Dream Garden’s IPO has reached a substantive milestone.
On January 16, Shandong Huawutang Cosmetics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Huawutang”) formally submitted its initial public offering application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with CITIC Securities acting as the sponsor. Huawutang is the brand operating entity of China’s skin and personal care brand Dream Garden, which is the company’s core brand and currently its primary business and revenue contributor.
According to the prospectus, for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, Huawutang recorded revenue of RMB 1.895 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 76.7%. Based on this pace, the company’s full-year revenue for 2025 is expected to exceed RMB 2 billion, potentially placing it among the top ten domestic beauty companies in China.
Notably, if Dream Garden’s parent company Huawutang successfully lists in Hong Kong, it would become not only the first beauty company to go public in Hong Kong this year, but also earn the title of the “first domestic personal care brand listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.”
According to the prospectus, Dream Garden was founded in 2010, with its brand originating in Jinan, Shandong Province. Unlike many beauty brands that initially focus on facial skincare, Dream Garden targeted the body care segment from an early stage, centering on products such as body scrubs and body lotions. With “floral and botanical” concepts as its core direction, the brand gradually established a distinct identity.
From a development perspective, Dream Garden’s expansion path has been relatively clear. After the brand was founded in 2010, it launched its first body lotion product in 2012 and introduced body scrubs in 2015. In 2019, the company expanded into facial cleansing with the launch of its rice-ferment amino acid cleansing mousse. In 2024, its cleansing products ranked first in the body cleansing category during Douyin’s 618 Shopping Festival.
In terms of corporate governance, the prospectus shows that Huawutang completed its shareholding reform in 2025 and established a relatively comprehensive holding and subsidiary structure, covering brand operations, product R&D, raw material processing, manufacturing, and sales. The company’s controlling shareholder is Qi Fengwei, who directly holds approximately 25.7% of the equity.
Prior to submitting its IPO application, Huawutang also completed two rounds of financing, introducing institutional investors including Suqian Huatai, Nanjing Huatai, Discounter Seed HK under Qicheng Capital, and Qingdao Maoda. Among them, Sun Laichun, founder of Marubi Biotechnology and Lin Qingxuan, participated in the Series A and Series A+ rounds through Qingdao Maoda Venture Capital Partnership and Shanghai Fangjiaoshi Management Consulting Co., Ltd., respectively. Specifically, Qingdao Maoda invested RMB 25 million, while Shanghai Fangjiaoshi invested nearly RMB 5 million.
From a financial performance standpoint, Huawutang has demonstrated strong growth momentum in recent years. According to the prospectus, the company’s revenue increased from approximately RMB 1.199 billion in 2023 to RMB 1.499 billion in 2024, representing year-on-year growth of about 25%. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, revenue reached RMB 1.895 billion, up 76% year-on-year.
According to previous statistics compiled by Qingyan, as of the first half of 2025, the company ranked tenth among China’s top ten domestic beauty companies was Freda, with cosmetics revenue of RMB 1.094 billion. Based on Huawutang’s growth rate from 2024 to the first nine months of 2025, it is expected to enter the top ten domestic beauty companies.
In terms of profitability, Huawutang’s gross profit has also continued to rise. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the company recorded gross profit of RMB 1.2 billion, with a gross margin of 63.3%. Profit also grew rapidly during the same period, reaching RMB 125 million. Although its net margin remains in the mid-range of the personal care industry, overall profitability has shown improvement amid continued expansion.
From a product mix perspective, Huawutang’s revenue structure exhibits clear brand and category segmentation. According to Frost & Sullivan data, based on 2024 retail sales, Dream Garden ranked first among domestic brands in body lotion, body scrub, and cleansing mousse. In addition, based on 2024 online retail sales, Dream Garden ranked as China’s fourth-largest body care brand and was the only domestic brand among the top five.
According to the prospectus, during the reporting period, Huawutang’s revenue primarily came from three major product categories under the Dream Garden brand: body cleansing and care, hair cleansing and care, and facial cleansing and care, with body care consistently being the largest revenue contributor.
Specifically, the body care category generated revenue of RMB 791 million, accounting for 41.8% of total revenue, with year-on-year growth of 60.7%. This category includes core products such as body scrubs, body lotions, and shower products, and represents Huawutang’s earliest and largest business segment by sales scale. The prospectus also notes that several Dream Garden body care products have achieved high cumulative sales volumes; as of September 30, 2025, cumulative sales of its whitening body lotion exceeded 8 million.
The prospectus further discloses that for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the hair care category generated revenue of approximately RMB 482 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 496.1%, making it the fastest-growing product category. During the same period, facial cleansing and care products generated revenue of approximately RMB 463 million, with cleansing mousse as the core product.
Overall, Huawutang’s revenue growth has not relied on a single product, but rather has been supported by multiple successfully scaled niche categories.
