Guming 1H26 First Take: Overall performance was solid. Revenue grew 30%+, but growth came almost entirely from store expansion, with per-store metrics roughly flat.

Store openings hit the brakes, with net adds nearly halved YoY. The drop was driven by a sharp decline in new franchisees while exits were steady, and the share of existing partners opening a second store more than doubled.

This suggests stricter screening of new partners rather than weak franchisee confidence, consistent with management's focus on upgrading legacy stores and tighter site selection for new openings.

At the unit level, daily cups were roughly flat YoY, holding up even as delivery subsidies fell sharply and against last year's peak. This implies incremental demand from coffee and breakfast just offset the subsidy roll-off, a high-quality outcome.

On profitability, GPM improved YoY and all three expense ratios declined, taking core OP margin to a record and driving core profit growth well ahead of revenue.

That said, the closure rate also rose YoY. This indicates densification and the clearing of underperforming tail stores are happening at the same time.$GUMING(01364.HK)