乖宝宠物：营收增10%，净利跌50%，电商为何跑赢整体增速？

This article outlines the operating performance and strategic transformation of Guibao Pet Food in the first half of 2026, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Core financial results: Guibao posted RMB 3.543 billion in revenue in H1 2026, up 10.01% year-over-year, but recorded RMB 191 million in net profit attributable to shareholders, a nearly 50% YoY decline. The profit drop was primarily driven by faster growth in operating costs and selling expenses relative to revenue, plus large exchange losses from currency fluctuations. Impairment on accounts receivable and inventory had minimal impact.

2. Shifting business structure: Revenue from the company’s mature snack segment fell 10.43% YoY, while staple pet food revenue grew 23.87% YoY to drive overall revenue growth. E-commerce channel revenue rose 19.98% YoY, outpacing the company’s overall growth rate, pushing its share of total revenue to 41.17% and making it the core growth driver.

3. Upcoming strategic layout: Guibao has not scaled back investment. In the first half of 2026, its construction in progress increased by over RMB 3 billion as it advances multiple high-end pet food capacity projects. It is also ramping up R&D and brand investment to build a multi-brand high-end portfolio, and has introduced interim dividends and released a shareholder return plan to stabilize market expectations.

This article outlines the latest developments in the pet food industry, with key takeaways for pet food brands as follows:

1. Industry consumption and business trends: Staple pet food is currently the core growth track of the industry. Compared with snacks, staple food is the core of daily pet consumption, with higher user stickiness and a larger market size, but also more intense competition. Growth in the mature snack segment has plateaued, and the industry is broadly shifting toward staple food and premiumization.

2. Channel shifts: Third-party e-commerce channels are growing much faster than the overall industry, making them the core channel for independent brands to reach consumers directly and capture growth. Brands need to increase investment in online channel layout.

3. Risks to note and lessons to reference: During transformation, cost and marketing expense growth will outpace revenue growth, and gross margins for staple food will decline in the short term. Brands with overseas operations need to guard against profit erosion from exchange rate fluctuations. Guibao’s multi-brand strategy offers a useful reference: its core brand Myfoodie is expanding its full product line into the premium segment, while Fregata focuses on the high-quality niche cat food market, covering different consumer demand through a multi-brand portfolio.

This article summarizes the latest industry opportunities, risks and actionable lessons for pet food sellers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Current growth opportunities: The staple pet food segment still maintains growth of over 23% and is the core growth engine of the industry today. Premium and functional staple foods offer large room for growth. Third-party e-commerce channels are growing at nearly 20%, far outpacing the overall industry, making them the core entry point for sellers to capture growth.

2. Risks to watch out for: During the transition to staple food and premium positioning, growth in costs and marketing expenses will outpace revenue growth, squeezing profit margins. While staple food grows quickly, its gross margins will decline in the short term, and it is more competitive than the snack segment. Sellers with overseas operations need to pay close attention to exchange rate risk, as exchange losses can significantly eat into profits.

3. Best practices to adopt: Focus on independent brand development and premium positioning, increase R&D investment to launch premium products that match consumer demand, pre-emptively expand production capacity to support future growth, and maintain market confidence through consistent shareholder returns during the transition period.

This article provides actionable insights for pet food manufacturers on transformation and business layout, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Shifts in production and R&D demand: Market demand has shifted from pet snacks to premium staple pet food. Demand for high-end products such as functional staple food, fresh meat food and prescription pet food is growing rapidly. Manufacturers need to adjust their production and R&D focus to meet the requirements for producing and developing premium staple food.

2. Untapped business opportunities: Leading brands are currently accelerating their layout of premium staple food and launching large-scale capacity expansion projects, including expanding and renovating domestic production bases, building new high-end production lines, and constructing overseas factories. This brings extensive cooperation and growth opportunities for upstream production players.

3. Insights for transformation: Many manufacturers historically generated profits through overseas OEM business and supply chain cost advantages. Today, they need to align with industry transformation, build up capabilities in independent brand R&D and premium product manufacturing to meet the high-end demand of brand clients, and can also develop e-commerce channels to support growth of their own brands.

This article outlines industry trends, client pain points and market opportunities for pet food-related service providers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Latest industry trends: The entire pet food industry is currently in a period of structural transformation. Leading players are broadly shifting from overseas OEM snack business to domestic independent brands and premium staple food. The share of e-commerce channels continues to rise, and leading brands are increasing investment in production capacity, R&D and branding, putting the industry in a phase of rising overall investment.

2. Core pain points for brand clients: During transformation, leading brands generally face faster cost growth than revenue growth, sharp profit declines, falling gross margins amid staple food growth, and capital pressure from large-scale capacity expansion and marketing investment. Brands with overseas operations also face the risk of profit losses from exchange rate fluctuations.

3. Market opportunities for service providers: Service providers can develop exchange rate risk hedging services for overseas-focused brands, offer more efficient customer acquisition solutions to meet brands’ online promotion needs and reduce their marketing costs, provide technical R&D support for premium staple food development, and offer supporting services for capacity construction to meet expansion demand.

This article provides key insights for e-commerce platforms that operate pet food categories, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Brand demand for third-party platforms: Leading pet brands are currently transforming to focus on domestic independent brands and premium staple food. Third-party e-commerce is the core channel for brands to reach end consumers directly and capture growth. Brands are continuously increasing investment in online channels, and the share of online revenue is rising steadily, leaving large room for growth for third-party platforms.

2. Opportunities for merchant recruitment and operations: Staple food is currently the fastest-growing pet food category, and premiumization is the core focus of brand strategy. Platforms can roll out targeted recruitment policies to attract leading brands and premium staple food brands to capture category growth dividends.

3. Areas for platform optimization: Pet brands generally face profit pressure during transformation, with high marketing investment driving up customer acquisition costs. Platforms need to optimize the efficiency of brands’ marketing spending to help lower customer acquisition costs, and can also offer supporting exchange rate risk management services for brands with overseas operations to improve merchant retention.

This article provides the latest industry dynamics and a valuable research case for pet food industry researchers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Latest industry developments: Leading domestic pet food companies are undergoing in-depth structural transformation, shifting their business focus from original overseas OEM and snack business to independent brands focused on the domestic market and premium staple food. In terms of channel structure, third-party e-commerce is growing far faster than the overall industry, with its share continuing to rise, and has become the core growth entry point for leading brands.

2. Emerging challenges for industry development: During the transition period, leading players generally face the issue of revenue growth without profit growth: cost and selling expense growth far outpaces revenue growth, staple food grows quickly but gross margins continue to decline, companies with overseas production and sales face clear exchange rate volatility risk, and transformation requires continuous large-scale investment in capacity, R&D and branding, creating significant capital pressure.

3. New developments in business models: Leading players are shifting from the original OEM model to a multi-brand independent brand operation model. During transformation, they continue to invest for long-term growth while stabilizing market expectations through interim dividends and shareholder return plans. This transformation model provides an important research case for the future development of the industry.