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

On March 25, Mengniu Dairy (2319.HK) released its performance report for 2025, achieving a total revenue of 82.24 billion yuan and an operating profit of 6.56 billion yuan. Among these, the Mengniu fresh milk segment delivered an impressive report card: it achieved double-digit revenue growth for the year, leading the fresh milk track and continuously expanding its market share.

As more and more consumers shift Mengniu fresh milk from “occasional tasting” to “daily necessity,” the true moat of a brand is considered to be genuinely deepened. So, what exactly did Mengniu fresh milk do right during this period of industry adjustment? Today, we will break down the “fresh” strength behind this report card.

Three-pronged approach, a comprehensive interpretation of “high-quality” growth

In the report card delivered by Mengniu fresh milk for 2025, the double-digit growth rate is indeed eye-catching, but if we only focus on financial numbers, we may miss the real highlights. Because behind the growth rate is a more noteworthy “high-quality growth,” which is reflected in three dimensions.

First, the user structure is optimizing.

In 2025, as the core strength of Mengniu fresh milk business, Daily Fresh Language launched a year-long brand offensive centered around the “Divine Fresh Milk” mindset, achieving over 5 billion exposures from the New Year IP matrix at the beginning of the year, followed by the first place in overall brand volume on the internet in the second quarter with popular content IPs such as “Lychee of Chang’an,” and in the third quarter a collaboration with Disney to launch innovative packaging, appearing in prime advertising slots during the live broadcast of the National Day military parade, and in the fourth quarter teaming up with CCTV.com to create a tracing documentary.

This continuous high-density exposure establishes connections with consumers from different circles in various ways, successfully transforming brand momentum into social assets, ultimately achieving both a significant increase in brand power and a top ranking in the overall social media index in the industry.

This also means that the growth of Mengniu fresh milk is no longer solely reliant on repeat purchases from old customers but is achieved through a series of precise brand actions that actively draw more “new demographics” in.

Second, the product structure is differentiating.

In the current product structure of Mengniu fresh milk, the Daily Fresh Language 4.0 series firmly occupies a core position in the high-end market, while “One Jin Fresh Milk” targets the mass fresh milk market, the A2β-casein fresh milk taps into the precise nutrition track, the lactose-free series engages the long-ignored lactose intolerant population, and the Little Fresh Language establishes a unique recognition label among young female consumers with its pure formula and flavor innovations.

It is evident that from basic nutrition to functional segmentation, and from the mass market to specific demographics, the product matrix of Mengniu fresh milk is evolving from “point-like explosive products” to “systematic layout.” This structured product strength means that the growth of Mengniu fresh milk is not reliant on the lifecycle of a single product but is supported by multiple growth poles, significantly enhancing its risk resistance and growth resilience.

Finally, the channel structure is evolving.

In 2025, a significant portion of the growth for Mengniu fresh milk did not come from “rolling up” traditional channels but from forward-looking positioning in emerging channels and scene innovations.

In hypermarkets and O2O channels, Mengniu fresh milk maintains the industry’s top share, with leading market shares on major e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Tmall, and Pinduoduo; in the snack system, new products co-created with Mingming Busy achieved the number one share in the fresh milk category, successfully binding high-frequency consumption scenarios with fresh milk; and in membership stores, whether it’s Sam’s taro milk, melon milk, or Hema’s raw milk banana milk and red bean angelica milk, customized channel products frequently became bestsellers, fully activating the potential for customized growth.

Moreover, in the B2B sector, Mengniu fresh milk has also engaged in deep cooperation with leading brands like Starbucks, Bawang Tea, Tea Hundred Roads, and Guming, extending the application scenarios of fresh milk from family dining tables to new-style tea and coffee shops, opening up new incremental spaces.

It is not difficult to see that the high-quality growth of Mengniu fresh milk is a systematic result built on the collaborative upgrade of brand strength, product strength, and channel strength. Each growth point has a clear supporting logic, and each expansion has structural momentum reserves, which may be the deepest aspect of this report card that deserves attention.

Leading the “fresh” project, full-chain control from source to terminal

If the aforementioned three-pronged “structural change” is the external manifestation of high quality, then the “capability change” of Mengniu fresh milk in the supply chain is the internalization of high quality, with its prowess lying in turning “fresh” into a systematic engineering project.

From the source, all the milk used by Daily Fresh Language comes from GAP-level certified farms, with the average bacterial count in raw milk being <13,000 CFU/mL and the average somatic cell count <130,000/mL, both key data significantly exceeding EU standards. However, Mengniu did not stop at having good milk sources but systematized this high standard into a replicable and traceable “full chain and full dimension seven major benchmarks” system.

The so-called “full chain” refers to the entire industry chain layout from pasture planting, dairy cow breeding, raw milk transportation to production and processing, while “full dimension” is reflected in the seven major dimensions of farm, milk source, speed, technology, nutrition, taste, and responsibility, all practicing benchmark standards that exceed the industry.

