Gu Ming's revenue increased by 30% in six months, with coffee supporting the performance of individual stores.

Coffee boosted the performance of Gu Ming's individual stores.

On August 26, GuMing released its interim results for 2026. In the first half of the year, the company's revenue reached RMB 7.47 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31.9%; adjusted profit was RMB 1.568 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44.4%. The adjusted core profit margin rose from 19.9% to 23.2%, and the gross profit margin rose from 31.5% to 33.4%.

As of the end of June, GuMing had a total of 14,351 stores. In the first half of the year, 1,318 new stores opened and 521 closed, resulting in a net increase of 797 stores. While store expansion continued, the task of driving growth per store fell more heavily on new product categories such as coffee.

Looking at individual store performance, GuMing's average daily sales per store increased from 7,600 yuan to 7,800 yuan in the first half of the year, while the average daily number of cups sold increased from 439 to 440. The company stated that enriching its coffee product offerings and expanding its breakfast offerings supported store performance, while reduced subsidies from third-party delivery platforms dragged down the results.

This support primarily stems from the expansion of coffee's consumer base and consumption time. GuMing's management previously stated that after promoting coffee nationwide, their stores saw an increase in office workers aged 35 and above; combining coffee with breakfast and baked goods also fills the relatively weak morning time slot for tea consumption.

GuMing previously disclosed that by the end of 2025, each store sold an average of about 80 cups of coffee per day, accounting for nearly 20% of its total sales. Management proposed to increase the average daily sales to about 120 cups by 2026.

On the product side, GuMing is also reusing its cold chain and R&D systems to develop fruit coffee. From "Orange Americano" to "Bitter Orange Latte", its differentiation direction is closer to the extension of the fruit tea supply chain to coffee.

Coffee coverage in stores is also increasing. By the end of 2025, GuMing had more than 12,000 stores equipped with coffee machines, covering nearly 90% of the stores, and launched 27 new coffee products throughout the year. By the end of June 2026, the number of stores equipped with coffee machines had increased to about 13,500, covering about 94% of the stores, and 12 of the 51 new products launched in the first half of the year were coffee products.

Beyond coffee, the same product expansion strategy is extending beyond physical stores. Bottled carrots, fruits, and vegetables have been launched in stores nationwide, and ready-to-drink products are entering convenience stores, supermarkets, and other retail channels. Recently, GuMing was also reported to be internally testing a "fresh grapefruit draft beer," but the GuMing brand has not confirmed this.

Behind the exploration of multiple product categories is the increasing pressure to expand the store network. Based on 13,554 stores at the beginning of the period, Gu Ming's store closure rate in the first half of the year was approximately 3.84%, an increase of about 0.77 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025; the number of store closures increased by 70.8% year-on-year.

GuMing attributed the increase in store closures primarily to the high initial number of stores.

Management previously stated that the number of new stores opened in 2026 would largely remain at the 2025 level, fluctuating by no more than 500 stores. Based on this, the market estimated the total number of new stores for the year to be between 3,000 and 4,000. According to this estimate, less than a quarter of the total was achieved in the first half of the year.

The pressure to expand stores also stems from the increasingly competitive environment. The July report of the "China Freshly Made Tea and Coffee Industry Monthly Report" shows that 47 mainstream tea and coffee brands added 4,560 stores and closed 6,902 stores that month, with the number of closures exceeding the number of new openings.

In a market where store openings and replacements are accelerating simultaneously, GuMing's growth cannot be judged solely by the number of stores. Whether coffee, breakfast, and ready-to-drink beverages can continue to improve per-store output, and whether newly added stores can maintain profitability in an increasingly competitive environment, will be more critical indicators to observe in the second half of the year.

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