The stock price has increased for 10 consecutive days, and the leading company in 30 billion pre-made dishes has seen short-term debt surge by 700%

Source: Alpha Workshop

Yingwei Food (603345.SH), known as the “king of pre-made meals” and the “No. 1 in frozen food,” boosted its stock price with a round of “divine techniques,” taking shares higher straight through. From March 23 to April 3, after Yingwei achieved a “nine-day winning streak,” it then logged a “ten-day winning streak.” The share price rose from 81.3 yuan per share to 96.61 yuan per share, while its total market capitalization reached 32.2 billion yuan.

But in the past few years when pre-made meals suddenly went viral, Yingwei Food’s total market capitalization had once jumped to 68.0 billion yuan; afterward, it gradually declined, and it is still less than half of the peak.

While the stock market surged, Yingwei Food just unveiled its 2025 performance results “answer sheet” over the past two days, showing net profit falling for the first time in 10 years. Although revenue increased year over year to more than 16.0 billion yuan, the situation of “growing revenue but not growing profits” is very clear, along with a sharp year-over-year surge in short-term borrowings.

Many investors have also started to choose to take profits and be content. Whether this “fish ball” of Yingwei Food can keep “charging higher” in the stock market is drawing attention.

01 The pre-made-meals leader with large-scale dividends: net profit down, short-term debt exploding 7-fold

In 2025, Yingwei Food delivered a scorecard where growth and pressure coexisted.

For the full year, it achieved operating revenue of 16.193 billion yuan, up 7.05% year over year, and it continued to firmly rank first in China’s frozen food industry. But net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 1.359 billion yuan, down 8.46% year over year.

Previously, Yingwei Food’s net profit attributable to the parent company had risen for 9 straight years, reaching a high of 1.485 billion yuan in 2024. The year-over-year decline in net profit in 2025 is Yingwei Food’s first negative growth in the past 10 years. If measured by non-GAAP net profit excluding extraordinary items, Yingwei Food already saw year-over-year declines in 2024.

From the details in the financial report, the profit decline was not that the main business suddenly lost momentum, but rather the result of multiple pressures being realized at once.

For the full year, the gross margin fell 1.7 percentage points year over year to 21.5%. With new plants coming on stream, depreciation increased; the prices of key raw materials such as crayfish surged sharply; fluctuations in the USD exchange rate widened foreign exchange losses; and on top of that, goodwill impairment was recognized for acquired assets. With these factors stacking together, the growth rate of earnings was directly pushed below the growth rate of revenue.

In stark contrast to the profit decline is Yingwei’s consistently high dividend payouts.

For fiscal year 2025, Yingwei accumulated cash dividends of 952 million yuan (including tax), accounting for 70.01% of net profit attributable to the parent for that year. In the first half, it already distributed 473 million yuan. At year-end, the board of directors approved an additional dividend plan of 478 million yuan. For many consecutive years, it has maintained a high dividend ratio, which is uncommon in the consumer sector.

The biggest beneficiary of dividends is Yingwei Food’s controlling shareholder, Fujian Guoli Minsheng Technology Investment Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as “Guoli Minsheng”), which holds 22% of Yingwei Food’s shares. Guoli Minsheng also holds 16.17% equity in Australia’s Chengfeng Higher Education Group Co., Ltd. (01752.HK).

Looking through the equity relationships, Guoli Minsheng is jointly controlled by Ms. Hang Jianying and Ms. Lu Qiuwen. Hang Jianying and Lu Qiuwen are the actual controllers of Yingwei Food.

Along with the large dividends, Yingwei Food’s short-term borrowings surged to 891 million yuan. Compared with 111 million yuan in 2024, that is a 702.7% jump! Non-current liabilities due within one year also rose from 7.457 million yuan in 2024 to 30.45 million yuan.

Among them, the pledged guarantee loans are loans from the subsidiary Hubei Xinliuwei Food Group Co., Ltd. to a bank, with an ending balance of 100 million yuan. In guaranteed loans, Xinliuwei’s loans to banks totaled 343 million yuan; Honghu City Xinhongye Food Co., Ltd.’s loans to banks totaled 247 million yuan; and Jiangsu Dingweitai Food Co., Ltd.’s loans to banks totaled 75 million yuan.

Yingwei Food stated that the substantial increase in short-term borrowings was mainly due to an increase in working capital loans. But in July 2025, Yingwei Food just completed an equity fundraising in Hong Kong stock trading, with net proceeds of approximately 2.302 billion HKD.

During the equity fundraising and the increase in borrowings, we also see that Yingwei Food has maintained positive operating cash flows for years. What is the plan behind it?

02 Heavy positions in Henan, expanding production and going overseas—can Yingwei offset near-term pressure?

From the competitive landscape, Yingwei is an “unparalleled leader,” but it faces enemies on all sides. Although its market share leads, the advantage is only relative; it has not formed an absolute share dominance.

According to data from Frost & Sullivan, in 2024 Yingwei held a 5% market share in frozen prepared dishes (pre-made meals) while holding a 13.8% market share in the sub-segment of frozen seasoned foods (such as hotpot ingredients). Although Yingwei Food maintains “leader” positions in these two categories, the overall competitive landscape could be described as “one super plus many strong competitors.”

From the competitive brand perspective, in the frozen category Yingwei has potential rivals such as Quanqi, Qianweiyangchu, and Haixia; in the pre-made-meals track there are regional brands such as Weizhixiang and Congchu; in upstream segments, San Nong, Shuanghui, and Guolian Aquatic Products enter the B2B contract manufacturing business by leveraging raw material advantages; and offline supermarket and restaurant brands also increasingly build private labels. Industry competition is unlikely to ease in the short term.

