From workers, warehouse staff, and finance to the actual controller, six "workers" from Jiangxi team up for Qiyunshan IPO

Ask AI · How can six longtime colleagues turn Jujube Tart with Sour Hawthorn into an IPO company?

A small jujube tart with sour hawthorn can support a company’s IPO.

By | Liu Junqun

Edited by | Liu Qinwen

You may have seen this orange-packaged hawthorn cake on a supermarket shelf. It tastes sour-sweet, chewy, and sticky, and the packaging bears the words “Qiyunshan” in three characters. But you probably don’t know that the company behind this cake is knocking a second time on the door of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Recently, Jiangxi Qiyunshan Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Qiyunshan”) submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company filed for the first time back in June 2024; the application lapsed after half a year, and now it is coming back again.

According to the report by “Zhuoshun Consulting,” Qiyunshan ranks first in the sour hawthorn food market with a 32.4% share, and the sour hawthorn cake has received “green food” certification for 29 consecutive years. But the champion also has its troubles: two core products account for 96.74% of revenue, making the product structure highly concentrated; operating cash flow fell sharply from 106 million yuan in January 2024 to 1.84 million yuan in 2025.

Now led by six de facto controllers of this company with annual revenue of 300 million yuan, these people were all old colleagues from the same state-owned food factory back then—in 1997, they followed the factory director Liu Zhigao, gathered money together with dozens of workers to buy the factory from the state, and they stayed for nearly 30 years. As a champion in a niche segment, Qiyunshan is now trying a second IPO run—will the market buy it?

01

Earning 300 million yuan a year by selling hawthorn cake

Operating cash flow plunges by 98%

A small sour hawthorn cake supports a company’s IPO. The prospectus shows that Qiyunshan’s sour hawthorn cake has received “green food” certification for 29 consecutive years since 1997, and it also holds national geographical indication protected product qualification. It is the only comparable product in China that simultaneously holds both certifications.

In terms of geographic distribution, Qiyunshan’s market shows a clear pattern of regional concentration. The company’s sales market mainly covers five provinces: Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. In 2025, revenue contribution from Jiangxi alone reached about 33%, amounting to 103 million yuan; revenue from Hunan was about 40.639 million yuan, accounting for 13%; revenue from Fujian was 35.12 million yuan, accounting for 11.2%. Combined, the three provinces above account for more than 57% of revenue.

This green product has also brought the company substantial revenue. In 2025, Qiyunshan’s sour hawthorn cake contributed 266 million yuan, representing 84.8% of revenue. Adding the 31.263 million yuan brought by the sour hawthorn kernels, the two products together account for 96.74%.

According to the report by “Zhuoshun Consulting,” Qiyunshan holds a 32.4% share in the sour hawthorn food market, ranking first. However, as the “big boss” in the sub-segment, when placed across the entire snack industry, its scale looks limited. The overall market size of fruit-based snacks is 99.5 billion yuan, and Qiyunshan’s share is only 0.63%, ranking ninth. Olive fruit garden (Liu Liu Guoyuan), which ranks first in the fruit-based snacks market, had revenue of 1.616 billion yuan in 2024 with a market share of 4.9%, nearly eight times Qiyunshan’s figure.

Image source: Prospectus

However, the ceilings for both geography and industry are “limited.” In 2024, the sub-market for sour hawthorn food had a size of 1.88 billion yuan. “Zhuoshun Consulting” expects it to grow to 3.93 billion yuan by 2029, with a CAGR of 15.9%. Even if it doubles to 3.9 billion yuan in five years, it would still be less than a fraction of the 10.6 billion yuan in revenue of Three Squirrels in 2024. Since the market is highly segmented, the limitations are obvious.

A low ceiling for the segment means it is hard for the company to grow large solely through natural market expansion. As a result, dependence on large customers becomes especially prominent.

