Bright Dairy & Food doesn't become the industry laughingstock; it only earns national trust?

Listing | China Visit Network

Review | Li Xiaoyan

As a century-old Chinese dairy brand, Guangming Dairy carries the heavy memories of industry development and the emotional connection of national consumers. In 2024, the company maintained its position as the third-largest domestic dairy company with revenue of 24.278 billion yuan, demonstrating a solid industry foundation. Recently, due to unexpected overseas asset incidents and the pains of mergers and acquisitions, Guangming Dairy experienced its first annual forecasted loss since listing, attracting market attention. Against the backdrop of fierce industry competition and ongoing consumer upgrades, this short-term setback is not only a test in Guangming Dairy’s development history but also an important opportunity for the company to optimize, upgrade, and rebirth. The century-old brand remains committed to quality, leveraging full industry chain advantages, technological innovation strength, and strategic adjustment resolve to steadily advance toward a new stage of high-quality development.

Global expansion and regional resource integration are essential paths for leading dairy companies to build core competitiveness. Guangming Dairy’s acquisitions focused on securing milk sources and expanding markets are based on long-term strategic planning. Although short-term integration pressures exist, these efforts lay a solid foundation for the company’s long-term growth.

In overseas expansion, the company controls New Zealand’s NewLait Dairy, aiming to secure high-quality overseas milk sources and enter the premium dairy segment, thereby improving its global supply chain system. In 2025, a sudden production accident at NewLait led to inventory write-offs and rising costs, becoming the main trigger for performance loss. This incident is an isolated operational risk, not a fundamental strategic failure. Currently, NewLait’s production issues have been largely resolved, and the company is promoting the sale of inefficient assets to optimize overseas business structure, which is expected to significantly reduce performance drag and reshape the overseas profit model.

Domestically, the acquisition of Xiaoxi Niu Dairy is a key move for Guangming Dairy to deepen its presence in the Northwest market and address regional milk source shortages. Although the target’s short-term performance did not meet expectations and the full acquisition under a earn-out agreement brought temporary capital pressure, Xiaoxi Niu possesses high-quality milk sources from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with scarce resource value and regional channel barriers. As integration deepens and cost control measures are implemented, this valuable asset will gradually generate synergy effects, becoming an important pillar of Guangming Dairy’s national expansion. The market’s short-term view of integration pains as “reckless investment” overlooks the industry’s long cycle and emphasis on integration in dairy M&A. Guangming Dairy is actively resolving short-term pressures through refined operations, transforming acquired assets from “dragging weight” to “growth engines.”

Market valuation reflects short-term market expectations rather than the company’s true value. Guangming Dairy’s revenue remains among the top three in the industry, yet its market capitalization shows a phase of inversion, mainly due to cautious market reactions to short-term performance fluctuations rather than a negation of core value.

As of March 11, 2026, Guangming Dairy’s market value was approximately 10.88 billion yuan, lower than smaller peers in revenue, with short-term pressure on stock prices and capital flows, and limited institutional coverage. However, the company’s century-old brand moat, absolute advantage in East China, leading cold chain logistics nationwide, and full industry chain control form a solid foundation for enterprise value. New dairy companies have gained valuation premiums through flexible M&A and operational strategies, while Guangming Dairy’s state-owned background and stable footing provide stronger risk resistance and long-term growth potential.

The current divided attitude in capital markets offers space for Guangming Dairy’s valuation recovery. The company is actively reversing profitability decline through asset optimization, cost reduction, efficiency improvements, and business focus. As operational performance improves, market confidence will gradually restore, and the mismatch between revenue scale and market value will be corrected. For long-term investors, Guangming Dairy’s core competitiveness remains unchanged; the current low valuation is an opportunity for value positioning.

Leading in revenue scale but experiencing temporary profit decline reflects industry-wide issues such as homogenized competition, rising costs, and the need for business structure optimization, rather than a loss of competitiveness. In 2023, the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders reached 966 million yuan, a record high since listing, but fell back to 722 million yuan in 2024. In 2025, due to unexpected factors, it shifted from profit to loss. This volatility aligns with the heavy asset, long-cycle nature of dairy operations.

