China Resources Beverage's packaged water business faces pressure, with net profit expected to decline by 40%. After one year on the market, veteran finance executive Gao Li takes over as the new leader to steer changes.

Yangtze Business News ●Yangtze Business Reporter Huang Cong

China Resources Beverage (02460.HK) has delivered an unexpectedly poor earnings forecast.

Recently, China Resources Beverage announced that, based on preliminary assessments, the company’s attributable profit for 2025 is expected to decrease by approximately 40% compared to the same period in 2024 (which was 1.637 billion yuan).

Based on the data, the company’s attributable profit for 2025 is estimated to be about 982 million yuan.

China Resources Beverage explained that the main reasons are: focusing on medium- and long-term development plans, the company will continue to actively increase marketing investments, adjust product structure, and promote channel reforms in 2025. The bottled water business remains under pressure, and the beverage business growth is below expectations, which has a phased impact on this year’s profit performance.

Yangtze Business News found that this is the first time since 2021, when data is available, that China Resources Beverage has reported a decline in net profit.

Perhaps to reverse the sharp decline in profits, China Resources Beverage, listed for just over a year, announced a leadership change. On January 14, China Resources Beverage announced that Gao Li has been appointed as Executive Director, Chairman of the Board, and Chairman of the Nomination Committee, effective immediately.

From his background, Gao Li has mainly worked in finance and is considered a “financial veteran” of China Resources. After taking the helm at China Resources Beverage, his first challenge will be to meet performance expectations.

2025 Net Profit Expected to Drop 40%

China Resources Beverage is a core business unit under China Resources (Group) Co., Ltd., focusing on ready-to-drink soft drinks. It was one of the earliest companies in China to launch specialized production of packaged drinking water in the early 1990s and currently owns brands such as “Yibao,” “Yibao Lu,” “Benyou,” and “FEEL.”

On March 11, China Resources Beverage announced that, based on preliminary assessments, its attributable profit for 2025 is expected to decrease by about 40% compared to the same period in 2024 (which was 1.637 billion yuan).

Based on the data, the estimated attributable profit for 2025 is approximately 982 million yuan.

The company explained that the main reasons are: focusing on medium- and long-term development plans, the company will continue to actively increase marketing investments, adjust product structure, and promote channel reforms in 2025. The bottled water business remains under pressure, and the growth of the beverage business is below expectations, which has a phased impact on this year’s profit.

Yangtze Business News found that this is the first profit decline since 2021, when data is available.

From 2021 to 2023, China Resources Beverage’s revenue was 11.34 billion yuan, 12.62 billion yuan, and 13.52 billion yuan respectively; attributable profits were 858 million yuan, 990 million yuan, and 1.329 billion yuan.

However, China Resources Beverage listed in Hong Kong in October 2024, achieving revenue of 13.521 billion yuan that year, a slight increase of 0.05% year-on-year. Its attributable profit for 2024 was 1.637 billion yuan, up 23.12% from the previous year.

Data shows that in the first half of 2025, China Resources Beverage’s revenue was 6.206 billion yuan, down 18.52% year-on-year; attributable profit was 806 million yuan, down 28.63%.

Looking at product segments, in the first half of 2025, revenue from packaged drinking water was 5.251 billion yuan, down 23.11% year-on-year; beverage revenue was 955 million yuan, up 21.28%.

Among drinking water products, in the first half of 2025, revenue from small-sized bottled water was 3.194 billion yuan, down 26.22%; medium and large-sized bottled water revenue was 1.829 billion yuan, down 19.37%; barrel water revenue was 228 million yuan, down 1.51%.

In the profit warning for the first half of 2025, China Resources Beverage stated that, based on medium- and long-term development plans, it strategically increased marketing resources, adjusted product mix, and gradually promoted channel adjustments, which had a phased impact on profit.

Leadership Change After Just Over a Year of Listing

Entering 2026, China Resources Beverage, listed for just over a year, began to adjust its management team.

On January 14, China Resources Beverage announced that Zhang Weitong resigned from his roles as Executive Director, Chairman of the Board, and Chairman of the Nomination Committee due to work needs, effective immediately.

At the same time, China Resources Beverage announced that Gao Li has been appointed as Executive Director, Chairman of the Board, and Chairman of the Nomination Committee, effective January 14.

Gao Li, aged 52, holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from Northeast University of Finance and Economics in China, and is a certified public accountant in China and an international internal auditor. He joined China Resources in August 2007 and has worked at China Resources Venture, China Resources Beverage, China Resources Power, and China Resources (Group) Co., Ltd.

China Resources Beverage stated that Gao Li has nearly 10 years of experience working within the group, with cross-field management experience. From 2012 to 2020, he served as the group’s Chief Financial Officer. From March 2020 to January 2025, he served as Deputy General Manager of the group’s Finance Department, CFO of China Resources Power, and General Manager of the group’s Finance Department; since January 2025, he has been General Manager of the group’s Finance Department. Before joining China Resources, Gao Li worked for many years at the National Audit Office.

From his background, Gao Li has mainly worked in finance and is considered a “financial veteran” of China Resources.

In addition to the leadership change, on February 13, China Resources Beverage announced that Wu Xia resigned as Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) due to other work arrangements. The company also announced that Huang Hu has been appointed as CFO, effective immediately.

Reports indicated that Yibao’s distribution channels once experienced a “price inversion” with 555ml bottled water at a purchase price of 1 yuan per bottle and a retail price of 0.9 yuan per bottle.

“Distributors buy at 100 yuan, but can only recover 90–95 yuan in the end,” a distributor revealed. To maintain the system, China Resources had to subsidize distributors through “post-rebate costs,” which compressed their profit margins to 3–5%, far below the industry average of 8–10%.

Despite this, data shows that in August 2025, Yibao’s market share in packaged water dropped to 20.34%, and its core pure water segment shrank from over 70% at the start of 2024 to about 40%.

“After Yibao went public, they cut costs to improve financial reports, but with large distributor inventories and poor market sales, they could only sell at low prices,” said a beverage distributor in South China.

Notably, in December 2025, Hurun China released the Top 100 Food Industry Companies list, with China Resources Beverage valued at 23 billion yuan, down 28% year-on-year, making it the biggest decline in value.

On February 13, when China Resources Group Vice President Lan Yi visited Hong Kong to research China Resources Beverage’s Hong Kong and Macau operations, he stated that facing new industry development trends and market competition challenges, the China Resources Beverage team must recognize gaps, face difficulties, actively embrace change, and innovate to promote higher-quality development of the business.