On October 28, BAMA TEA Co., Ltd. (referred to as &#34;BAMA TEA&#34;) officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, marking a key milestone in the Chinese tea industry's move towards standardization and branding.
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&#34;BAMA TEA, the first stock of high-end Chinese tea,&#34; officially landed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Over the past twenty-eight years, BAMA TEA (06980) has continuously iterated its business model and validated its market expansion capabilities. In the face of the long-term structural challenge of &#34;large industry, small enterprises&#34; in China's trillion-yuan tea market, BAMA TEA has become the most nationally scaled chain enterprise with high-end brand influence through its unique business practices.
The new share issuance of BAMA TEA has been enthusiastically pursued by the capital market, with the public offering recording an oversubscription of 2,684 times. The company set an upward pricing of HKD 50 for the issuance, and on the first day of listing, it surged 73% at the opening, reaching HKD 86.5, with a total market value exceeding HKD 7.35 billion.
Amidst the hot market sentiment, what constitutes the core competitiveness of this three-hundred-year-old tea-making family that has forged its leading position? What changes will it bring to Chinese tea?
<h2>Three Major Flywheels - Decoding BAMA TEA's Core Moat</h2>
The Chinese tea market is highly fragmented, with over 1.6 million enterprises. According to the 2024 tea sales revenue, the combined market share of the top five participants in the high-end tea market in China is only about 5.6%.
BAMA TEA's ability to navigate this fiercely competitive landscape and successfully step onto the international stage, after undergoing multiple tests in the capital market, is rooted in the multiple &#34;first&#34; positions and robust growth data presented in its prospectus.
According to Frost &amp; Sullivan data, the company has established its absolute leading position in several sub-sectors: as of the latest reporting period, BAMA TEA's number of tea chain stores ranks first in the country, and by revenue, the company ranks first in the Chinese high-end tea market, oolong tea market, and black tea market.
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In addition, BAMA TEA has successfully broken through the traditional dilemma of &#34;having categories but no brands&#34; in the Chinese tea industry by building a systematic core competitiveness. Especially in the fields of black tea, rock tea, and Tieguanyin, the company has established a significant leading position in sales revenue, becoming a representative of high-end good tea in consumers' minds. Among them, BAMA's Tieguanyin sales revenue has ranked first in the country for over 10 consecutive years;
Wuyi Rock Tea sales revenue has ranked first in the country for five consecutive years; black tea sales revenue has ranked first in the country for four consecutive years.
Exploring the forces behind this, one can clearly see the flywheel effect formed by three core elements: product, channel, and technology.
Quality First: Dual Drive of Quality Tea and Quality Stores
BAMA TEA originates from its family's nearly 300-year history of tea-making, having undergone thirteen generations of skill inheritance. According to Zhitong Finance APP, the current chairman of the company, Wang Wenli, is a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project of Oolong tea production skills. This profound cultural heritage and &#34;intangible cultural heritage&#34; skill endorsement, combined with a commitment to high-quality raw materials, provides BAMA TEA's products with unparalleled core competitiveness.
In terms of brand strategy, BAMA TEA adheres to the core concept of &#34;Quality First,&#34; focusing on the two pillars of &#34;Quality Tea&#34; and &#34;Quality Stores.&#34;
Quality tea comes from good origins, good skills, and good equipment. For many years, BAMA TEA has insisted on being based in major authentic production areas across the country, creating super factories and iterating intelligent production lines through strict &#34;Four Major Standards for Good Tea&#34; and &#34;Three Major Selection Standards,&#34; tirelessly creating good tea for consumers. This adherence to traditional skills and stringent requirements for raw material quality is fundamental to its ability to achieve market leadership in multiple core tea categories such as black tea, rock tea, and Tieguanyin. The high premium capability of the products and stable repurchase rates also establish the company's leadership position in the high-end market.
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BAMA TEA has built a physical network covering over 3,700 chain specialty stores across all provinces in mainland China.
Quality stores are based on good image, good service, and good experience. In recent years, BAMA TEA has fully created a nationwide network of private, high-end business reception-style stores, making BAMA chain stores the &#34;urban reception hall&#34; for consumers. According to the 2023-2025 China Customer Satisfaction Index brand ranking released by Chnbrand, BAMA TEA has ranked first in the tea chain store list for three consecutive years.
The company has also established a strict franchisee selection and training system, using various training methods that combine online and offline to output the store operation standard system to both directly-operated stores and franchisees. It has established 25 training bases in 25 cities across the country, covering training content such as product knowledge, service specifications and SOPs, sales specifications, etc., fully empowering store service operations.
Channel as the Foundation: &#34;Direct Sales + Franchising&#34; Drives the &#34;Thousands of Cities and Ten Thousand Stores&#34; Network
In the highly fragmented traditional tea market, filled with family-run shops, BAMA TEA has successfully achieved scaled expansion through its unique &#34;Direct Sales + Franchising&#34; chain specialty store system, building a strong channel barrier. According to the prospectus, as of the last feasible date, BAMA has 3,716 offline stores nationwide, covering all provinces in mainland China, with the number of tea chain specialty stores ranking first in the country, reflecting the results of its &#34;Thousands of Cities and Ten Thousand Stores&#34; strategy
It can be said that from the southern regions of China to the northern frontiers, from the coast to the plateau, wherever there is a market, there is the presence of BAMA TEA.
According to the prospectus, to support the development of franchisees, BAMA TEA enhances bargaining power, reduces costs and losses, and improves operational efficiency through centralized procurement, unified production processing, and logistics distribution, benefiting franchisees.