Compared to peers, Guangming Dairy’s revenue advantage is significant—its 2024 revenue exceeds that of NewLait by more than double, providing ample room for profit recovery. The company’s “big but not strong” phase stems from high reliance on traditional businesses, unbalanced channel structures, and low asset turnover. In response, Guangming Dairy has launched comprehensive initiatives to improve quality and efficiency: strictly controlling operating costs, optimizing production and logistics, reducing expenses; adjusting product mix to focus on high-margin products and reduce low-margin categories; deepening management reforms to link compensation with performance, and aligning management and shareholder interests to activate operational vitality.

As a basic necessity industry, dairy profitability recovery is not immediate. Guangming Dairy’s scale effects and supply chain advantages provide a solid foundation for quick turnaround. As inefficient assets are divested and core businesses are focused, the company will shed its “virtual fat” status and achieve synchronized growth in scale and profit.

Product, channels, and innovation are core strengths for Guangming Dairy to navigate cycles and break through development bottlenecks. As a pioneer and leader in the domestic fresh low-temperature milk segment, Guangming Dairy’s “Enjoy Fresh” strategy has built industry-leading full industry chain advantages.

On the product side, the company relies on the National Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology to increase R&D investment. In the first half of 2025, R&D expenses increased by 41.49% year-over-year, with continuous innovation results. High-end products like Youbei 5.0 Protein Ultra-Fresh Milk, Rushi 10.0 High-Protein Fermented Milk, and Youbei Muscle & Bone Fresh Milk utilize core technologies such as nanofiltration concentration and microfiltration sterilization, redefining fresh milk nutrition standards and aligning with health consumption upgrades. Although cross-industry collaborations and new product launches have yet to produce blockbuster hits, ongoing R&D investment and product iterations are building brand innovation momentum and laying the groundwork for future popular products.

On the channel front, Guangming Dairy centers in Shanghai, radiates across East China, and has deeply cultivated millions of households with its “Anytime Delivery” milk service. Its Lingxian logistics network covers the entire country’s cold chain infrastructure, with offline terminals and online platforms working in synergy. In 2024, short-term declines in domestic and regional revenues reflect intensified industry competition and channel iteration. The company is accelerating channel sinking, expanding new retail scenarios, and upgrading online services to speed up nationwide expansion.

In branding and scientific research, Guangming Dairy’s self-bred sire “Champion Marquis” ranks among the top 100 globally, breaking the bottleneck of dairy cattle germplasm sources. Its full industry chain cultural tourism projects and cross-border cultural collaborations promote brand youthfulness and rekindle national brand pride. These solid strengths and brand heritage form unique competitive barriers and core value propositions that cannot be ignored amid market chatter.

From industry benchmark to facing short-term challenges, Guangming Dairy’s development trajectory mirrors China’s dairy industry transformation and upgrading. The so-called “three big jokes” are essentially emotional reactions to short-term difficulties, overlooking the strategic resilience, responsibility, and recovery capabilities of a century-old brand.

Performance losses are a crisis but also a wake-up call. Guangming Dairy is courageously pushing forward with asset optimization, management reform, product upgrades, and channel restructuring—facing problems head-on and solving growth pains. As a leading state-owned dairy enterprise, it bears the responsibility of ensuring dairy supply for people’s livelihoods, advancing dairy technology, and inheriting national brands. This sense of responsibility and commitment is the strongest support for the company to overcome lows and move steadily forward.

A century of perseverance, a bright future ahead. Short-term pain will not stop Guangming Dairy’s progress—in fact, it will push the company to abandon illusions of scale and focus on core advantages. With full industry chain empowerment, technological innovation, and strategic precision, Guangming Dairy will quickly emerge from its performance trough, restore industry leadership, and write a new chapter for its century-old brand with stronger growth vitality and better products and services—living up to the trust of the times and the expectations of the people.