Regional Dairy Company Annual Report Observation: Bright Dairy and New Dairy Lead the Pack, Only Two Companies Achieve Double Growth in Profits

Ask AI · How can New Dairy’s low-temperature product strategy achieve countercyclical profit growth?

Recently, the annual reports of five major regional listed dairy companies—Guangming Dairy, New Dairy, Tianrun Dairy, Yantang Dairy, and Knight Dairy—were released. In terms of revenue, Guangming Dairy led with 23.9B yuan; in net profit, New Dairy was the most profitable regional dairy company with 730 million yuan. A comparison shows that only two of the five dairy companies experienced simultaneous growth in both revenue and profit. It is evident that the gap among leading regional dairy companies in liquid milk is gradually narrowing, with some companies gaining advantages in core regions through deep cultivation of local low-temperature milk, creating specialty products, and refined operations.

New Dairy and Knight Dairy both achieve growth in revenue and profit

Among the five regional listed dairy companies, the largest, Guangming Dairy, achieved approximately 23.9B yuan in revenue for 2025, maintaining a leading position over the other four; New Dairy achieved about 11.23B yuan, less than half of Guangming Dairy’s, but the gap is narrowing; Tianrun Dairy, Yantang Dairy, and Knight Dairy achieved revenues of approximately 2.75B yuan, 1.59B yuan, and 1.32B yuan respectively, with similar revenue scales among the three.

From the revenue perspective, only New Dairy and Knight Dairy achieved year-on-year growth, at 5.33% and 1.93%, respectively.

New Dairy mainly relies on low-temperature fresh milk and low-temperature yogurt for growth, with high-end fresh milk and “Today’s Fresh Milk Shop” both achieving double-digit growth; specialty yogurt grew over 30% year-on-year, with functional yogurt brands like the “Huorun” series continuously iterating and innovating, and Asahi Vippin launching several popular new products.

Knight Dairy, after a sharp slowdown in revenue growth in 2024, has returned to normal. During the reporting period, Knight Dairy’s fundraising projects were successfully completed and put into operation, with increased sales of fresh milk, leading to higher operating income and net profit. Since Knight Dairy only disclosed preliminary financial data as of April 2, 2026, these main financial figures are preliminary estimates and have not been audited by an accounting firm.

In terms of net profit, New Dairy outperforms others. During the reporting period, New Dairy achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of about 730 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.98%; Guangming Dairy recorded a net loss of about 149 million yuan, the first in 17 years; Tianrun Dairy, Yantang Dairy, and Knight Dairy earned net profits of 41.48 million yuan, 57.63 million yuan, and 50.59 million yuan, respectively.

Relying on higher-margin low-temperature products, New Dairy became the most profitable regional dairy company in 2025. Looking at the liquid milk business of major dairy companies, New Dairy’s gross profit margin exceeds 30%, compared to Guangming Dairy’s 25.82%, Tianrun Dairy’s 18.32%, and Yantang Dairy’s 14.31%. Guangming Dairy and Tianrun Dairy both have livestock operations, with gross profit margins during the reporting period of -9.71% and -5.50%, respectively.

Knight Dairy turned profitable in 2025 mainly because, influenced by market factors, the disposal price of biological assets increased compared to the previous year, reducing disposal losses during the reporting period, and investment losses in 2025 significantly decreased compared to the previous year.

Guangming Dairy shifted from profit to loss in 2025, mainly due to its overseas subsidiary XinLait incurring a net loss of 407 million yuan, caused by production issues at the manufacturing base, leading to inventory write-offs and increased production costs. This issue has now been largely resolved. On April 2, 2026, Guangming Dairy announced that XinLait completed the transfer of its New Zealand North Island assets to Abbott New Zealand for $170 million, and XinLait has received the payment as per the agreement.

Low-temperature milk becomes the “main battleground” in competition

From a financial comparison, Beijing Business Daily found that the scale of liquid milk for veteran dairy Guangming Dairy and emerging player New Dairy is now quite similar, with a nationwide trend emerging.

Guangming Dairy mainly produces and sells fresh milk, fresh yogurt, ambient white milk, ambient yogurt, probiotic drinks, cold beverages, infant and elderly milk powder, cheese, butter, and other products. During the reporting period, Guangming Dairy’s liquid milk revenue reached 13.22B yuan, and other dairy products brought in 8.47B yuan. Relying on a growth strategy of acquisitions over the past few years, New Dairy now owns the main brand “New Hope” and several sub-brands. During the reporting period, New Dairy’s liquid milk revenue reached 10.5B yuan, only 2.73B yuan less than Guangming Dairy.

