Today, China's snack industry witnessed a milestone event—BUSYMING officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "first stock of snack quantity retail in Hong Kong." As of this writing, BUSYMING's stock price surged over 80%, with its market capitalization breaking through 90 billion Hong Kong dollars, receiving an enthusiastic reception from the capital markets. Meanwhile, despite Hao Xiang Lai's parent company, Wanchen Group, having submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as early as September 23, 2025, it remains in a "processing" status. Why do two companies of comparable strength face such different fortunes in the capital markets?
On one side is the狂欢 of hundredfold oversubscription, and on the other is the silence of a pending审核 status. BUSYMING's listing scene today can be described as火爆, with an issue price of 236.6 HKD and an opening price reaching 424.8 HKD, a surge of nearly 80%, closing at a flat 400 HKD by the end of the trading day. Even more引人注目 is that its IPO was oversubscribed by 1,521 times, freezing funds as high as 507.86 billion HKD, making it the champion of new stock subscriptions in the Hong Kong market for the year. The capital's favor towards BUSYMING is reflected not only at the retail level but also in its lineup of cornerstone investors. Eight heavyweight institutions, including Tencent, Temasek, BlackRock, and Fidelity, participated in the cornerstone investment, subscribing to a total of 195 million USD, accounting for approximately 46.2% of the total funds raised.
In contrast, the listing process of Hao Xiang Lai's parent company, Wanchen Group, appears much quieter. Although it submitted its application about five months later than BUSYMING, it has yet to pass the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's hearing. From the capital market's reaction, Wanchen Group's performance in the A-share market is also not ideal; its stock price plummeted 10.86% in a single day following the release of its Q3 2025 report on October 22, 2025. The differing attitudes of the capital markets reflect investors' judgments on the quality and prospects of the two companies. BUSYMING,凭借 its more robust financial data, more efficient operational model, and more mature franchise system, has won more votes of confidence from capital.
BUSYMING has taken the path of "a strong alliance." In 2023, Snack Hen Mang and Zhao Yiming Snacks announced a strategic merger, forming the BUSYMING Group. This merger was not a case of a big fish eating a small one, but an equal union of two regional giants. Post-merger, BUSYMING rapidly integrated resources from both sides, achieving "unified supply chain, standardized operations, and a shared digital system," quickly eliminating regional barriers and forming powerful synergies.
Hao Xiang Lai, however, chose an expansion model of "M&A integration." Wanchen Group was originally a company focused on the mushroom business and only entered the snack track in 2021. Through consecutive acquisitions of regional brands such as Jiangsu's "Snack Workshop," Anhui's "Lai You Pin," Zhejiang's "Ya Di Ya Di," and Jiangxi's "Lu Xiao Chan," it eventually unified these brands under the name "Hao Xiang Lai" in 2023. Although this acquisition-driven growth rapidly scaled up the business, it also brought integration challenges. Merging multiple brands with different DNAs in a short period is predictably difficult.
Financially, BUSYMING demonstrates dual advantages in growth and profitability. In the first nine months of 2025, BUSYMING achieved revenue of 46.371 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 75.2%; its adjusted net profit was 1.810 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 240.8% year-on-year. More notably, BUSYMING's profitability continues to improve. From 2022 to the first nine months of 2025, its gross profit margin steadily increased from 7.5% to 9.7%, and its adjusted net profit margin rose from 1.9% to 3.9%.
While Hao Xiang Lai's parent company, Wanchen Group, also boasts impressive revenue scale—with revenue of 36.562 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 77.37%—the quality of its net profit harbors risks. In the first three quarters of 2025, the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 855 million yuan, but minority shareholders took away nearly half of the profit (740 million yuan). This profit distribution structure stems from Wanchen Group's unique equity arrangement. Wang Zening, the son of the company's founder Wang Jiankun, holds substantial equity in core subsidiaries, diverting profits that should belong to the listed company's shareholders, which undoubtedly affects investors' assessment of its profit quality.
BUSYMING's franchise network is healthier and more stable. As of September 30, 2025, BUSYMING had 9,552 franchisees, with each franchisee operating an average of 2.04 stores, demonstrating franchisees' recognition and confidence in the system. Hao Xiang Lai, however, faces franchisee management challenges. In the first half of 2025, Hao Xiang Lai closed 290 franchise stores, a number that already exceeds the total number of stores closed in the three years from 2022 to 2024 (286 stores). Simultaneously, the pace of new store openings for Hao Xiang Lai has noticeably slowed. In the first half of 2025, it opened only 1,467 new franchise stores, far lower than the 9,746 opened in the full year of 2024. This indicates that its franchise model may have hit a bottleneck, struggling to maintain its previous expansion momentum.
BUSYMING's digital capabilities have become its core competitiveness. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, as of September 30, 2025, BUSYMING possesses the largest digital team in China's leisure food and beverage specialty store sector, having built a full-chain digital system covering product selection, warehousing, and store management. Its efficient supply chain system supports rapid response capabilities. Its stores are generally located within 300 kilometers of the nearest warehouse, enabling delivery within 24 hours. Its inventory turnover days in 2024 were only 11.6 days, significantly better than the industry average.
Hao Xiang Lai has暴露 some problems in operational management. In July 2025, an incident occurred at a Hao Xiang Lai store in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, where a "store clerk knelt to apologize to a customer"; in April of the same year, there was also an incident where a clerk verbally abused a student customer. These events reflect that after rapid expansion, Hao Xiang Lai's store management capabilities have failed to keep pace, leading to inconsistent service quality.
Facing increasingly fierce market competition, BUSYMING has clearly defined its future direction: using IPO proceeds for supply chain optimization, store network upgrades, and franchisee empowerment. This means it will continue to build its moat in efficiency and experience. For Hao Xiang Lai, the delay in its listing process might be an opportunity for reflection and adjustment. How to balance expansion speed with franchisee interests, strengthen headquarters' control, and improve single-store profitability are issues it must address. Digital supply chains, refined operations, and win-win scenarios for franchisees—these are the keys determining whether quantity retail snack companies can evolve from the scale competition of "land grabbing" to the精细 operation of "efficiency-driven" competition.
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