2026 Futu Investment Expo Frontline Dialogue: Mao Geping x KOSÉ x MINISO, Unpacking Long-term Opportunities in Chinese Consumer Stocks

From March 13 to 14, the largest investment and financial annual event in Hong Kong —— 2026 Futu Investment Expo (FUTU EXPO) —— successfully concluded at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. Amidst the reshaping of the global economic landscape and profound changes in consumer trends, Chinese consumer brands are encountering a critical turning point towards 'branding, globalization, and digitalization'.

The highlight roundtable discussion of this conference was themed 'New Drivers of Domestic Demand: Insights into the Long-term Value of Chinese Consumer Stocks,' with special invitations extended to core executives from three leading Chinese consumer companies —— Mao Geping ($MAO GEPING (01318.HK)$ ) Secretary of the Board and Head of Legal, Mr. Dong Leqin, and Upmost Group ($CHICMAX (02145.HK)$ ) Secretary of the Board and Head of Investment, Mr. Sun Hao, as well as Miniso ($MNSO (09896.HK)$ ；$MINISO (MNSO.US)$ ) Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Mr. Zhang Jingjing.(The order does not reflect ranking; companies are sorted by stock code.)

Facing a complex macro environment, these three industry veterans gathered to deeply analyze the growth resilience of Chinese consumer companies and explore long-term investment opportunities amidst times of change.

Below are the core viewpoints of the discussion.

01 Searching for New Drivers of Domestic Demand — Positioning, Going Global, and Brand Elevation

Futu: What are Miniso’s standout performances in terms of earnings growth and globalization by 2025?

Zhang Jingjing: It can be summarized in three words:Open large stores, expand IPs, dual product lines。

• Open large stores: Over the past year, Miniso's large stores have been launched nationwide in quick succession, refreshing brand perception for both consumers and investors.

• Expand IPs: Transitioning from previous IP collaborations to focusing on proprietary IPs (such as Mini Family and YOYO), which have gained significant popularity in overseas markets, creating billions in sales. Regarding the globalization strategy of IPs, Zhang Jingjing highlighted the core at the meeting:"Chinese culture is going global with great confidence, and Chinese IP going abroad is a crucial form of cultural export."

• Dual product lines: Overseas operations achieved significant breakthroughs, with the number of directly operated stores in the US increasing sharply from 100 to over 350, establishing the largest offline network of directly operated stores by an Asian consumer brand across the US. Both the US and China, Miniso’s two major markets, maintained excellent performance in same-store sales and profitability.

Mr. Zhang Jingjing, CFO of Miniso

Futu: How does Mao Geping maintain high growth and uniqueness in the highly competitive cosmetics market?

Dong Leqin: After deeply cultivating the Chinese market for more than 20 years, we have consistently adhered to the positioning of high-end brands, creating a closed-loop aesthetic system based on theory + techniques + products:

• A unique theoretical system combining Eastern aesthetics and light-and-shadow aesthetics: establishing a distinctive aesthetic value system different from international beauty brands.

• Researching and teaching makeup techniques based on this unique aesthetic system. To achieve this, we have built an offline training network spanning ten cities in China, as well as online courses. Additionally, we have over 400 department store counters across more than 100 major city commercial districts, with more than 3,000 beauty consultants (BAs) providing consumers with one-on-one customized makeup experiences to address real pain points in makeup application. As Dong Leqin emphasized: 'Our goal is to deliver the product onto the consumer's face, not just sell it into their hands.'

• With craftsmanship striving for perfection, we refine high-quality products: focusing on crafting products with unique style and characteristics that help consumers achieve their own sense of beauty.

Mao Geping Board Secretary and Legal Department Head, Mr. Dong Leqin

Futu: How does Shanghai Beauty Co., Ltd maintain its competitive edge in the fiercely competitive mass beauty market through a multi-brand strategy?

Sun Hao: We believeThe mass beauty market is not a red ocean but rather contains structural opportunities for 'domestic brand substitution.'Compared to Japan and South Korea, China's domestic cosmetics still have enormous growth potential.

• Multi-brand matrix: Currently covers six major tracks (mass skincare, maternal & teen, personal care, functional medical skincare, color cosmetics, premium skincare) with over a dozen brands, aiming to expand to 30-50 brands by 2030.

