Yasui Foods invests an additional 120 million in Henan: Strengthening production capacity layout, can it activate a new engine for performance growth?

Leading frozen food company Anjoy Food recently announced a capital increase of 120 million yuan to its wholly-owned subsidiary Henan Anjoy, aimed at advancing the third phase expansion project with an annual capacity of 140,000 tons of frozen foods in Henan. The project is expected to be completed and put into operation by May 2028, further strengthening the company’s production capacity layout in Central China and improving supply chain efficiency. Henan, as a core region for the domestic frozen food industry, hosts many well-known companies such as Sanquan Food and Sinian Food. Anjoy Food’s increased investment in capacity is seen as an important move to deepen its nationwide market presence.

Despite strong financial health, Anjoy Food’s recent performance growth has been sluggish. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company’s revenue was approximately 11.371 billion yuan, up 2.66% year-over-year; net profit attributable to the parent was about 949 million yuan, down 9.35% year-over-year. Analysts believe that factors such as consumer downgrade, price wars in pre-made dishes, and raw material cost rebounds are main reasons for the performance pressure. Particularly in the pre-made dish segment, although revenue growth is rapid, gross profit margins are significantly lower than traditional products, and increasing its share structurally drags down overall profit margins.

Anjoy Food Chairman Liu Mingming responded to investor concerns at a recent earnings briefing, stating that the company always adheres to the business philosophy of “winning through integrity,” with food safety and nutrition as fundamental principles. Regarding consumer feedback about “many additives” on product ingredient labels, the company is actively working on label simplification. Liu Mingming also emphasized that integrity is embedded in all decision-making and execution processes, with zero tolerance for major principled issues.

Liu Mingming, now 64, was previously a civil engineering professor at Zhengzhou University of Technology. In the late 1980s, he left academia to start his business, founding the predecessor of Anjoy Food in Xiamen in 2001. As a representative of Henan entrepreneurs, he has publicly expressed confidence in the development potential of Henan’s food industry multiple times. The recent capital increase in the Henan subsidiary is viewed as an important step in the company’s regional expansion. Industry experts believe that if the Henan third-phase project proceeds smoothly, it will help reduce logistics costs in Central China and increase gross profit margins by 1-2 percentage points.

In the context of the frozen food industry shifting from incremental competition to stock competition, Anjoy Food is facing a critical period of transformation and upgrading. The company’s current product lines include frozen prepared foods, frozen vegetable dishes, and frozen rice and noodle products, making it one of the more diverse players in the industry. Analysts suggest that Anjoy Food needs to find a new balance between mergers and acquisitions, dividend payouts, and shareholder returns to achieve a transition from a “frozen food leader” to a “comprehensive food group.”