A pack of crispy noodles costing 1 yuan each, sold nearly 500 million units in a year!

Ask AI · How does Kangshifu’s instant noodles achieve growth against the odds through IP-driven integration?

China News by Jingwei, March 27 (Yan Shuxin) Recently, Kangshifu Holdings (hereinafter referred to as “Kangshifu”) released its 2025 annual report, achieving revenue of 79.068 billion yuan (RMB, same below), down 2.0% year over year; shareholder-attributable profit of 4.5 billion yuan, up 20.5% year over year; gross margin up 1.7 percentage points year over year to 34.8%; and shareholder-attributable profit margin increased from 4.6% in the same period last year to 5.7%.

Among them, Kangshifu’s instant noodle business recorded 28.421 billion yuan in revenue in 2025, up slightly from 28.414 billion yuan in the same period last year, accounting for 35.9% of total revenue. Benefiting from favorable raw material prices and selling prices, instant noodle gross margin rose 1.1 percentage points year over year to 29.7%. Driven by gross margin, Kangshifu’s instant noodle shareholder-attributable profit increased 10.1% year over year to 2.252 billion yuan in 2025.

In the same period, Kangshifu’s beverage revenue fell 2.9% year over year to 50.123 billion yuan; gross margin rose 2.2 percentage points year over year to 37.5%; and shareholder-attributable profit increased 18.5% year over year to 2.274 billion yuan.

China News by Jingwei noted that with instant noodle revenue rising slightly, Kangshifu’s “ganmian” achieved double-digit growth.

The financial report shows that in 2025, Kangshifu’s ganmian and other revenue was 480 million yuan, up 12% year over year; Zhong price bag noodle revenue was 2.877 billion yuan, up 0.1% year over year. In the same period, the company’s container noodles and high-price bag noodles revenue fell 0.1% and 0.3% year over year, respectively.

In 2024, Kangshifu’s instant noodle revenue fell 1.3% year over year. Among them, container noodles rose 3.7%; high-price bag noodles, mid-price bag noodles, ganmian and other fell 6.3%, 3.6%, and 5.1%, respectively.

In 2025, within Kangshifu’s instant noodle revenue, container noodles, high-price bag noodles, and mid-price bag noodles accounted for 49%, 39%, and 10%, respectively, while ganmian and other revenue accounted for 2%.

Kangshifu’s ganmian growth momentum was also especially evident in the first half of 2025. The financial report shows that in the first half of 2025, Kangshifu’s instant noodle revenue fell 2.5% year over year. Among them, container noodles and high-price bag noodles revenue fell 1.3% and 7.2% year over year, respectively, while mid-price bag noodles and ganmian and other increased 8% and 14.5%, respectively.

In its 2025 interim report, Kangshifu introduced that its ganmian “Xiangbao Cui,” through innovative flavors “Xiaosu Rou,” penetrated the leisure snack channel, and continuously leveraged the IP “Pokémon” through co-created packaging and merchandise products, deeply reaching student groups and achieving nearly double-digit growth in performance.

Earlier, Kangshifu also mentioned that its ganmian “Xiangbao Cui” focuses on the student group and the broader leisure snack market.

On the 27th, China News by Jingwei saw on an e-commerce platform that Kangshifu’s “Xiangbao Cui” collaborated with “My Little Pony” to launch ganmian noodles in multiple flavors, priced from 19.38 yuan to 29.11 yuan per carton (30 packs), which works out to 0.646 yuan to 0.97 yuan per pack.

Source: A screenshot from Kangshifu instant noodle flagship store

Zhu Danpeng, food industry analyst and vice chairman of the Guangdong Food Safety Assurance Promotion Association, told China News by Jingwei that for consumers, ganmian does not need to be soaked; it can be eaten as a snack. Compared with other instant noodle categories, it demonstrates unique advantages in terms of taste, formula, and production process. As the industry side continuously optimizes and innovates ganmian, its application scenarios are being expanded. “This is an important reason for the growth in Kangshifu’s ganmian revenue.”

The financial report shows that from 2022 to 2025, Kangshifu’s ganmian and other revenue was 352 million yuan, 452 million yuan, 429 million yuan, and 480 million yuan, respectively. In 2025, it sold 128 million yuan more than three years earlier, representing a growth rate of 36.4%. In the same period, the company’s sales of high-price bag noodles continued to decline from 12.691 billion yuan to 11.062 billion yuan, a drop of 12.8%.

Jiang Han, a senior research fellow at Pangu Think Tank, also noted that ganmian, which is ready to eat once opened, has both the attributes of a snack and a meal replacement, meeting fragmented consumption scenarios. With an approachable price around 1 yuan, it has a clear price advantage compared with high-price bag noodles and takeout, satisfying consumers’ demand for value.

“Additionally, consumers’ emotional reliance on childhood memories and classic flavors is strengthening. As a carrier of the memories of generations, ganmian has successfully sparked consumers’ emotional identification and purchase intention through methods such as flavor replication and IP-driven integration,” Jiang Han said.

According to the offline retail monitoring platform for FMCG products, Maang Ying Data, in the first half of 2025, among the instant noodle category, the soup noodle market share exceeded 80%, down 1.47% year over year; dry-mixed noodles accounted for about 10%, up 1.36% year over year; and ganmian accounted for less than 3%, up slightly year over year.

China News by Jingwei has found that, currently, in addition to traditional instant noodle companies such as Kangshifu, Uni-President, White Elephant, and Jinmailang, leisure food companies such as Three Squirrels and Panpan have also launched ganmian products.

Among them, Uni-President owns two major ganmian brands: “Little Raccoon” and “Little Boss.” In 2025, Uni-President rolled out the “Little Raccoon” 30th anniversary series products and launched the “Little Raccoon” turkey-flavor ganmian.

In its 2025 annual report, Uni-President did not disclose the specific performance of ganmian; it only stated that its 2025 “Little Raccoon” turkey-flavor ganmian precisely matches young consumers’ underlying needs for emotional release and social connection. “The R&D team fully explored the emotional and social functions of food, turning the innovative product into an emotional carrier and a social bond.”

Overall, in 2025, Uni-President achieved revenue of 31.714 billion yuan, up 4.6%; shareholder-attributable profit of 2.050 billion yuan, up 10.9%; and gross margin of 33.2%, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous year.

Specifically, in 2025, Uni-President’s food businesses such as instant noodles achieved revenue of 10.494 billion yuan, up 5.0%; and its beverage business achieved revenue of 19.471 billion yuan, up 1.2%.

Instant noodle reference image China News by Jingwei Yan Shuxin photo

China News by Jingwei noted that Uni-President did not separately disclose instant noodle business revenue in its 2025 annual report. However, based on the 2024 annual report, in 2024 Uni-President’s instant noodle revenue was 9.849 billion yuan, up 2.6% year over year, and its share in the food business was 98.5%.

(For more reporting leads, please contact the author of this article, Yan Shuxin: yanshuxin@chinanews.com.cn)(China News by Jingwei APP)

**　　(The views in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investing involves risk, and one should be cautious when entering the market.)**

责任编辑：常涛 罗琨