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After being the leader in the spicy strip market for many years, WL DELICIOUS has quietly shifted gears—konjac snacks have caught the wave of fat reduction and calorie control, experiencing explosive growth and replacing spicy strips as the company's primary growth curve.
Like spicy strips, the entry barrier for konjac snacks is not high, leading to a surge of imitators, and the entire industry has entered a whirlpool of product innovation, marketing wars, brand battles, and channel conflicts.
In this context, the company has returned to a family governance structure, perhaps to concentrate resources for tough battles. However, whether this dual transformation from product to governance will allow WL DELICIOUS to continue leading in competition remains to be tested by the market.
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Changing Engines
In 2025, WL DELICIOUS (09985.HK) will see its revenue scale surpass 7 billion yuan for the first time, entering the ranks of the top players in the snack food industry.
For the entire year, the company recorded an operating income of 7.224 billion yuan and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 1.425 billion yuan, representing year-on-year growth of 15.28% and 33.38%, respectively. During the same period, the overall gross profit margin was 47.99%, delivering the best performance since its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Behind the explosive growth, the company's growth engine has completed its switch—the vegetable products business has once again surpassed the traditional seasoning noodle products business, becoming the primary growth curve.
Last year, the vegetable products business generated revenue of 4.506 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.67%, accounting for 62.38% of the company's total revenue, with the core driving force being the konjac snacks cultivated by the company over many years.
As early as 12 years ago, WL DELICIOUS began to lay out the konjac snack market and was the first to launch the konjac product. After long-term cultivation, more than a decade later, it has caught the wave of fat reduction and calorie control, leading to explosive growth.
In 2024, the revenue from the vegetable products business will account for 53.79% of the company's total revenue, replacing spicy strips for the first time as the largest business segment.
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Changes in demand in the snack food market have brought new development opportunities, forcing the company to actively optimize its product structure. PwC's &#34;2025 Global Consumer Insights China Report&#34; reveals that consumers have upgraded from &#34;tasty&#34; to nutrition and health, gradually abandoning high-oil, high-sodium spicy strip products.
Data confirms this change. From 2021 to 2023, the average sales price of WL DELICIOUS's seasoning noodle products rose from 15.1 yuan/kg to 20.5 yuan/kg, while sales volume dropped from 193,600 tons to 124,400 tons
In 2024 and 2025, the company's revenue from seasoning noodle products is expected to be 2.667 billion yuan and 2.554 billion yuan, with revenue proportions shrinking to 42.6% and 35.3%.
The company stated that this is the result of proactively adjusting resource allocation, optimizing the product matrix, actively sensing market changes and consumer demands, and strategically expanding into categories with greater market potential.
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&#34;Chaos of Demons&#34;
The konjac snack sector is rapidly expanding, transitioning from a blue ocean to a red ocean, with competition intensifying. From 2024 to 2025, the revenue growth rate of vegetable products under WL DELICIOUS is expected to decline from 56.54% to 33.67%, as the pressure of industry competition has already affected leading companies in the sector.
By the end of 2025, at least 30 snack companies, including Yanjinpuzi, Three Squirrels, Jinzhai Food, and Qiaqia Food, have crowded into the konjac snack market, entering a stage of comprehensive competition in products, marketing, branding, and channels.
As the pioneer of konjac snacks, WL DELICIOUS is facing numerous competitors, with Yanjinpuzi being the most aggressive.
In fact, Yanjinpuzi (002847.SZ) entered the konjac sector relatively late, launching konjac products and its brand &#34;Da Mo Wang&#34; only in 2023, yet it achieved explosive growth.
From 2023 to 2024, its revenue from leisure konjac products reached 476 million yuan and 838 million yuan, accounting for 11.57% and 15.81% of the company's total revenue, making it the company's largest business.
In 2025, this business is expected to explode again, with revenue increasing by 107.23% year-on-year to 1.737 billion yuan, with growth rates far exceeding those of WL DELICIOUS. Institutions predict that Yanjinpuzi will maintain over 30% high growth in 2026.
According to data from Mashangying, as of last November, WL DELICIOUS and Yanjinpuzi held market shares of 50% and 10% respectively in the konjac snack category.
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Currently, konjac snacks are facing serious homogenization competition, with mainstream products primarily flavored with spicy and salty tastes. Product innovation capability is key for brands to break through.
