A food company headquartered in Ningyang County, Tai'an City, Shandong Province, that supplies ingredients for beverages sold by giants like Mixue Ice City and Luckin Coffee, is now making its way toward the capital markets. Shandong Weikexian Food Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weikexian") has recently completed its filing for listing guidance with the Shandong Securities Regulatory Bureau. The company plans to publicly issue shares to unspecified qualified investors and list on the Beijing Stock Exchange. Notably, the entire process, from signing the guidance agreement to submitting the filing materials, took only ten days.

While Weikexian's name may not be familiar to everyday consumers, its client roster is filled with well-known names in the consumer market. The company primarily produces fruit juice concentrates, jams, tea beverages, and other raw materials for freshly made drinks, alongside HPP ready-to-drink products. In 2025 alone, just two clients, Mixue Ice City and Luckin Coffee, accounted for nearly 60% of its total revenue. Riding the wave of rapid expansion in the freshly made tea and coffee industry over the past few years, Weikexian has experienced a period of fast growth. Between 2022 and 2025, its revenue more than doubled, while profit surged nearly sevenfold. However, just as it embarks on its journey to list on the Beijing Stock Exchange in 2026, Weikexian's profit trajectory has taken an unexpected turn. In the first half of this year, the company's net profit attributable to parent shareholders fell by 22.77% year-on-year. For this food supplier that quickly scaled up by relying on top-tier beverage clients, the key questions it must answer as it pursues its listing are becoming clearer: How sustainable is the high growth driven by major customers? And as the downstream beverage market shifts from aggressive expansion to a focus on existing market share, can Weikexian find its next growth avenue?

Thriving as the Supplier Behind the Brands

Weikexian's growth has almost perfectly mirrored the most explosive expansion phase of China's freshly made beverage market. Founded in 2018, the company was previously known as Shandong Tailaiyuan Food Technology Co., Ltd. It was listed on the New Third Board in 2024 and changed its securities abbreviation to Weikexian in 2026. According to its listing guidance filing report, the company has a registered capital of 56 million yuan. Brothers Xiao Zhijian and Xiao Yi are the controlling shareholders, holding a combined 83.23% stake. Xiao Zhijian serves as the chairman and is the largest shareholder with a 59.12% stake. From a business model perspective, Weikexian operates a classic 'picks and shovels' business. As brands like Mixue Ice City and Luckin rapidly opened stores nationwide, they required enormous quantities of standardized ingredients such as fruit concentrates, jams, and tea bases, and Weikexian emerged as one of the key manufacturers in this supply chain. This is directly reflected in Weikexian's revenue figures. From 2022 to 2024, the company's revenue was 254 million yuan, 419 million yuan, and 614 million yuan, respectively. In 2025, revenue further grew to 869 million yuan, a 41.38% increase year-on-year. During the same period, net profit attributable to the parent company grew from 11.55 million yuan in 2022 to 90.70 million yuan in 2025, with a 96.69% surge in 2025 alone. In just three years, Weikexian's revenue increased by over 600 million yuan, and its profit scale expanded to nearly 100 million yuan. Top-tier clients are an undeniable factor in this growth story. For instance, in 2025, sales revenue from Mixue Ice City, Luckin Coffee, Haidilao's procurement platform, Hema, and Tianniu (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd. accounted for 37.20%, 21.29%, 5.68%, 3.93%, and 2.84% of total revenue, respectively. The direct benefit of this client structure is clear: once a supplier enters the supply chain of leading chain brands, it can easily achieve economies of scale as the client's stores expand and sales volumes grow. But the flip side is equally obvious—when nearly 60% of revenue is tied to just two clients, any shift in their procurement strategy, price negotiations, or even a decision to switch suppliers could directly impact the supplier's bottom line. In fact, this pressure has already begun to surface.

Profit Drops by Over 20% Ahead of Listing Despite Revenue Growth

The first half of 2026 semi-annual report marks the first significant divergence in Weikexian's high-growth curve. In the first half of this year, the company generated revenue of 504 million yuan, a 25.23% increase year-on-year, but its net profit attributable to the parent fell to 33.20 million yuan, a 22.77% decrease year-on-year. In other words, the company sold more products but earned less profit. A closer look at its business segments makes this trend even more apparent. During the first half, raw materials for freshly made drinks remained Weikexian's primary revenue source, contributing roughly 46.5% of total revenue. Its strategically focused HPP ready-to-drink beverages brought in 98.67 million yuan in revenue, a 68.07% surge year-on-year, showing significantly faster growth. The issue is that this revenue expansion hasn't fully translated into profit. According to the semi-annual report, the gross margins for both its freshly made drink ingredients and HPP ready-to-drink beverage segments declined year-on-year, with the most significant drop reaching 38.54%. The pressure isn't solely stemming from Weikexian's own operations. In recent years, competition in the new-style tea and coffee industry has shifted from a race to open the most stores to a battle over supply chain efficiency, price, and cost control. As downstream brands continuously push to lower costs, the profit margins of upstream ingredient suppliers come under strain. Weikexian's previous disclosures have already hinted at this shift. In 2025, the company's gross margin declined year-on-year, partly because some beverage clients adjusted their product procurement structures in response to downstream market demand, leading to lower selling prices for certain products. This presents a notable paradox as Weikexian makes its move towards the Beijing Stock Exchange: its scale is still expanding, but its profitability is changing. For a food supplier that mainly serves large chain clients, this might be a more critical indicator to watch than simple revenue growth. As clients grow larger, how much of the growth dividend does the supplier actually get to share, and how much profit can it retain?

Betting on HPP to Forge a New Growth Engine

Weikexian clearly recognizes that relying solely on supplying ingredients to top tea and coffee brands isn't sufficient to support a more compelling long-term equity story. It is actively seeking a second growth curve, and its most significant bet is on HPP technology. HPP, or High-Pressure Processing, is a cold pasteurization technique. Compared to traditional heat treatment, its main commercial selling point is that it minimizes the impact of high temperatures on the flavor and quality of juices and other products. Currently, Weikexian has already launched a range of HPP ready-to-drink products, including watermelon juice, mixed fruit and vegetable juices, and cold-brewed tea. These are sold directly to consumers through supermarkets and e-commerce channels, and the company also handles production for private-label products of some retail channels. This effectively signals Weikexian's ambition to extend its reach from being primarily a B2B supplier to tea and coffee businesses towards the HPP ready-to-drink beverage market. The company has already committed significant capital to this effort. In 2026, Weikexian completed a private placement, raising approximately 116 million yuan. Four institutional investors subscribed to a total of 6.45 million shares at a price of 18 yuan per share. A portion of the proceeds is earmarked for its Anhui HPP high-end beverage production base project. In August, the company also disclosed plans to inject additional investment into its wholly-owned subsidiary, Anhui Weikexian. As its capital activities accelerate, its listing timeline has also been set. From being listed on the New Third Board to moving up to the innovation layer, and now launching the guidance process for the Beijing Stock Exchange, Weikexian is clearly progressing along the capital markets path. However, completing the guidance filing is just the starting point of the IPO marathon, not the finish line. The company's announcement also explicitly cautions that the public offering and listing on the Beijing Stock Exchange still carries risks, including failing to pass the exchange's review or the CSRC's registration. For Weikexian, what truly deserves the attention of the capital markets might not only be when it submits its listing application, but also whether this supplier, hidden behind countless cups of fruit tea and coffee, can transform HPP products and new clients into a second growth engine once the initial wave of growth from its major customers begins to stabilize.