On March 26, international gold prices continued to fluctuate, reaching a low of $4,415 per ounce. Amid the tumult of the gold market's repeated ups and downs, high-end gold jewelry brand LAOPU GOLD released its performance report for 2025, presenting a picture that is starkly different from the short-term trends in gold prices.
The report shows that the company achieved sales of 31.375 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 220.3%; operating income reached 27.303 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 221.0%; and net profit was 4.868 billion yuan, a substantial year-on-year increase of 230.5%. In the face of severe fluctuations in the price of gold, LAOPU GOLD claims that the core driver of its performance growth is not the rise in gold prices, but brand premium.
High Inventory Risk Behind Performance Surge
The backdrop for LAOPU GOLD's explosive performance in 2025 is the significant rise in international gold prices, which undoubtedly has increased the overall heat and value preservation expectations of gold as an asset, objectively creating a favorable macro environment for all gold jewelry brands.
The management of LAOPU GOLD has repeatedly emphasized that its high growth logic is not limited to rising gold prices. The company's founder and chairman, Xu Gaoming, stated: &#34;LAOPU has largely freed itself from the correlation with gold prices.&#34; The company explains that the performance growth mainly stems from the continuous expansion of brand influence, creating an absolute market advantage that has driven a significant increase in overall revenue from both online and offline stores.
Alongside the dazzling performance, LAOPU GOLD's inventory scale has also soared. By the end of 2025, the company's inventory balance reached 16.044 billion yuan, a staggering increase of 292.5% compared to 4.088 billion yuan at the end of 2024, marking a historical high since its listing.
The financial report explains that the inventory increase is primarily due to a significant rise in raw materials, semi-finished products, and finished products, mainly to meet the increased product demand during the peak performance period of the Spring Festival. Due to rapid same-store sales growth, coupled with large-scale store expansions and new store development plans in the second half of the year, the company needed to increase input materials in advance to ensure supply, which also led to an increase in inventory turnover days from 195 days to 216 days.
In a rising gold price cycle, high inventory means potential value re-evaluation gains, but once gold prices enter a downward or severely fluctuating phase, such a large inventory will become a heavy cost burden and a source of impairment risk. This constitutes one of the core concerns of the market regarding LAOPU GOLD's business model.
Brand Premium Strategy Builds a Moat
In the face of the sharp question of &#34;how to make money during a gold price downturn,&#34; LAOPU GOLD provided a clear answer at its performance briefing on March 24: brand premium.
Xu Gaoming confidently stated: &#34;Don't think that LAOPU can only make money when gold prices rise; we can also make money when they fall.&#34; He elaborated that during the gold downturn phase, the company will rely on its four core capabilities—product strength, brand strength, channel strength, and customer service strength—to maintain a unique sales performance in the market.
Building a Chinese luxury brand that can compete with top international brands has always been LAOPU GOLD's core narrative. The foundation supporting its premium capability is summarized in four aspects: the genuine consumer value and craftsmanship of the products; the cultural core and aesthetic height contained in the products; and a unique and recognizable after-sales service system;
A high-end channel network that continuously iterates and optimizes.
Corresponding to its core narrative is its offline channel layout (stores), which is the most intuitive embodiment of its premium pricing strategy.
In 2025, LAOPU GOLD added 10 new stores and optimized and expanded 9 existing stores. By the end of the year, it had a total of 45 directly operated stores in 16 cities worldwide, all located in 34 well-known high-end commercial centers with strict admission requirements, including SKP and MixC, adjacent to international first-line luxury brands.
This site selection strategy is viewed by management as a &#34;core competitiveness that distinguishes it from other brands.&#34; To support channel expansion and corresponding inventory, LAOPU GOLD raised over HKD 5.4 billion through two placements in 2025, most of which was explicitly used for store expansion, optimization, and gold raw material reserves.
On the product front, LAOPU GOLD continues to deepen its moat of &#34;ancient method gold.&#34; In 2025, the company innovated ancient gold techniques and launched a new product called &#34;Gold Body Lacquer Inlay,&#34; which combines pure gold with lacquer inlay craftsmanship, reinforcing its recognition as &#34;the number one brand in Chinese ancient handmade gold.&#34;
At the same time, high-value customer groups have become its &#34;ballast&#34; against market fluctuations. Financial reports show that in 2025, LAOPU GOLD added 260,000 new members, bringing the total membership to 610,000, with a repurchase rate of 35%. More notably, its single-store output efficiency saw a year-on-year increase of 161% in same-store sales in 2025, with sales performance in a single mall exceeding 3 billion yuan. Management stated that this performance has surpassed some international first-line luxury brands.
Premium pricing model faces market reality test
Although LAOPU GOLD has built a business logic centered on brand premium pricing, attempting to detach performance from direct correlation with gold price fluctuations, its operations are fundamentally tied to this special commodity, gold. This makes its claimed ability to &#34;cross cycles&#34; continuously face the reality test of the market.
A direct piece of evidence is that even with a &#34;fixed price&#34; model, the sharp fluctuations in gold prices still affect the company's gross margin. Financial reports indicate that in the first three quarters of 2025, despite the company having raised prices twice, its gross margin still declined to about 37.6% due to the rapid rise in gold prices; only after completing the third price adjustment in October did the gross margin return to above 40%. This reveals the lag in its pricing strategy adjustments relative to raw material price changes and that cost transmission is not without pressure.
Currently, the gold market is in a highly uncertain environment. Recent rebounds in gold prices have not alleviated market concerns, and several commercial banks have intensively issued risk warnings for precious metal trading, pointing out that price fluctuations are severe and uncertainty has significantly increased. For LAOPU GOLD, which has inventory as high as 16.044 billion yuan and an increase in inventory turnover days, if gold prices trend downward or fluctuate widely for an extended period, its inventory management, cash flow, and profitability will face immense pressure.
Xu Gaoming showcases brand momentum with a forecast of sales performance between 19 billion to 20 billion yuan and net profit between 3.6 billion to 3.8 billion yuan for the first quarter of 2026, but this forecast still needs to undergo the final market test
LAOPU GOLD's business model heavily relies on continuously maintaining and enhancing its brand premium. This requires ongoing investment in product innovation, craftsmanship, customer service, and channel experience to establish insurmountable barriers. Any misstep in quality, design, or service could damage its carefully constructed high-end image, thereby undermining its premium foundation.
As of the market close on March 26, LAOPU GOLD's stock price was HKD 618 per share, with a market capitalization of HKD 109 billion. Compared to last August when the stock price exceeded HKD 1,100 per share, it has now fallen by over 40%. This also reflects investors' cautious attitude towards whether it can truly break free from the cyclical nature of gold while still being optimistic about its growth story

