Export sales under pressure, net profit declines! Supor's 2025 plan to increase revenue without profit growth, "clearance-style" dividends nearing 2.1 billion yuan draw attention

Every Daily News reporter｜Ye Xiaodan    Every Daily News editor｜Wei Wenyi

On the evening of April 2, appliance small-electricals leader SUPOR (SZ002032, share price 45.96 yuan, market cap 36.85B yuan) released its 2025 annual report. For the full year, the company achieved operating revenue of approximately 22.77B yuan, up 1.54% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of approximately 2.1B yuan, down 6.58% year over year; and non-recurring item adjusted net profit attributable to shareholders of approximately 1.91B yuan, down 7.28% year over year.

Image source: SUPOR 2025 annual report

A reporter from The Daily Economic News (hereinafter referred to as “Every Daily News reporter”) noted that this is SUPOR’s first year-on-year decline in net profit since 2021.

In its annual report, SUPOR said that in 2025, orders from overseas-export customers decreased slightly compared with the same period, and overseas-export operating revenue also declined slightly compared with the same period. Geopolitical changes such as tariff-related events caused some short-term impact on the company’s overseas-export business.

Of note, SUPOR has again rolled out a “clear-the-inventory” dividend plan with nearly 100% payout. The company plans to distribute cash dividends of 2.1B yuan.

In this regard, household-appliance analyst Liu Buchen, in an interview with Every Daily News reporter on April 3, said the company’s distribution of profits to shareholders is reasonable; financially, it is safe and does not affect the company’s day-to-day operations. However, this approach also carries risks—such as low R&D investment, which may be unfavorable for the company’s long-term development.

Overseas exports under pressure plus higher expenses: 2025 saw revenue rise but profits fail to follow

As a well-known domestic small-home-appliance company, SUPOR’s main businesses cover four areas: open-flame cooking appliances and kitchenware, kitchen small appliances, kitchen and bathroom electrical appliances, and home living appliances.

Judging from its business structure, in 2025, SUPOR’s main revenue came from electrical appliances and cookware. Among them, cookware business revenue was approximately 6.97B yuan, up 1.89%; electrical appliance business revenue was approximately 15.49B yuan, up 1.23%. By region, domestic sales’ main business revenue was approximately 15.17B yuan, up 2.77%, and it remains the primary support; overseas trade’s main business revenue was approximately 7.34B yuan, down 0.98% year over year.

Image source: SUPOR 2025 annual report

Meanwhile, looking at performance data over the past five years: from 2021 to 2024, SUPOR’s net profit attributable to shareholders grew year over year for four consecutive years, but in 2025 it fell year over year—net profit attributable to shareholders was approximately 2.1B yuan, slightly higher than 2022 (approximately 2.07B yuan). In 2023 and 2024, SUPOR’s net profit attributable to shareholders was approximately 2.18B yuan and 2.24B yuan, respectively.

In its annual report, SUPOR said geopolitical changes such as tariff-related events caused some short-term impact on its overseas-export business. Going forward, the company will adjust production capacity across overseas production bases; at the same time, it will actively work with its foreign trade customers to drive new-product R&D, improve efficiency, and lower costs, continuously enhancing the competitiveness of its overseas-export business.

The annual report shows that in 2025, SUPOR’s overseas-export business revenue accounted for 32.66%, down from 2024. At the same time, the company’s gross margin for overseas-export products continued to decline.

In addition, Every Daily News reporter noted that in 2025, SUPOR’s selling expenses were about 2.41B yuan, up 10.41% year over year from 2024.

Galaxy Securities analysts said SUPOR’s profit declined in the second quarter of 2025 mainly because exports were affected by the U.S. tariff policy, resulting in lower gross margins; it is expected that margins will recover relatively quickly afterward. Starting from the third quarter of 2025, the selling expense ratio increased, mainly due to the impact on the company’s self-funding of some product categories when subsidy funds in multiple regions were cut off in the second half of the year.

In prior investor research and survey interviews, SUPOR said that the expense ratio rose in the third quarter of 2025 mainly to respond to the fierce market competition at present, so the company appropriately increased investment in marketing resources.

Liu Buchen told Every Daily News reporter that most of SUPOR’s overseas-export products are sold to the majority shareholder, the French SEB Group, and then SEB sells them to markets worldwide. SEB Group’s 2025 financial report shows its North American business declined by nearly 10%. The direct reason is that the United States imposed additional tariffs on China’s small home appliances. Although the tariffs are mainly borne by the SEB Group, slower orders and lower capacity utilization still indirectly drag down SUPOR’s overseas-export gross margin. In addition, demand in Europe and the U.S. was weak in 2025, and the SEB Group was clearly affected. Looking at the domestic market as well, because competition in the small home-appliance industry is intense, SUPOR’s selling expenses in 2025 were high and absorbed a substantial amount of profit.

“Clear-the-inventory” dividends: the foreign-invested controlling shareholder takes more than 1.7 billion yuan

On the night it released its 2025 annual report, SUPOR also issued an announcement titled “Announcement on Profit Distribution for FY2025.” The company plans to use approximately 797 million shares as the base to pay all shareholders cash dividends of 26.30 yuan per 10 shares (including tax). No bonus shares will be issued and no shares will be converted or increased. In total, cash dividends will be 2.1B yuan, basically in line with 2025 net profit attributable to shareholders.

Every Daily News reporter noted that as the controlling shareholder, the French SEB Group holds as much as 83.16% of SUPOR’s shares. Under this dividend plan, it will receive more than 1.7 billion yuan in dividends. SUPOR will hold a shareholders’ meeting on April 23 to consider proposals including profit distribution.

In prior investor research interviews, SUPOR executives said that based on years of steady operations, the company has accumulated relatively high retained earnings in advance. To better reward shareholders, the company has implemented a relatively high proportion of dividend distribution policy since 2021. The company’s subsequent annual dividend plans still need to be dynamically adjusted according to the company’s capital expenditures and cash flow conditions for that year.

In response, Liu Buchen believes that from a positive perspective, small home appliances have entered the era of stock-based competition. SUPOR does not need to keep massively burning money to expand. Distributing profits to shareholders is reasonable; financially it is safe and does not affect the company’s day-to-day operations. But this approach also has risks—for example, low R&D investment may hinder the company’s long-term development, and the company could fall behind; “a cash cow” may become a “sunset stock.”

Looking at R&D expenses over the past five years, SUPOR’s R&D investment has remained basically steady. Specifically, in 2025 the company had 1,387 R&D personnel, down 1.28% from 2024.

Disclaimer: The contents and data in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before using it. Any risks arising from acting on this are borne by you.

Cover image source: Zhang Yun

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