Regionally, Guangming Dairy and New Dairy overlap in most parts of the country, with Guangming Dairy having a stronger overseas presence.

Financial reports show Guangming Dairy’s products and channels are distributed across Shanghai, East China, Central China, South China, North China, Southwest, Northwest, and other regions, with overseas production bases as well. Guangming Dairy’s revenue in Shanghai was 6.11B yuan, a decrease of 9.22% year-on-year; revenue outside Shanghai was 10.01B yuan, up 0.17%; overseas revenue was 7.65 billion yuan, up 2.84%.

New Dairy’s products and channels cover Southwest, East China, North China, Northwest, and other regions. Based on its main subsidiaries’ revenue, Sichuan Dairy’s main business is concentrated in Sichuan, with revenue of 1.7B yuan and a main business profit of 510 million yuan; Huamei Dairy mainly operates in Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and other areas, with revenue of 1.72B yuan and a main business profit of 442 million yuan; Qingdao Qinpai mainly operates in Shandong, with revenue of 1.13B yuan and a main business profit of 264 million yuan; Shandong Vipin is mainly in Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and other regions, with revenue of 929 million yuan and a main business profit of 279 million yuan.

Additionally, Tianrun Dairy’s dairy products generated approximately 2.55B yuan in revenue, including ambient dairy products at about 1.47B yuan and low-temperature dairy products at about 1.08B yuan; Yantang Dairy’s liquid dairy revenue was about 576 million yuan, specialty milk about 305 million yuan, and probiotic dairy drinks about 680 million yuan.

Shen Meng, Executive Director of Songson Capital, believes, “New Dairy’s growth model differs from that of veteran companies like Guangming, Tianrun, and Yantang, relying more on capital integration and expansion, which demands higher operational capabilities. Naturally, regional dairy companies have more obvious advantages in core regions, with higher resource concentration, allowing them to deeply cultivate local markets and seek new growth points through long-term operations.”

Industry pressures remain

The operational status of regional dairy companies can, to some extent, reflect the current state of the dairy industry.

In 2025, China’s dairy industry faces dual pressures of insufficient consumer growth momentum and overcapacity on the supply side. On the supply side, fresh milk prices generally continued to decline. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 2025, China’s milk production increased by 0.3%, reaching 40.91 million tons. Data from the Ministry’s monitoring show that from the first week of January 2025 to the 4th week of December, the average price of raw milk in 10 major producing provinces including Inner Mongolia and Hebei gradually fell from 3.12 yuan/kg to 3.03 yuan/kg, a decline of about 2.9% over the year, with milk prices under continued pressure.

On the consumption side, demand for dairy products has not met expectations. According to Nielsen data, in 2025, the scale of the nationwide liquid milk market across all channels was under pressure, with only slight growth in the fresh milk segment. China’s per capita dairy consumption remains relatively low; data from the China Dairy Industry Association shows that in 2024, the per capita dairy consumption was 40.5 kg, only about half the Asian average and about one-third of the global average, indicating significant potential for growth.

Despite the impact of the consumption environment, the supply and demand of dairy products still face periodic imbalance, but production remains relatively stable. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December 2025, China’s dairy manufacturing output reached 29.5M tons, a decrease of 1.1% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, some imported dairy fats and infant formula products experienced phased growth. Customs data show that in 2025, China imported a total of 2.6574 million tons of various dairy products, up 1.6% year-on-year, with import value reaching 12.78 billion USD, an increase of 13.8%.

Duan Zhenpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, believes, “Starting from 2024, China’s dairy industry has entered a relatively sluggish phase. National dairy companies have expanded influence through full industry chain layouts, but this has also eroded overall profits. Regional dairy companies are more known for service, following a ‘small but beautiful’ model, like Knight Dairy and Tianrun Dairy. However, New Dairy, with its ‘Fresh Cube Strategy,’ accurately grasps industry trends, which is a key reason it can still profit amid industry competition.”

Zhan Junhao, a well-known strategic positioning expert and founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consulting, states, “Currently, regional dairy companies face challenges such as weak consumption, overcapacity, and competition from leading firms. They can build differentiated barriers by deeply cultivating local low-temperature milk, creating specialty products, and refining operations. New Dairy’s DTC model suits low-temperature milk characteristics, Guangming Dairy can reduce costs and improve efficiency by optimizing local channels, while Tianrun Dairy and Yantang Dairy can leverage regional advantages for localized marketing. Knight Dairy, being smaller, should focus on niche channels and avoid blind expansion.”

Beijing Business Daily reporter Kong Wenxie