Self-operated operations, franchise partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions are being simultaneously implemented, as Huitongda (09878) accelerates its efforts to seize a leading position in the hard discount industry.

In the early spring of 2026, a dramatic chemical reaction is taking place in the Chinese retail industry. While the industry is still discussing "existing game" and "reducing costs and increasing efficiency," HUITONGDA NET(09878) has already taken a crucial step towards breaking the deadlock. Against the backdrop of performance reports and strategic upgrades, Huitongda's retail chain business is no longer just a growth number on the financial report, but has risen to become the core engine of the company's strategy. This move has attracted industry attention - in the background of the "duopoly" structure in the hard discount snack retail industry, Huitongda is attempting to take a differentiated path: not relying on linear expansion of a single business format, but rather through a combination of "self-operated + franchise + mergers and acquisitions," building a three-dimensional retail chain ecosystem in the entire sub-segment and overall market. Structural opportunities in the lower-tier market for "hard discount" The confidence in this strategy first comes from the accurate capture of China's consumption market's structural dividend. With China's per capita disposable income steadily increasing from 32,189 yuan (RMB, the same below) in 2020 to 41,314 yuan in 2024, residents' consumption power has significantly increased, leading to a high demand for leisure foods and beverages. Consumers are no longer satisfied with just "eating enough," but are also pursuing "eating well" and "eating interesting," prompting the emergence of innovative categories such as low-sugar, low-fat, healthy foods and regional specialty snacks. Meanwhile, the overall food and beverage retail industry has maintained steady growth, with market size expanding from 5.5 trillion yuan in 2019 to 7.1 trillion yuan in 2024. Among them, the leisure food and beverage retail market, as the largest sub-market, accounted for 53.0% of the total industry GMV in 2024, with a growth rate slightly higher than the overall market. Huitongda has identified the explosive potential of this trillion-dollar track, hence decisively increasing its investment in the retail chain sector. What is more crucial, Huitongda keenly captured the enormous potential of "hard discount" in the lower-tier market under the trend of consumption grading. Over the past five years, the GMV of leisure food and beverage in the lower-tier market has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5%, far exceeding the 4.0% of the high-tier market, demonstrating huge growth potential and leadership position. Facing the structural opportunities brought by consumption grading, Huitongda has resolutely chosen "hard discount" as a breakthrough. This business format caters to price-sensitive but quality-demanding consumer groups, aligning well with the consumption characteristics of the lower-tier market. The company explicitly stated that it will accelerate the promotion of the "FMCG discount chain project," aiming to rapidly build a distributed system of fast-moving consumer goods circulation in the wide lower-tier market through various means such as self-operation, joint venture, and merger. "Industry + Capital" dual-wheel drive, three-pronged approach Huitongda's retail chain strategy is not simply replicating the expansion path of traditional retail enterprises, but building a differentiated strategy based on the core of "industry + capital" dual-wheel drive, and the three-pronged approach of "self-operated + franchise + merger and acquisition." The underlying logic of this model is to fully utilize the channel resources and supply chain capabilities accumulated over more than ten years of deep cultivation in the lower-tier market, while leveraging the capital operation advantages of the founding team to achieve simultaneous scale and efficiency enhancement. At the capital level, Huitongda's unique advantage lies in its deep investment genes. The company's founding team has a wealth of investment backgrounds and has successfully invested in mature consumer projects such as Luckin Coffee, possessing a mature methodology in capital operation. This enables Huitongda to have professional judgment and resource mobilization capabilities in mergers and acquisitions and post-investment empowerment, ensuring that each capital action is in deep synergy with the industrial strategy, rather than mere financial investment. At the industrial level, Huitongda adopts a three-pronged expansion strategy of "self-operated + franchise + merger and acquisition." In terms of self-operation, the company builds standardized, high-efficiency model stores that can be replicated, laying the foundation for subsequent large-scale replication; in terms of franchise, relying on its network of over 250,000 husband-and-wife stores accumulated in town markets, the company opens its franchise system to the whole society, achieving rapid expansion in a low-cost, high-efficiency manner with light assets; in terms of merger and acquisition, through capital means, integrating high-quality retail assets in the region, shortening the market cultivation cycle, and quickly entering new markets or new tracks. The three complement each other and synergistically promote, ensuring both expansion speed and operational quality. The company's layout across the "hard discount community retail + snack bulk sales + N" full track demonstrates an extreme insight into market demand. Hard discount meets the pursuit of cost-effectiveness in the lower-tier market under consumption grading, snack bulk sales seize the strong demand for leisure consumption, and "N" signifies the unlimited extension of its business format. From townships to cities, from communities to commercial areas, Huitongda is expected to achieve full coverage of all scenarios and customer groups through the combination of multiple business formats. Supporting all this high-speed operation is Huitongda's strong digital capabilities. Its independently developed "Qiancheng AI" and the BI system acquired from enterprise Cognitive Boundary are expected to build its independent digital "brain" and "nerve." These