Galaxy Securities pointed out in a research report that konjac+ has become an industry trend, with companies creating differentiation through flavor innovation and product combinations to enhance repurchase rates and market space.
WL DELICIOUS is keenly aware of market trends and continues to promote product iteration, launching crayfish-flavored and spicy stir-fried meat-flavored konjac snacks in 2024; at the beginning of 2025, it will introduce sesame sauce konjac snacks, and in the second half of the year, it will launch Dai-style smashed chicken feet-flavored konjac snacks, accelerating the localization of regional flavors. Additionally, it has collaborated with Sam's Club to customize high-fiber porcini konjac snacks, seizing growth in specialty channels.
As more industry players enter the market, price wars have erupted, putting companies under pressure from high marketing costs and rising upstream raw material costs. The profitability of WL DELICIOUS's vegetable products business is under pressure, with gross profit margins declining from 51.26% in 2023 to 47.92% in 2025
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Return to Family Governance
In 2025, with the resignation of CEO Sun Yinan and CFO Peng Hongzhi, WL DELICIOUS gradually shed the characteristics of professional managerial governance and fully returned to a new pattern of family governance.
Sun Yinan held senior executive positions at companies such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Yinlu before joining WL DELICIOUS in September 2021 as a special assistant to the president. He was promoted to CEO by the end of that year and was seen as a key figure in driving the transformation to professional managerial governance before the company's IPO.
During his tenure, he actively promoted the company's process of listing on the Hong Kong stock market, helped to reduce reliance on spicy strips, and led the introduction of a group of professional managers, such as Li Weihong, who was responsible for the supply chain, and Hong Xingrong, who was in charge of national sales.
However, his efforts to lead the company's professionalization seemed to encounter difficulties. It was reported that Hong Xingrong had left even before Sun Yinan's resignation.
In March 2025, Sun Yinan resigned as CEO and executive director, with his position taken over by one of the founders, Liu Fuping. Four months later, Peng Hongzhi resigned as CFO.
Peng Hongzhi was a veteran at WL DELICIOUS, having joined the company's predecessor, Pingping Foods, in 2010. Nine years later, he entered the core executive team, responsible for finance and other tasks, and in 2023, he also took charge of the overseas business development center, implementing the internationalization of the WL DELICIOUS brand.
Unlike Sun Yinan, Peng Hongzhi had familial ties with the Liu family; he was a cousin of the company's executive director Liu Zhongsi (cousin of Liu Weiping and Liu Fuping).
Replacing Peng Hongzhi as CFO, Yu Feng is also a cousin of Liu Weiping and Liu Fuping, and a core member of the family.
Yu Feng graduated in June 2011 from Hunan Vocational College of Science and Technology with a major in animation design. After graduation, he joined WL DELICIOUS and participated in early product development work. He later took charge of e-commerce and the media center, and was promoted to senior vice president of the company in March 2024.
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With the departures of Sun Yinan and Peng Hongzhi, there are no longer any professional managers on the WL DELICIOUS board, and the senior management team is fully controlled by members of the Liu family.
As of the end of June last year, Liu Weiping, Liu Fuping, Liu Zhongsi, and Yu Feng collectively held 78.77% of WL DELICIOUS's shares, indicating a highly concentrated control.
There is controversy in the market regarding this governance shift at WL DELICIOUS, but analysts believe that in the context of intense competition in the konjac snack sector, the company's return to family governance may not only be a need for the Liu family to consolidate control but also a strategy to cope with the current complex market environment, allowing for quick decision-making and concentrated resources to tackle tough challenges in fierce industry competition

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WL DELICIOUS, after leading the spicy strip market for many years, is now shifting towards konjac snacks to respond to the trend of fat reduction, becoming a new growth point for the company. In 2025, WL DELICIOUS's revenue will exceed 7 billion yuan for the first time, with a net profit attributable to the parent company increasing by 33.38%. The revenue share of vegetable products will surpass that of spicy strips for the first time, becoming the main business. Consumer demand for health is prompting the company to optimize its product structure, with sales of flavored noodle products declining, and it will continue to pay attention to market changes in the future

"Group of Demons" Mixed Battle, WL DELICIOUS Returns to Family Style