Drink’s sales volume share in China’s energy drink market rose from 47.9% in 2024 to 51.6%, becoming the energy drink with the highest sales volume in China for five consecutive years; its market share by sales revenue rose from 34.9% to 38.3%. It captured the “No. 1” titles in both sales volume and sales revenue, officially topping China’s energy drink market.

From 2022 to 2024, the energy drink (Dongpeng Special Drink) revenue growth rates were 23.98%, 26.48%, and 28.49% respectively. The 17.25% growth rate in 2025 is clearly a slowdown compared with previous years. As the category that accounts for more than 70% of Dongpeng Beverage’s revenue share and has the highest gross margin, the slowdown in energy drinks also affects overall performance.

As the second growth curve for Dongpeng Beverage, electrolyte water has the core product “Replenish Water,” which has become a flagship with sales in the tens of billions—however, its revenue share and gross margin still lag significantly behind Dongpeng Special Drink. At the same time, under the “1+6” multi-category strategy, Dongpeng Beverage has also laid out categories such as tea, coffee, and plant protein, including products like “Fruit Tea” and “Dongpeng Dake” whose revenues exceeded 500 million yuan.

With a multi-category approach, Dongpeng Beverage still needs Dongpeng Special Drink to drive revenue growth. As a fast-moving consumer goods brand, Dongpeng Beverage’s growth depends on channel coverage. In its 2025 annual report, it stated that it has achieved 100% coverage of prefecture-level cities nationwide, with more than 3,400 distributors and over 4.5 million terminal outlets.

Under these circumstances, it is not easy for Dongpeng Special Drink to achieve more growth. Besides pursuing growth through multiple categories, Dongpeng Beverage has started to develop overseas markets. In its financial report, Dongpeng Beverage said that it relies on fundraising from its Hong Kong listing to expand overseas business, focusing on Southeast Asia and promoting global brand development.

The Hong Kong listing prospectus shows that Dongpeng Beverage plans to use 8% of the net proceeds to build supply chain infrastructure, including warehousing, in key overseas markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, to meet the high-growth demand in these Southeast Asian countries, and ultimately achieve localized operations. The company may selectively extend upstream in the industrial chain, deepen partnerships, and support overseas business development through local procurement of raw materials.

About 12.0% of the net proceeds will be used over the next three to five years to expand overseas market business, explore potential investment and acquisition opportunities. The company will continue to actively explore opportunities for overseas market development, and will adopt flexible business models tailored to the characteristics of local markets. In the short term, the company will focus on the Southeast Asian market, and will gradually step up efforts in other regions such as the United States in the medium to long term.

At present, overseas revenue contributes only a limited amount to Dongpeng Beverage. In 2025, other regional revenue from online, overseas, and catering channels totaled 740 million yuan, accounting for only 3.55% of total revenue. With more funds allocated to overseas markets, more revenue is also expected to be generated.

Now that Dongpeng Beverage has completed its A+H listing and obtained more capital, but in terms of operations, whether it can dispel the capital market’s concerns about its “growth peaking” does not hinge on temporary performance fluctuations; rather, it depends on whether the second growth curve can truly take over and whether the overseas layout can open up new space.

Author丨Wuren

Source丨Zhengtan Finance (ID:teccj6)