tools are not only used to manage goods and money but also to connect supply and demand, optimize efficiency, and act as an intelligent central hub. Through AI algorithms, Huitongda can accurately predict sales, intelligently allocate inventory, and personalize recommend products, reconstructing the "people-goods-field" of retail to the extreme. In terms of operational management, Huitongda focuses on single-store output, continuously refining fine operation models, strengthening AI empowerment, and intelligent hardware services around store pain points, such as product shelving, intelligent replenishment, intelligent marketing, retail Siasun Robot & Automation, and checkout Siasun Robot & Automation, to deeply empower store operations for efficiency enhancement and sales expansion. This digital capability distinguishes Huitongda from traditional wholesalers and retailers, forming the core barrier and underlying logic for achieving "thousand store-to-thousand face" and fine operation. Placement of key chess pieces in hard discount bulk snacks The clarity of the strategy is ultimately reflected in its implementation. Huitongda has completed crucial layouts in the hard discount chain and bulk snack tracks, establishing a dual-wheel drive model of "self-operated + empowerment." Taking its strategic cooperation with Snack Optimal as an example, in February 2026, Huitongda reached a strategic cooperation with the top domestic snack chain brand Snack Optimal, forming a joint venture as the sole operating vehicle for the "Snack Optimal" brand chain. Snack Optimal has already covered more than 10 core provinces nationwide, with over 2,800 stores and cooperation with over 1,000 high-quality upstream manufacturers and over 4,000 SKUs. In this cooperation, Huitongda's role is as an enabler for platform, ecology, capital, and AI: on one hand, the 2,800 stores of Snack Optimal collaborate efficiently with Huitongda's member store network, improving market coverage from both depth and breadth; on the other hand, through this collaboration, Huitongda's original member stores will access Snack Optimal's high-quality product resources, promoting the upgrading of product structure and customer flow, and forming a standardized replication model of "FMCG upgrade + small store large chain." The significance of this cooperation lies not only in the increase in the number of stores but also in validating the feasibility of Huitongda's "industry + capital" model - by binding capital, system output, and supply chain coordination, it achieves rapid value enhancement and ecological integration for invested enterprises. 2026, the Year of Taking Off It is believed that based on the current strategic pace and industry trends, Huitongda is expected to rapidly rise to the first echelon of the retail chain industry in 2026. This assessment is supported by three aspects: First, the expansion pace is clear, and key layouts have been implemented. The three-pronged expansion strategy of "self-operated + franchise + merger and acquisition", combined with the substantial progress of key layouts such as "Snack Optimal," gives Huitongda a solid foundation for a leapfrog growth in store scale and GMV. The company has stated its aim to strive to become the leading brand of hard discount chains in China's lower-tier market over the next three years, creating new growth lines to drive continuous development for the company. The expansive strategy from single discount snacks to a full-category retail ecosystem holds significant imagination space. Second, policy dividends, coupled with deep alignment with national strategy. The country continues to promote the construction of the county-level commercial system, and urban-rural circulation has become an important direction for the "15th Five-Year Plan" on the strategy of "expanding domestic demand." Huitongda's two-way layout from townships to cities and the early positioning in the hard discount format in the lower-tier market deeply aligns with policy directions, enjoying dual policy and industrial dividends. At the same time, China's retail chain industry market is continuously expanding. In the lower-tier markets where Huitongda has been deeply cultivating, the consumption vitality shown by bulk snack sales, hard discount supermarkets, etc., is higher, and the growth rate of retail sales exceeds that of high-tier markets, indicating the continuous release of structural dividends. Third, the value of capital is promising, with the sector having independent IPO potential. Some market views suggest that as the independence and profitability of the retail chain business increase, there may be a possibility of an independent split listing for this sector in the future. Once achieved, it would become a new capital platform for the company and a growth pole for valuation. Combining Huitongda's accumulated large grassroots member store base and deep operational foundation over more than ten years, once its "full-category chain" strategy is fully implemented, it is expected to reshape the commercial landscape of urban and rural retail markets. From a capital market perspective, a retail chain target with a combination of foundation in the lower-tier market, industrial internet capabilities, and an early advantage in the hard discount market, holds scarcity and long-term value. Conclusion Huitongda's path in retail chains is a differentiated one from traditional retail companies. Unlike pursuing extreme scale in a single business format, it aims to build a synergistic retail ecosystem across all business formats and market domains through the combined power of "industry + capital." From townships to cities, from self-operation to franchise, from supply chain to AI - Huitongda is integrating these capabilities into an organic whole. Over the next three years, the company plans to expand from single discount snacks to a full-category retail ecosystem. With its vast grassroots member store base and deep operational foundation over more than a decade, once this "full-category chain" strategy is fully implemented, it is expected to reshape the commercial landscape of urban and rural retail markets. For investors, Huitongda has keenly captured multiple business opportunities, including retail chains, in its transformation. The realization of its future value is worth market anticipation.