Choosing to increase market share is often the choice of industry “leaders.” Yingwei Food is also continuously increasing investment: expanding capacity, deeply developing channels, and promoting overseas expansion. The goal is to take a long-term layout to counter short-term volatility, which is also the deeper consideration behind Yingwei Food’s fundraising through multiple channels.

One of Yingwei Food’s most watched moves is adding more investment in Henan.

In March this year, Yingwei Food announced it would inject 120 million yuan in capital into its wholly owned subsidiary Henan Yingwei, for the Henan Phase III annual production expansion project of 140,000 tons of frozen food. The project is expected to be completed and begin production in May 2028. This project originally started construction in 2022. At the time, it was expected to be completed and begin production in 2024, but due to a slower industry recovery pace, Yingwei Food chose to postpone completion.

However, Henan is a core area for China’s frozen food industry. Quanqi, Sianmian, Qianweiyangchu, and Shuanghui are all concentrated there. Yingwei’s continued heavy positioning in Henan is essentially about seizing the Central China hub and strengthening its nationwide market radiation capability, further solidifying its supply-chain moat.

In addition, projects such as Sichuan Phase III are being advanced in parallel, and the nationwide capacity network keeps getting improved. By the end of 2025, Yingwei had formed a production base layout covering the whole country. This is also a core moat for it to fend off smaller brands and maintain channel stability.

In addition, in 2025 Yingwei Food increased investment in new retail and e-commerce channels, including entering membership stores such as Sam’s and Hema. But whether consumers will recognize and accept it still needs feedback from the market.

When Yingwei Food did its IPO in Hong Kong, it had said it would push forward with overseas expansion. In September last year, Yingwei Food’s multiple products entered Hong Kong to further expand its reach into the Southeast Asian market.

But the financial report shows that Yingwei Food’s overseas revenue in 2025 was only 187 million yuan, up 11.55%, and it accounted for only 1.15% of total revenue.

Looking at the current point in time, Yingwei still faces five real risks: fluctuations in raw material costs, continued profit pressure, price-war intensification within the industry, merger integration and potential goodwill impairment, and hidden risks of food safety incidents.

03 Revenue up, profits not up—gross margin under pressure

Against the backdrop of capacity expansion and acquisitions, Yingwei Food’s “revenue increased” but “profits did not.”

According to a report by Beijing Business Today, from 2022 to 2024 Yingwei Food’s revenue growth rates were 31.39%, 15.29%, and 7.7%, respectively; net profit growth rates attributable to the parent company were 61.37%, 34.24%, and 0.46%, respectively.

This also matches the industry’s rhythm as pre-made meals moved from high growth to a slowdown. Industry data show that in 2019, the scale of China’s pre-made meals market was 244.5 billion yuan; by 2023 it rapidly climbed to 516.5 billion yuan—doubling within four years. But in 2024, the market scale was only 546.6 billion yuan, up 5.83%. Meanwhile, Yingwei Food’s revenue growth rate for frozen prepared dishes fell from 111.61% in 2022 to 29.84% in 2023, and then further to 11.76% in 2024.

Yingwei’s business layout has long insisted on “three-pronged advancement.” The three core categories show very different performances, directly determining the company’s overall profitability level.

Among them, frozen seasoned foods (mainly hotpot ingredients) are the company’s basic profit base.

In 2025, this category generated revenue of 8.450 billion yuan, up 7.79% year over year. It accounted for more than 52% of total revenue, making it the company’s largest revenue source. More importantly, this segment’s gross margin is as high as 28.35%, making it Yingwei’s most stable “profit cash cow.”

Frozen prepared dishes (pre-made meals), considered the second growth curve, though they grow fast, have low margins.

In 2025, this category’s revenue was 4.821 billion yuan, up 10.84% year over year. The growth rate was faster than total revenue and has already become the second growth engine. But the gross margin was only 9.49%, down 2.27 percentage points year over year, the lowest among the three product categories.

As for the traditional business—frozen noodles and rice products—2025 revenue was 2.4 billion yuan, down 2.61% year over year. With strong competitors such as Quanqi and Sianmian surrounding it, the noodle-and-rice business has weak growth, becoming one item that drags down overall growth.

In addition, in 2025 Yingwei entered the frozen bakery segment by acquiring Dingweitai. Annual added baking revenue was 67.9551 million yuan. Although the scale is not large, the company sees it as a potential next growth point.

The financial report shows that Yingwei Food’s gross margin in 2025 was 21.6%, below the 23% levels in 2023 and 2024.

The underlying reasons include not only a sharp surge in raw material costs, but also goodwill impairment that dealt a blow to the company’s profits.

The acquisitions by Yingwei Food—Xinhongye and Xinliuwei, aimed at securing Central China’s freshwater surimi resources and building a crayfish-related business—together brought a goodwill impairment loss of 164 million yuan. Meanwhile, Gongfu Food, which had planned to develop European frozen food business, also incurred operating losses, resulting in a goodwill impairment loss of 17.4088 million yuan.

Goodwill impairment not only makes investors worry, but is also a concern consumers should consider. Behind goodwill impairment are Yingwei Food’s acquisitions of Xinhongye and Xinliuwei, as well as the frozen food brand “Frozen Food Master” from before. Can these external brands be incorporated into standardized quality inspections?

Pre-made-meal categories are abundant, and “unified standards” management after “private-labeling” is the biggest “un-defendable” risk for Yingwei Food.

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