Double-digit growth! Mengniu Fresh Milk outperforms the industry with its "fresh" strength

On March 25, Mengniu Dairy (2319.HK) released its 2025 annual performance report. For the full year, it achieved revenue of 82.24B yuan, with operating profit of 6.56 billion yuan. Among them, Mengniu Fresh Milk delivered a noteworthy set of results: full-year revenue achieved double-digit growth, fully leading the fresh milk segment, and its market share continued to expand.

As more and more consumers turn Mengniu fresh milk from an “occasional treat” into a “daily necessity,” only then can a brand’s moat be considered truly dug deep. So, during the industry adjustment period, what exactly did Mengniu Fresh Milk do right? Today, we’ll break down the “fresh” strength behind this performance report.

Three-Pronged Advancement, Interpreting “High-Quality” Growth in All Dimensions

The double-digit growth pace in Mengniu Fresh Milk’s 2025 performance is indeed impressive. But if you focus only on the financial numbers, you might miss the real highlights. Because behind the growth rate lies a “high-quality growth” that deserves more attention—and this “high-quality” growth is reflected in three dimensions.

First, the optimization of the user structure.

In 2025, as the core force behind Mengniu Fresh Milk’s business, every day Fresh Language launched a full year of brand offensives centered around the “Freshest Milk” mindshare. From the year-start cross-year IP matrix delivering 5 billion+ exposures, to the second quarter where it seized the number-one brand awareness spot across the entire network with breakout content IP such as “The Lychee in Chang’an,” and then to the third quarter where it appeared in the C位 advertising slot after partnering with Disney to launch innovative packaging and after the CCTV military parade live broadcast. In the fourth quarter, it worked with CCTV.com to create an origin-tracing documentary.

This sustained high-density exposure connects the brand with consumers across different ways and different circles, successfully transforming brand momentum into social assets—ultimately achieving both an increase in brand power and a double placement of industry-leading position in social media comprehensive index.

This also means that Mengniu Fresh Milk’s growth no longer relies solely on repeat purchases from existing users. Instead, through a series of precise brand actions, more and more “new consumer groups” proactively step in.

Second, the diversification of product structure.

In the current product structure of Mengniu Fresh Milk, the every day Fresh Language 4.0 series firmly maintains its position as the high-end core, “1 Jin of Fresh Milk” targets the mass fresh milk market, Youyou A2β-casein milk targets the precise nutrition segment, the lactose-free series taps into the long-ignored group with lactose intolerance, and Xiao Fresh Language builds a distinct recognition label among young female consumers with its pure formula and flavor innovations.

It can be seen that from basic nutrition to functional segmentation, and from the mass market to specific target groups, Mengniu Fresh Milk’s product portfolio is evolving from “point-hit bestseller” to a “systematic layout.” This structural product strength means that Mengniu Fresh Milk’s growth no longer depends on the lifecycle of a single SKU. Instead, it is supported jointly by multiple growth engines, and its ability to withstand risks and its growth resilience have clearly improved.

Finally, the evolution of channel structure.

In 2025, a large part of the increment for Mengniu Fresh Milk did not come from “pushing harder” in traditional channels, but from taking an early advantage in emerging channels and scenario-based innovation.

In big-box stores and O2O channels, Mengniu Fresh Milk’s share remained the number one in the industry. On major e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Tmall, and Pinduoduo, its market share was also at the top. In the snack retail system, the new products jointly created with “Mingming is busy” took the number-one share in the milk category, successfully binding high-frequency consumption scenarios with fresh milk. In member stores, whether it’s Sam’s taro milk and muskmelon milk, or Hema’s fresh milk banana milk and red bean danggui milk, channel-customized products frequently became bestsellers—fully unlocking the potential for customized growth.

In addition, in the B-end, Mengniu Fresh Milk also has deep collaborations with leading brands such as Starbucks, Bawang Teaqi, Chadaodao, and Gu Ming, extending fresh milk application scenarios from the family dining table to new-style tea and coffee shops, opening up an entirely new space for incremental growth.

It’s not hard to see that the high-quality growth of Mengniu Fresh Milk is the outcome of a systematic upgrade built on coordinated enhancement of brand power, product power, and channel power. Every growth point has a clear support logic; every expansion has structural momentum reserves. Perhaps this is the deeper takeaway worth paying the most attention to in this performance report.

“Fresh” Engineering: Full Chain Control from Milk Source to Terminals

If the “change in structure” driven by the three-pronged approach above is the outward expression of high-quality growth, then the “change in capability” in Mengniu Fresh Milk’s supply chain is the internalization of high-quality growth. What makes it impressive is that it turns “freshness” into a complete system engineering.

From the source, all the milk sources used by every day Fresh Language come from GAP Tier-1 certified farms. The average total bacterial count of raw milk is <13k CFU/mL, and the average somatic cell count is <130k cells/mL. Both key data points are far better than EU standards. But Mengniu did not stop at “having good milk sources.” Instead, it systematized these high standards into a replicable, traceable “full-chain, full-dimension seven benchmark” system.