In 2024, Qiyunshan’s largest customer was “Customer F,” as reported by the new media outlet “East Forty Capital.” Customer F is a bulk-buying snack giant, Mingming. That company contributed revenue of about 77.995 million yuan, accounting for 22.9% of total revenue for the year; but in 2025, this customer’s orders were cut dramatically, and revenue fell to about 40.195 million yuan, with its share dropping to 12.8%. In response, the company stated in its prospectus that it is actively expanding new customers to reduce concentration.

It is precisely this dependence that caused Qiyunshan’s performance to “change its face” quickly after large-customer orders were reduced. In 2023 and 2024, Qiyunshan’s revenue was 247 million yuan and 339 million yuan, respectively, while net profit was 23.705 million yuan and 53.199 million yuan, respectively. 2024 was the peak for Qiyunshan over the past three years: revenue increased 37.2% year on year, and net profit grew 124.5% year on year. But in 2025, revenue fell back to 314 million yuan, down 7.4% year on year; net profit shrank to 48.92 million yuan, down 8% year on year. ** **

Image source: Prospectus

The prospectus discloses that the main reasons for the performance decline are weak consumer recovery, combined with a reduction in orders from the largest customer.

With pressure on performance, in order to retain the major customer, the company chose to extend the payment terms—this also led to changes in cash flow. In 2024, Qiyunshan’s net cash flow from operating activities was 106 million yuan; by 2025, it had plunged to 1.84 million yuan, a drop of as much as 98.3%. The prospectus shows that in 2025 the company’s trade receivables and notes receivable increased significantly; combined with slower inventory turnover, profit was not converted into cash effectively.

Looking at it in detail, from 2023 to 2025, the company’s trade receivables rose from 2.8558 million yuan to 8.819 million yuan, and inventory increased from 59.463 million yuan to 63.413 million yuan. The company said that the increase in trade receivables is mainly because it extended the credit period granted to Customer F, leading to an increase in amounts receivable from Customer F.

Bo Wenxi, chief economist for China Region, China Enterprises Capital Alliance, believes that for a company focused on a single product category, once channel inventory gets stuck, the “gold content” of profits can be greatly discounted.

Image source: Canned food database

For this IPO, Qiyunshan Food plans to use the raised funds mainly to improve production capacity, product R&D, online marketing, and supplement cash flow, among other projects. It plans to increase total production capacity of sour hawthorn food by 45.5% to 16,000 tons.

But regarding capacity, in 2025, the capacity utilization rate for sour hawthorn cake was 79.6%. Existing capacity is not yet fully loaded, but the company proposes expanding annual capacity from 11,000 tons to 16,000 tons. The company explains that the expansion is mainly to address insufficient capacity during peak seasons and future growth demand.

02

The Liu brothers and the old core team break into the market

Resigned before the IPO from related companies

Qiyunshan’s story dates back to 1979. At that time, its predecessor—the Chongyi County Food Factory—was one of the earliest food companies established in the Ganzhou area of Jiangxi, and it had long accumulated the craftsmanship of “old masters” in making cakes and candied fruit. In 1990, the “Qiyunshan” trademark was registered; two years later, the signature product that supported the company—sour hawthorn cake—officially made its appearance.

The real turning point came in 1997. The factory director Liu Zhigao gathered money with dozens of employees to buy the factory out of public ownership, and transformed it into a joint-stock cooperative enterprise. The old factory’s business and assets were all packaged into the newly established Jiangxi Qiyunshan Food Co., Ltd., pressing the “rebirth of the old factory” start button. Meanwhile, the Chongyi Food Factory itself quietly exited actual operations around 2000.

After the restructuring, Qiyunshan formed a stable governance model of “family + old officials.” The core management team is led by the two brothers, Liu Zhigao and Liu Jiyan: the elder brother Liu Zhigao holds overall responsibility as chairman of the board and general manager; the younger brother Liu Jiyan focuses on technology and quality control as vice chairman of the board.

