The single-store target aims for 1 billion! LAOPU GOLD wants to become "China's first luxury brand"

In 9 months, the stock price skyrocketed 20 times, LAOPU GOLD vows to achieve a billion-store effect. On Monday, LAOPU GOLD released its first annual report since going public for the year ending December 31, 2024, showing impressive performance with annual sales of 9.8 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 166%; net profit of 1.47 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 254%. Boosted by this, LAOPU GOLD's stock price opened high and rose on Tuesday, closing at HKD 868 per share, an increase of 19.07%. Since its listing in June last year, the stock price has soared 20 times. According to China News Service, since 2025, many LAOPU GOLD stores across the country have repeatedly become hot topics for "queueing to grab goods." In its financial report, LAOPU GOLD mentioned the phenomenon of significant foot traffic in its stores appearing continuously in major shopping malls in recent years, as well as the stores' extremely high revenue and sales per unit area, which further helps the company effectively optimize the area and location of existing stores. At the earnings conference on April 1, LAOPU GOLD Chairman Xu Gaoming boldly announced that he is committed to making LAOPU GOLD the number one brand of ancient method gold in China with strong competitiveness and the number one gold brand in the world, stating that "the future average store effect must exceed 1 billion," far exceeding the current average store effect of about 300 million for the company. Store effect generally refers to the ratio of total sales revenue to the total number of stores, mainly reflecting the sales capacity of stores per unit area or per unit time. Xu Gaoming stated at the meeting: "In the future, if any store's effect does not reach 500 million, the company will remove it to ensure the quality of each store." Morgan Stanley: Each store needs to sell 65-90 pieces of jewelry daily Morgan Stanley, in its latest research report, analyzed that LAOPU GOLD's mid-term vision is impressive, and the strong stock performance this year reflects the market's high expectations for it, but execution capability and demand sustainability are key. Morgan Stanley stated that to achieve the goal of 1 billion RMB in annual sales per store, LAOPU GOLD needs to sell an average of 65 to 90 pieces of jewelry per store daily (assuming the average price of a piece of jewelry is between 25,000 to 35,000 RMB), and the sales ratio of antique/jewelry products is 2/8. The report stated: "This not only requires strong execution capability but also ensuring the sustainability of demand." "We believe this is more of a mid-term vision rather than a target that can be achieved within a year." According to Morgan Stanley, currently, LAOPU GOLD is still in the early stages of customer acquisition, with a target customer penetration rate of only 30%. In terms of profit expectations, Morgan Stanley predicts that LAOPU GOLD's total revenue in 2025 will increase by 168% year-on-year, reaching 22.822 billion yuan, and net profit is expected to grow by 183% year-on-year, reaching 4.2 billion yuan. Nomura: The stock price relies on this Nomura Securities also holds an optimistic view on LAOPU GOLD's prospects in its latest research report, forecasting that the company's sales in the fiscal year 2025 will increase by 96% year-on-year, primarily driven by same-store sales growth (SSSG). The report also points out that considering the company plans to open only 6 new stores in the fiscal year 2025, its sales growth will mainly depend on the sales enhancement of existing stores. This means the company needs to maintain the strong appeal and sales capability of its existing stores to support its current high valuation. Nomura emphasizes that LAOPU GOLD is not only an emerging company but is also likely to become a great company, thanks to its combination of Chinese consumers' strong preference for gold with the unique experiences of modern luxury goods (longer delivery times, continuous price increases, special treatment for VICs). The report states: “LAOPU has the potential to become the first truly Chinese luxury goods company.”