The so-called “full-chain” refers to the end-to-end industry chain layout from forage planting, dairy cattle breeding, and raw milk transport to production and processing. “Full-dimension” is reflected in seven dimensions—farm, milk source, speed, technology, nutrition, flavor, and responsibility—where they all follow benchmark-level standards that exceed those of the industry.

After setting the standards, the next step is to ensure the entire chain can run, and runs stably. According to the financial report, Mengniu Fresh Milk’s cold chain has completed the node network construction for 6 major core regions nationwide and 18 strategic warehouse-and-distribution centers in parallel. Based on the rapid development of the business, it has built a fulfillment network covering 7 plants, 34 cloud warehouses, and 197 dedicated lines. Transportation resources cover three modes: ground transportation, air transportation, and high-speed rail. This enables flexible allocation according to different regions and different channel needs.

At the same time, the basic infrastructure that consumers cannot see is also being upgraded in parallel. For example, in 2025, Mengniu nationwide electronic proof-of-delivery went live, fully enabling paperless office work and improving human productivity. The Wuhan plant launched automated warehouses where automated sorting and conveyance are transferred to the vehicle, greatly enhancing loading efficiency. Full-chain transparent tracking makes the status of every bottle of fresh milk traceable and perceptible. These “invisible investments” are precisely the fundamental guarantee for every day Fresh Language to maintain stable quality at the terminals.

Even more worth noting is that Mengniu Fresh Milk is continuously internalizing and upgrading this “fresh” capability. Its incubation workshop officially put into production in 2025 has flexible production capacity with a minimum starting order quantity of 2 tons, supports 11 process combinations, and can be compatible with multiple packaging formats such as cartons and PET bottles.

This means Mengniu can complete full-process pilot production from R&D to mass production in the shortest time, substantially shortening the product launch cycle. At the same time, it reduces new-product investment risk and scheduling pressure, providing a rapid-response “pilot-and-trial platform” for channel customization and category innovation.

In the end, competition in the fresh milk business is not ultimately about marketing creativity—it’s about the thickness of the supply chain. Mengniu Fresh Milk’s growth in 2025, on the surface, is a victory in products and channels. But at the underlying level, it is the fulfillment of system capabilities—from milk sources to terminals, and from data to delivery.

When such capabilities are refined repeatedly and evolve continuously, “freshness” is no longer just an adjective; it becomes a structural barrier that competitors find difficult to replicate.

Beyond Business: A “Value Spillover” from a Cup of Fresh Milk

In addition to the growth numbers written in the financial report, the “value spillover” of Mengniu Fresh Milk in 2025 beyond business is also especially worth attention.

First is the spillover of brand value. Every day Fresh Language had a concentrated breakthrough on the international stage: its every day Fresh Language roof-pack won the silver award for “Best Appearance Packaging” at the World Dairy Product Innovation Awards. Its double-protein product won the Three Stars Medal at the International Delicious Awards. It also won the Special Gold Award at the World Tasting Conference, ranking among the top 5 in the world in the food category for that year.

And when a domestically produced fresh milk product can repeatedly stand on international award stages, what it represents is far more than a single brand—it is a restoration of credibility for China’s dairy industry’s overall manufacturing level. From looking up to international standards in the past to now being recognized by international peers, the award journey of every day Fresh Language is also a path for China’s dairy industry from catching up to running alongside, and in some dimensions even starting to lead.

Second is the spillover of business value. As an important part and one wing of Mengniu’s “one body with two wings” strategy, many of the group’s pioneering explorations in nutrition and health first tried, validated, and scaled within the fresh milk category.

It can be said that the value of the fresh milk business has long exceeded that of a single business unit. It is becoming an innovation testing ground for the entire group in the direction of professional nutrition—where frontier technologies land, new business models get tested and proven, and then are replicated and promoted to other business segments.

Finally is the spillover of sustainable value. In 2025, Mengniu Fresh Milk carried out more practices in the ESG field, such as switching the roof-pack across the whole line to FSC-certified materials, winning Walmart’s “Emission Reduction Master” title, and being selected as a case study for the ESG curriculum at The University of Hong Kong. In Mengniu’s view, a good cup of milk should not only respect consumers’ taste buds, but also respect the land beneath our feet.

In 2025, Mengniu Fresh Milk achieved more visible practices in the ESG field. These include switching the FSC-certified paperboard for the roof-pack products across the full range; gradually removing PVC packaging materials from PET bottle products; making every day Fresh Language the official authorized only designated milk to be used at the Hong Kong Climate Forum; successfully getting selected as an ESG case in The University of Hong Kong’s curriculum; and then Mengniu Fresh Milk jointly establishing an ESG commercial alliance with supply chain partners, upgrading sustainable development from the efforts of a single company into coordinated action across the entire industry chain.

Behind these practices lies Mengniu’s simple belief: a good cup of milk must not only live up to consumers’ taste buds, but also live up to the land beneath our feet. And it is this belief that makes the significance of a cup of fresh milk go beyond the product itself, starting to resonate across broader dimensions.

In short, over the past year, Mengniu Fresh Milk has proved with solid results that even in an industry adjustment period, opportunities still exist. The key is whether the company has the ability to capture these opportunities. From a cup of milk to a way of life, from product value to social value—Mengniu Fresh Milk’s imagination has only just begun to open up.

(Editor: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)

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