Data from the prospectus shows that the number of franchisees with an average annual sales of over 2 million per store increased from 80 in 2022 to 116 in 2024; as of June 30, 2025, BAMA TEA had collaborated with 778 franchisees for more than three years, accounting for 63.4% of the total number of franchisees.
It is evident that adhering to the concept of mutual benefit and win-win with franchisees, BAMA TEA has consistently worked to effectively address the shortcomings of sales channels in the tea industry, providing strong support for the growth of franchisees. This channel model also ensures the diversification of the company's revenue sources and stable growth, becoming an important foundation for supporting its market valuation.
Technological Empowerment: Super Factory Solving Non-Standard Challenges
As is well known, the challenge of traditional tea industry lies in non-standardization, and BAMA TEA is breaking this bottleneck through technological investment.
According to Zhitong Finance APP, the company continues to invest funds to establish intelligent, digital, and informational production lines, creating an industry-leading &#34;super factory.&#34; It has already established the sixth-generation intelligent production line, which won the special prize at the China Tea Science and Technology Innovation Competition, as well as the world's first intelligent, digital, and informational Wuyi tea deep processing production line. These technological applications not only enhance production efficiency but, more importantly, ensure the consistent stability of tea flavor through photoelectric filtering devices and drum uniform stacking devices, solving the non-standard challenges.
<img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.zhitongcaijing.com/image/20251028/1761622085189695.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="dc752b35-49c4-4421-a730-16ab6138f64c.png" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.zhitongcaijing.com/image/20251028/1761622085189695.png"/><img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.zhitongcaijing.com/image/20251028/1761622091478394.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" alt="2f3f9c51-634f-4f05-8c33-22916646b34e.png" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.zhitongcaijing.com/image/20251028/1761622091478394.png"/>
Actual photo of BAMA TEA's Wuyi Mountain super factory
In addition, as a key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization and a member unit of the National Tea Standardization Technical Committee, BAMA TEA actively participates in the formulation of industry standards. As of the last feasible date, the company has led or participated in the formulation of more than 20 Chinese tea industry standards, transforming traditional manual experience into modern quality control indicators. This investment in technology and standards is the decisive force behind BAMA TEA's ability to break through the scale bottleneck of traditional tea enterprises and achieve the top sales of the &#34;three famous teas,&#34; as well as a key support for its future continuous improvement in profitability and brand reputation
<h2>New Growth Blueprint and Challenges After Listing</h2>
BAMA TEA's successful entry into the capital market is not only a victory for its own business model but also a capital lever that drives deep integration in the Chinese tea industry. With this listing, the leverage effect of capital is fully in place, but whether BAMA TEA can achieve a leap from the &#34;thousand cities and ten thousand stores&#34; strategic layout to the vision of &#34;becoming the world's number one tea company&#34; requires an objective assessment of the &#34;growth challenges&#34; it must overcome during its expansion journey.
The use of funds raised from this listing clearly reflects the management's forward-looking layout for the company's growth path over the next decade. Specifically, the company will strategically allocate funds to three key areas:
First, further accelerate the efficient expansion of the channel network, especially by building brand flagship stores in high-tier cities and deepening coverage in lower-tier markets through a franchise system; second, make large-scale investments in the intelligent upgrade of the supply chain and smart factories, continuously consolidating the standardized barrier of &#34;BAMA quality&#34; and achieving simultaneous improvement in scale and high quality;
Finally, funds will be used for brand building and international promotion, enhancing the global recognition of Chinese tea culture. In particular, for international market promotion, suitable countries in Southeast Asia and along the &#34;Belt and Road&#34; will be prioritized as pilot markets for going abroad, promoting the global dissemination of Chinese tea culture and enhancing BAMA's international influence.
This forward-looking deployment is expected to provide strong endogenous driving force for BAMA TEA's long-term growth, and the listing funds also provide ample &#34;ammunition&#34; for its future during the industry consolidation period.
Looking ahead, BAMA TEA is standing at the forefront of the rapid development of the Chinese tea industry. According to Frost &amp; Sullivan, its market size is expected to reach RMB 135.3 billion by 2029. This listing on the Hong Kong stock market is undoubtedly a key step for BAMA TEA to consolidate its leading position and accelerate market integration amid fierce competition.
As the company continues to adhere to the development strategy of &#34;multiple brands, multiple categories, and all channels,&#34; while consolidating its advantages in oolong tea and black tea, it is also actively laying out other premium tea categories such as white tea and Pu'er tea. Leveraging its influence in countries along the &#34;Belt and Road,&#34; it aims to become a flagship brand for Chinese tea in the world. We have reason to believe that with its deep heritage of three hundred years, nationally leading channel scale, and continuously leading technological innovation capabilities, BAMA TEA is expected to continue delivering its investment value

06980

BAMA TEA was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 28, becoming the "first high-end Chinese tea stock." The new share issuance was highly sought after, with the public offering oversubscribed by 2,684 times, and the issue price set at HKD 50. On the first day of trading, it surged 73% to HKD 86.5, with a total market capitalization exceeding HKD 7.35 billion. BAMA TEA holds a leading position in the Chinese tea market, with the highest number of tea chain stores nationwide, and ranks first in the high-end tea, oolong tea, and black tea markets

BAMA TEA: Products, channels, and technology forge "the first high-end Chinese tea stock," surging 73% in early trading on its debut