EASTROC BEVERAGE's H1 Revenue Grows 16% as Tea Drinks Lead Multi-Category Expansion

EASTROC BEVERAGE continues to grow, but the growth driver is shifting from a single flagship product to joint traction from multiple categories.

On July 31, EASTROC BEVERAGE released its 2026 semi-annual report. In the first half of the year, the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 12.443 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%; net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 2.867 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.7%.

However, after excluding non-recurring gains and losses, EASTROC BEVERAGE's net profit deducting non-recurring items grew by only 14.4%, indicating that new product promotion and channel expansion still require significant investment.

From the perspective of category structure, EASTROC Special Drink remains the core foundation, but its revenue share continues to decline.

In the first half of the year, energy drink revenue amounted to RMB 8.937 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%, accounting for 71.9% of main business revenue, a decrease of approximately 6 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

Revenue from electrolyte drinks, including "EASTROC Hydration," reached RMB 1.672 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%, accounting for approximately 13.5%.

The third-largest category, tea beverages, contributed the fastest growth, achieving revenue of RMB 1.058 billion in the first half of the year, tripling year-on-year, with its share rising by more than 5 percentage points to 8.5%.

Among these, the low-sugar "Guo Zhi Cha" accelerated its penetration into lower-tier markets through campaigns like "Enjoy for 1 Yuan" and "Free Enjoyment," while the sugar-free "Shang Cha" entered family and county-level markets with its 750ml large packaging and high cost-performance ratio. The rapid volume growth of tea beverages indicates that EASTROC is replicating the distribution network, terminal promotions, and digital operational capabilities accumulated in the energy drink sector to more mass-market beverage categories.

Coffee is also a key focus area for EASTROC.

Judging from operational data, EASTROC Daka is still in a phase of rapid expansion. Citing data from Maishangying, the company stated that in the first half of 2026, EASTROC Daka ranked among the top three in market share for ready-to-drink coffee in China.

Unlike tea beverages, which relied on rapid distribution in lower-tier markets, EASTROC Daka is adopting a more targeted channel strategy: focusing on entering office buildings in first- and second-tier cities, chain convenience stores, gas stations, and vending machines, while leveraging its existing distribution network to penetrate county-level markets.

In other words, coffee is not just about increasing revenue; it is also helping EASTROC break through its original consumption scenarios centered on physical labor and long-distance driving, entering the office and commuting markets.

In the first half of the year, the "other beverages" segment, including coffee, plant-based proteins, and fruit and vegetable juices, generated revenue of RMB 759 million, an increase of approximately 41.9%.

By the end of 2025, EASTROC BEVERAGE had cumulatively deployed over 400,000 freezers. The focus for 2026 is to continue increasing deployments and enhancing "single-point sales power," i.e., improving sales output per freezer and per terminal through multi-category joint displays and the feedback of sell-through data.

Channel investments are already reflected in the expense side.

In the first half of the year, EASTROC BEVERAGE's selling expenses increased by 27.75% year-on-year to RMB 2.148 billion. Among these, advertising and promotional expenses, as well as channel promotion fees, both grew by approximately 40%. The company explicitly stated that the latter was mainly related to increased investment in freezers.

Free enjoyment campaigns, terminal displays, freezer deployments, and new product distribution have helped tea beverages rapidly gain volume, also meaning that EASTROC is competing for shelf space and consumers with higher investment.

In the next stage, the key verification point for its multi-category strategy will not just be whether new products can reach more terminals, but whether new products like tea drinks and coffee can continuously improve single-point output and form stable repurchase rates after promotions weaken.