① The consumer market was lackluster last year, but Bubble Mart's revenue and net profit all reached record highs. ② Wang Ning, chairman of the board of directors of Bubble Mart, revealed at the performance meeting that the first quarter of this year's performance exceeded expectations, and was even higher than the growth rate for the whole of last year. The entire group's revenue is expected to increase by no less than 30% this year, and revenue growth in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas is not less than 100%. ③ The company is also incubating three new IP categories, and building block products will be launched in June this year.
Financial Services Association, March 20 (Reporter Cui Ming) The consumer market was lackluster last year, but Bubble Mart (09992.HK)'s revenue and net profit all reached record highs. At the earnings conference call held today, Wang Ning, chairman of the board of directors of Bubble Mart, revealed that the performance of the first quarter of this year exceeded expectations, and was even higher than the growth rate for the whole of last year. The entire group's revenue is expected to increase by no less than 30% this year, and revenue growth in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas is not less than 100%.
Today, Bubble Mart released its 2023 earnings report. Financial reports show that the company achieved revenue of 6.3 billion yuan last year, up 36.5% year on year; adjusted net profit was 1.19 billion yuan, up 107.6% year on year.
According to financial data, Bubble Mart's gross margin in 2023 was 61.3%, an increase of 3.8 percentage points; the net interest rate was 18.9%, an increase of 6.5 percentage points; and the number of inventory turnover days was 133 days, a decrease of 23 days. Bubble Mart executives said at the performance meeting that 2024 will further reduce the proportion of outsourced products and strengthen supplier management to optimize gross profit margins.
As for the reason for the increase in performance, by channel, domestic revenue last year was 5.235 billion yuan, an increase of 26% over the previous year. Among them, offline businesses (retail stores and robot stores) have clearly picked up, with a year-on-year increase of 46%. Revenue from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas was 1,066 billion yuan, an increase of 135% over the previous year, with offline accounting for 60%.
In terms of business, the company's core IP incubation and operation business, 10 IP sales exceeded 100 million last year. Among them, classic IP performed steadily. SKULLPANDA, MOLLY, and DIMOO achieved revenue of 1,025 million yuan, 1.02 billion yuan, and 738 million yuan respectively in 2023. The sales revenue for SKULLPANDA's “Temperature” single series, which was launched in November 2022, reached 255 million yuan. Furthermore, the new IP Hirono Ono's revenue in 2023 reached 351 million yuan, an increase of 149.5% over the previous year.
By the end of 2023, Bubble Mart had opened 55 new offline stores in China, and the number of stores had increased to 363; 123 new robot stores had been set up, and the number of robot stores had increased from 2,067 to 2,190. The number of stores in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas reached 80 (including joint ventures), and 159 robot stores (including joint ventures and franchises).
IP commercialization development is still the focus of Bubble Mart's efforts. In September of last year, Bubble Mart landed in Chaoyang Park in Beijing, becoming the first immersive IP theme park in the trendy entertainment industry. At the same time, Bubble Mart also announced the PV for the first simulated management game “Dream Home” last year, and began a wave of small-scale testing. The game began omni-channel reservations on March 15 this year, with a total of 230,000 TapTap reservations.
Bubble Mart executives revealed that the company is currently incubating three new IP categories. The building block product line will be launched in June this year, and more information on other product lines is expected to be released in the second half of this year.
At the same time as the results were announced, Bubble Mart also announced its annual dividend payment plan. Wang Ning said that the plan is to use 35% of the profit to pay dividends, amounting to 378 million yuan. This is also the largest dividend since Bubble Mart went public.