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LAOPU GOLD's 2025 annual performance report shows that sales reached 31.375 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 220.3%. Despite fluctuations in international gold prices, LAOPU GOLD emphasized that the growth in performance is mainly due to brand premium rather than the rise in gold prices. The company's inventory has surged to 16.044 billion yuan, an increase of 292.5% compared to last year, facing high inventory risks. Management pointed out that the growth in performance is closely related to the expansion of brand influence, but during a decline in gold prices, the large inventory may pose impairment risks

腾讯新闻 - 财经

LAOPU GOLD

ChinaAMC CSI SH-SZ-HK Gold Industry Equity ETF

GLOBAL X Gold Explorers

Gold.com

SPDR Gold Shares

YieldMax Gold Miners Opt Inc Strgy ETF

iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners

Sprott JR Gold Miners ETF

Us Gbl GLD & Met

Abrdn Gold ETF Trust

Sprott GLD Miners Etf

Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 2X

ChinaAMC Gold ETF

Pro Ultr GLD

SPDR Gold Minishares

VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF

EFUND GOLD MI-U

Microsectors Gold Miners 3x Leveraged ETN

iShares Gold Trust

Direxion Daily Jr Gold Miners Bull 2X

Roundhill Gold Miners Weeklypay ETF

Huaan Yifu Gold ETF

VanEck Gold Miners ETF

EFUND GOLD MI ETF

ISHRS MSCI Glb Slct Met & Mining

EFUND GOLD MI-R

2026 Annual Report Season | LAOPU GOLD's annual sales surged twofold: with 16 billion in inventory, can it safely navigate the price fluctuations of gold relying solely on brand premium?