In terms of channel structure, Dream Garden initially relied primarily on online sales. Its core products achieved scale largely through e-commerce platforms, particularly benefiting from strong conversion during content-driven e-commerce and major promotional campaigns, where body care and cleansing products have demonstrated notable advantages.
According to the prospectus, for the year ended December 31, 2023, online channels generated revenue of approximately RMB 1.027 billion, accounting for 85.7% of total revenue, while offline channels accounted for 13.9%.
However, as sales scale expanded, the contribution from offline channels increased. For the year ended December 31, 2024, offline channel revenue rose to approximately RMB 356 million, accounting for 23.7% of total revenue, while online revenue reached approximately RMB 1.137 billion, accounting for 75.9%.
This channel structure continued into 2025. According to the prospectus, for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 (unaudited), online revenue amounted to approximately RMB 1.445 billion, accounting for 76.3%, while offline revenue reached approximately RMB 446 million, accounting for 23.5%.
Notably, data from the prospectus show that Huawutang’s offline channels have grown significantly in recent years. The company’s offline network now covers supermarkets, specialty cosmetics stores, new retail outlets, and OTC pharmacies, with sales outlets spanning all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across China.
Nevertheless, in terms of sales channels, online direct sales remain the primary mode. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, online direct sales generated approximately RMB 1.168 billion in revenue, accounting for 61.7% of total revenue, while revenue from online e-commerce platforms and online distributors totaled approximately RMB 277 million.
Overall, revenue from Huawutang’s Dream Garden brand primarily comes from online channels, including third-party e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Douyin, as well as the company’s own online stores. Online channels have consistently contributed the vast majority of the company’s revenue. With the rising share of emerging platforms such as Douyin e-commerce, online revenue maintained rapid growth during the reporting period.
According to Qingyan Intelligence data, in 2025, Dream Garden’s GMV on Douyin remained consistently between RMB 50 million and RMB 75 million, with GMV exceeding RMB 100 million in six months. Sales were mainly driven by brand-operated livestreams and influencer promotions, with brand-operated sales accounting for more than half.
It is worth noting that in 2025, Dream Garden officially announced renowned athlete Sun Yingsha as its brand ambassador, significantly boosting brand visibility. According to Dream Garden’s January 2025 performance report, hair care products endorsed by Sun Yingsha achieved GMV of over RMB 30 million within just one hour of announcement, ranking first across three major e-commerce platforms.
However, the prospectus also clearly points out that Huawutang continues to face multiple operational challenges. Competition in China’s body care market has intensified, and based on 2024 online retail sales, Dream Garden’s market share stood at 1.2%, placing it relatively behind among the top five brands.
In recent years, the Hong Kong market has increasingly become a preferred listing destination for beauty companies. At the end of 2025, Lin Qingxuan successfully listed in Hong Kong. In addition, companies such as Chando and Mandi International have also submitted prospectuses to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Notably, Huawutang is the first cosmetics company to pursue a Hong Kong listing this year.
At the same time, the beauty industry is witnessing a wave of “A+H” dual listings. According to incomplete statistics from Qingyan, at least six beauty-related companies—including Tianci Materials, Huaheng Biology, Ruoyuchen, Proya, Marubi Biotechnology, and Cofoe Medical—have launched plans for dual listings in mainland China and Hong Kong.
Behind this trend is the growing attention domestic beauty brands are paying to the Hong Kong capital market. Benefiting from capital markets’ long-term recognition of the consumer sector and Hong Kong’s relatively inclusive approach toward high-growth enterprises, more domestic beauty companies are choosing Hong Kong listings as a strategic option. This enables them to raise sufficient funds for business expansion, R&D investment, and channel upgrades, while also leveraging Hong Kong’s international financial platform to enhance global brand visibility and connect with international capital and resources, paving the way for overseas expansion.
From the perspective of investment institutions, this trend is also no coincidence. Jinding Capital, a key investor in Huawutang, noted in a publicly released article that its investment rationale was based on three considerations: first, amid the substitution of domestic brands, niche segments such as natural personal care still offer growth potential; second, Dream Garden has built systematic capabilities spanning R&D, raw materials, production, and channels, starting from botanical research; and third, through flagship product replication, multi-category expansion, and online-offline synergy, the brand has formed a relatively stable growth trajectory.
The clustering of domestic beauty brands pursuing Hong Kong listings is also supported by favorable policy signals in the Hong Kong market. Compared with the A-share market, Hong Kong listings offer greater flexibility in terms of profitability requirements and shareholding structures, with disclosure rules better aligned with the development stage of high-growth companies. This allows emerging beauty brands with strong growth potential—but not yet meeting A-share profitability thresholds—to overcome financing bottlenecks and access capital support in Hong Kong.
Despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges, the wave of Hong Kong listings is bringing new development opportunities to domestic beauty brands. As more companies enter the capital market, industry resources are expected to concentrate further toward leading players, with increased investment in R&D and brand building, driving the domestic beauty industry from “scale expansion” toward a new stage of “quality enhancement.”