After setting these standards, the next step is to ensure that the entire chain operates smoothly and steadily. According to the financial report, Mengniu fresh milk has completed the node network construction of 18 strategic warehousing and distribution centers across six major core regions, and based on rapid business development, has built a fulfillment network covering 7 factories, 34 cloud warehouses, and 197 dedicated lines, using transportation resources that include land, air, and high-speed rail, allowing for flexible allocation based on different regional and channel demands.

At the same time, the foundational infrastructure that consumers cannot see is also being upgraded in tandem. For example, in 2025, Mengniu’s nationwide electronic signature went live, fully achieving paperless operations to enhance manual work efficiency; the Wuhan factory launched an automated warehouse that automatically sorts and delivers to vehicles, significantly improving loading efficiency; and the full-chain transparency tracking allows every bottle of fresh milk’s status to be traceable and perceptible. These “invisible investments” are precisely the fundamental guarantee for maintaining stable quality at the terminal for Daily Fresh Language.

What is even more noteworthy is that Mengniu fresh milk is continually internalizing and upgrading this “fresh” capability, with its incubation workshop officially put into production in 2025, featuring flexible production capacity with a minimum order quantity of 2 tons, supporting 11 combinations of processes, and compatible with various packaging forms such as barrels and PET bottles.

This means that Mengniu can rapidly complete the entire process from research and development to mass production, significantly shortening the new product launch cycle while reducing the investment risks and production pressure of new products, providing a rapid-response “pilot platform” for channel customization and category innovation.

Ultimately, the competition in the fresh milk business is not merely about marketing creativity but about the depth of the supply chain. The growth of Mengniu fresh milk in 2025 may superficially appear to be a victory of products and channels, but fundamentally it is a realization of systematic capabilities from source to terminal, from data to delivery.

As this capability is repeatedly refined and continuously evolved, “fresh” is no longer just an adjective but transforms into a structural barrier that is difficult for competitors to replicate.

Beyond business, the “value spillover” of a cup of fresh milk

In addition to the growth numbers recorded in the financial report, the “value spillover” of Mengniu fresh milk in 2025 outside of business is also particularly noteworthy.

First is the spillover of brand value. Daily Fresh Language experienced a concentrated explosion on the international stage: the Daily Fresh Language rooftop packaging won the silver award for “Best Appearance Packaging” at the World Dairy Innovation Awards, the dual-protein product won a three-star medal at the International Taste Awards, and it also won a special gold award at the World Tasting Conference, ranking among the top 5 in the food category.

When a domestically produced fresh milk can frequently stand on international award stages, it represents not just a brand but a rightful recognition of the overall manufacturing level of China’s dairy industry. From previously looking up to international standards to now being recognized by international peers, the award-winning path of Daily Fresh Language also reflects the journey of China’s dairy industry from catching up to keeping pace, and even beginning to lead in certain dimensions.

Second is the spillover of business value. As an important wing of Mengniu’s “one body, two wings” strategy, the group has been pioneering in the field of nutrition and health, with many explorations being trialed, validated, and amplified in the fresh milk category.

It can be said that the value of the fresh milk business has far exceeded that of a single business unit; it is becoming the innovative experimental field for the entire group in the direction of professional nutrition, with cutting-edge technologies being implemented here, new business models being validated, and then replicated and promoted to other business segments.

Finally, there is the spillover of sustainable value. In 2025, Mengniu fresh milk has made more visible practices in the ESG field, such as switching to FSC-certified materials for the entire series of rooftop packaging, receiving the title of “Emission Reduction Master” from Walmart, and being included as a case study in the ESG course at the University of Hong Kong. In Mengniu’s view, a good cup of milk must not only satisfy consumers’ taste buds but also honor the land beneath their feet.

In 2025, Mengniu fresh milk has made more tangible practices in the ESG domain. From switching all series of rooftop packaging products to FSC-certified cardboard, gradually removing PVC packaging materials from PET bottled products, to Daily Fresh Language becoming the only officially designated milk for the Hong Kong Climate Forum, and the successful inclusion of the fresh milk ESG case in the University of Hong Kong’s curriculum, to Mengniu fresh milk co-founding the ESG Business Alliance with supply chain partners, upgrading sustainable development from the efforts of a single enterprise to a collaborative action of the entire industry chain.

Behind these practices is Mengniu’s simple belief: a good cup of milk must honor the consumers’ taste buds and the land beneath their feet. It is this belief that allows the meaning of a cup of fresh milk to transcend the product itself and begin to resonate on broader dimensions.

In summary, over the past year, Mengniu fresh milk has proven with tangible results that even during an industry adjustment period, opportunities still exist; the key lies in whether the enterprise has the capability to capture these opportunities. From a cup of milk to a lifestyle, from product value to social value, the imagination of Mengniu fresh milk has just begun to unfold.