This image may be AI-generated

Image source: Canned food database

In the early years, other veteran employees became a community of sharing risks and sharing benefits. Vice chairman of the board, executive director, and general manager of the marketing center Zhu Fangyong, executive director Yang Yulan, and manager of the department of quality and technology management Ling Huashan, as well as vice general manager Huang Zhongming, all came from the old core team of the former food factory.

Zhu Fangyong served as deputy factory director of Chongyi Food Factory from January 1991 to July 1994 and also from June 1995 onward; Yang Yulan joined Chongyi Food Factory in February 1990 as a finance staff member; Ling Huashan has been in charge of the Chongyi Food Factory warehouse since March 1997; and Huang Zhongming joined Chongyi Food Factory in July 1995 as a production worker.

With these four veteran employees plus Liu Zhigao and his brother Liu Jiyan, the six core management members signed a concerted action agreement and together formed the company’s actual controllers.

After the two layers of equity are traced through, the six core management members achieved a high level of control over the company through two major shareholders.

Currently, Qiyunshan’s two major shareholders are Chongyi Food Factory (holding 75%) and Yunzhishang Limited Partnership (holding 25%), and both are funded by the internal management team and original employees.

Tracing through, the six core management members occupy core positions in both two-tier shareholding platforms. In Chongyi Food Factory, Liu Zhigao holds 24.25%, Liu Jiyan holds 14.69%, and Zhu Fangyong, Yang Yulan, Ling Huashan, and Huang Zhongming hold 22.03%, 3.13%, 2.65%, and 2.04%, respectively. Together, the six control 68.79% of the equity. In Yunzhishang Limited Partnership, the six are also all included, with shareholding ratios of 16.46%, 11.89%, 12.8%, 7.93%, 8.51%, and 10.73% in order. After tracing it all the way around, the six together control 68.32% of the equity.

This image may be AI-generated

Image source: Canned food database

According to the prospectus, Qiyunshan has cumulatively paid dividends of 38.8 million yuan during the reporting period. Among them, the company’s 2024 final dividend was 20.3 million yuan, accounting for 38.2% of net profit for that year. Bo Wenxi believes that pre-IPO high-percentage dividend payments are not illegal in Hong Kong listed markets, but they can easily trigger investors’ doubts about the necessity of the fund-raising.

It is worth noting that in addition to being Qiyunshan’s controlling shareholder, Chongyi Food Factory also holds 58.41% of Qiyunshan’s equity, and the remaining 41.59% is held by two natural persons, Liu Xianliang and Chen Wenqing. Neither of them works at Qiyunshan nor holds equity.

This company’s main business is camellia oil. From 2023 to 2025, revenue grew from 20.3 million yuan to 29.9 million yuan, and net profit also increased steadily from 7 million yuan to 13 million yuan. However, the prospectus clearly states that Qiyunshan is focused on making sour hawthorn cake and has no plan to acquire this camellia-oil business.

This image may be AI-generated

Image source: Canned food database

But the two companies were not entirely without overlap before. Liu Zhigao previously served as chairman of the board of Qiyunshan’s camellia oil business, and Zhu Fangyong also previously served as its director. Until June 2025, to concentrate resources on developing Qiyunshan, the two, together with another executive Xiao Yihong, resigned from all posts they held at Qiyunshan’s camellia oil business, cutting the ties completely.

From a food factory to an IPO company with 300 million yuan in annual revenue, Liu Zhigao and his brother Liu Jiyan, along with the old core team, have turned a sour hawthorn cake into an IPO. But such questions as reliance on large customers, operating cash flow falling by 98%, and expanding capacity substantially without full utilization… ultimately require the market to cast its vote. Getting the ticket to enter is only the first step; how to carve out a bigger opening in a snack track crowded with giants is the real test for the Liu brothers.

What do you think about Qiyunshan’s IPO? Feel free to leave a comment below to discuss.

Author statement: Personal opinions are for reference only