• Differentiated positioning: Strict differentiation through price tiers and key ingredients. For example, in the maternal care segment, 'Newpage Yiyè' targets mid-to-high-end consumers while 'Red Little Elephant' focuses on mass-market; in the medical efficacy segment, 'Anminyou' emphasizes anti-allergy properties using Artemisia oil.

• Underlying capability support: The successful operation of multiple brands heavily relies on organizational capabilities, R&D expertise, and self-owned supply chains accumulated by Shangmei over nearly two decades.

Mr. Sun Hao, Secretary of the Board of Directors and Head of Investment at Shangmei Corporation

02 Resilience in responding to changes — Efficiency, channel optimization, and deep engagement with consumer mindset

Futu: How does MINISO enhance its brand influence, particularly among young demographics and overseas markets?

Zhang Jingjing："In today's consumer market, emotional value + scenario experience + precise marketing are very important for brands."Following this logic, Miniso has taken three major actions:

• IP Strategy Transformation: In the early years, Miniso leveraged collaborations with over 100 global major IPs to 'capitalize on trends.' Now, having accumulated full-channel marketing and promotion experience, it is gradually transitioning towards creating its own IPs, with the vision of becoming a globally leading IP operation platform.

• Scenario Creation: Moving away from the traditional 'shelf' mindset, Miniso transforms stores in core business districts into popular check-in spots for young people. In the future, this strong 'scenario creation capability' will be extended overseas.

• Precise Marketing: Focusing tightly on the young customer base aged below 30, which accounts for 80%-90% of its clientele. With precise marketing, the sales contribution from Miniso members has surged from less than half in 2021 to around 70% recently, with an extremely high repurchase rate.

Futu: How does Mao Geping maintain high profit margins in the face of raw material cost fluctuations and channel changes?

Dong Leqin: The core strategy is to allow brands that make good products to have consumers willingly pay a premium for high value.

• Value creation towards the sales end: Mao Geping's gross margin has remained above 80% for a long time. Our strategy is not to squeeze costs from the raw materials end, but to create better products and services that make consumers feel the value. Dong Leqin is confident about this:"Consumers are willing to pay a premium for good quality."

• Sticking to the product DNA: Over the past decade, traffic channels have gone through multiple transitions from Taobao, Tmall, JD.com to Douyin and Kuaishou. But no matter how channels change, what consumers truly pursue remains superior products and service experience; channels are essentially just ways to reach consumers.

Futu: How does Shangmei Co., Ltd. deal with the impact of online e-commerce and break through in terms of cost and efficiency?

Sun Hao: The core strategy is extreme organizational agility and a highly self-owned supply chain.

• Increased investment in self-broadcasting and organizational agility: Leveraging strategic judgment and organizational drive, we keenly seized the traffic红利 from interest-based e-commerce platforms like Douyin, achieving high growth on a large brand scale by 2025, with significant contributions from Douyin’s self-broadcasting channel. Sun Hao explained the long-term considerations behind heavily investing in self-broadcasting:"Only by doing self-broadcasting can we retain consumers and brands within the company, which is of great significance to the long-term development of the brand."

• Highly proprietary supply chain: Owns factories both in Fengxian, Shanghai, and overseas. Sun Hao summarized the core advantages of this move:"A proprietary supply chain has three advantages: cost, efficiency, and security."This not only brings strong cost control capabilities but also ensures rapid coordination between R&D and production, as well as absolute control over product safety.

At this year's investment exhibition, Futu, by building an efficient dialogue platform between listed companies and investors, transformed China’s consumer brands' globalization strategies, monetization of emotional value, and other cutting-edge trends into tangible investment logic. Whether it is Miniso’s 'cultural export', Mao Geping's 'premium experience', or SMC's 'supply chain moat', they all demonstrate Chinese enterprises' growth resilience in complex environments.In the future, Futu will continue to connect industrial transformation with investment opportunities, opening up broader value perspectives for investors.

*The content represents the personal views of the guest and does not necessarily reflect the position of Futu. Before making any investment decisions, consider your risk tolerance and consult independent advice. This content does not constitute any offer, solicitation, recommendation, opinion, or guarantee regarding any securities, financial products, or tools.

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