Hello everyone and thank you for standing by. Welcome to MINISO March quarter 2026 earnings result presentation. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the management prepared remarks, we will host a Q&A session. Before joining the Q&A, please state your name and institution. Please also be reminded the event will be recorded. We provide you English simultaneous translation for this call. Please select your preferred language by clicking Interpretation in the Zoom meeting. We released our Q1 2026 results earlier this year. Now please refer to our IR website. Joining us here today are Mr. Jack Ye, our Founder and CEO, and Mr. Eason Zhang, our CFO. Right before we begin, please refer to the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also apply for this call, as we were making forward-looking statements. Please also note that we're discussing non-IFRS financial measures.
Those measures are extend, reconciled to the most comparable measures reported under IFRS. Also in our filing with SEC and Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Unless otherwise stated, all figures are in CNY. We have already prepared a slide deck for financial operating highlights for today's call. If you are joining through Zoom, you will see the slide now. You can also refer to our IR website after the call. Let me just hand the call to Mr. Jack Ye.
Hello everyone. Welcome to MINISO March quarter 2026 earnings call. In March quarter, the revenue rate grows to CNY 5.7 billion, grow by 28.5%, excluding the high end of our previous guidance. Adjusted net profit, excluding full resting and loss, comes at CNY 630 million, grow by 8%. Operating cash flow grow by 40%. Free cash flow was up by 36%.
I'm not going to read through the financial items one by one. Eason will take you through the detailed numbers and outlook in CFO remarks. I'd like to focus on three areas. First of all, execution of our strategy. I may spend more time here because the details of execution can really tell you where a company is heading to. Secondly, an update on two overseas markets that are of your most concern: Indonesia and the U.S. Thirdly, my view on H2 of this year. Let me just start with strategic execution. Last year, I introduced a store upgrade strategy. We are right on that. MINISO brand store number grow by 280 in China, less than 10% growth, but offline store TPV grow by 25%. The two data tell the story best.
First of all, the share of the pro-rate franchisee base quarter reached the highest level in recent quarters. Franchisees are putting their own money on the line, so their P&L is most honest signal that you can get. The fact that the profitability is a new high tells you that large format store is not asking franchisees to take the risk, but helping them to make money. Secondly, we received thousands of new store applications, half of that requesting for large format or flagship stores. In the past, we have to convince franchisees to open large stores. Today, they're competing for this chance. Such shift is the market's most direct vote for the confidence in our large store format. On April 18, MINISO SPACE and MINISO LAND opened simultaneously at CDF Mall in Sanya.
Duty-free mall has been traditionally taken for luxury and beauty brands, with highest foot traffic density and spending power among the top-tier retail store. The fact that we can move in speak for the brand equity, most importantly, we bring something that people won't be able to take: an immersive IP-driven experience and pop culture to duty-free malls, and translate into incremental foot traffic and time for venue. The real barrier for running a large store isn't capital. It is content density. In a 1,000 square meter space, can you really make the customer want to stay without leaving? This comes to three things we accumulated for one decade. License right over 150 global IPs, a network of 2,000 global suppliers, and a supply chain that fast enough to refresh assortment every week. These are the three that can really make us stand out.
At the same time, we're systematically closing underperforming stores, those open for many years with under 200 square meters. At the same time, we upgrade our franchisee base, removing weaker partners to bring new, strong ones. This is what our store and the channel upgrade strategy is really about. Many people want to know how we have our IP strategy done. This is quite important. In Q1 of this year, we launched an IP operation training program out of our Guangzhou headquarter, bringing together regional manager, store representatives from South China, and functional team. This isn't a classroom-style training. We use our MINISO Land store as a live training ground, breaking down operations in real store environments. The program covers our IP understanding, storytelling, operational execution, and the data capacity, working through everything from underlying logic to hands-on experience. Why it is so important?
Because IP operation is an organizational capacity. It is not a set of SOP. No matter how well a manual is written, if franchisees and your staff just follow it mechanically, the result won't be good. Only when people genuinely understand where IP resonates customer most, that can help our right half strategy. This can turn IP operation from a headquarter story into a muscle memory across the entire network.
On April 8th, we concluded our overseas trip there. The star of this event was Yuyu, a proprietary IP that we built from scratch in-house. The fact that the proprietary IP took center stage is a signal our own IPs are now capable of standing on their own commercially, and the strong order volume from the distributor and overseas customers is the most honest vote of the confidence to our IP and our product. That's more telling than any market result.
YuYu surpassed 100 million RMB in sales within six months of launch. In April, it appeared on Met Gala, the Super Bowl Oscar of the fashion, a stage that has been traditionally for luxury brands and international celebrities. A Chinese original pop toy IP appeared as an accessory along with international stars and was featured as a piece at the event. This is not marketing. YuYu earned its place in the global fashion spotlight on its own merit. From CCTV Spring Festival Gala to Paris Fashion Week to Met Gala in New York, YuYu covered the ground in six months that many IP won't be able to make in 10 years. It's a full stack of the IP capacity from incubation to design to operation and global rollout. YuYu's success is not a coincidence. It's a signal that the proprietary IP strategy is going get into the harvest stage.
In 2023, total overall revenue of MINISO Group exceeded CNY 2 billion, and we also have a great way to extend our business. The success is whether our organizational capacity can keep the pace. Building organizational capacity is what we made a vast investment with. It won't immediately show up in financials, but it's by our long-term development. We have advanced a few things. First of all, standardization. The headquarters has developed operation and merchandising manuals. They deliver video case study and on-site training to ensure consistent understanding and execution across markets. Each market also set up regional management training with regular session for store managers and supervisors. Secondly, would be the benchmark and the rapid replication. When pilot project is selected, once it proves success, we roll out them quickly to other markets.
Thirdly, a membership model, helping experienced operator who deliver result with new comers and continue to have the generation pass on the information. This system means our overseas capacity no longer depends on a single individual. It becomes something that organization can grow on its own. The more market and the store we have, the greater the compounding effect might be. Deep organizational capacity along with IP-driven product, those two things give us strong confidence for our long-term overseas growth. Indonesia and the U.S. are the two markets many of you focused on. Let me give you an update on both. Indonesia has been one of the markets we master product in our international journey. It has truly been so going forward. Winning Indonesia isn't about market. Its young demographic and vibrant consumer environment in the market. We're going to have a long investment.
It also made a demonstration effect for confidence to our global team. We must have made it right. The business reach certain scale, hitting some bumps is entirely normal. The most difficult time is already gone. We already have a clear path forward. Our channel headquarters has set up dedicated negotiation team to proactively pursue primary location and select good locator stores. Our assortment, we have a one size fits all approach. Score on segmentation. Our new product operation headquarters providing direct support to strengthen local IP execution and retail merchandising plan. On the organizational side, we clearly define responsibility. Headquarters lead strategic development, while local team focusing on daily operation. In terms of the membership, we notice that we need to truly make the business from a traffic-driven to repeat purchase-driven. I'd like to spend a few words on membership piece.
We notice Indonesia consumer show a clear spike in store visit at end of each month, which correlates the local payday cycle. We made a payday week membership benefits program. The result was clear. Membership participants was 30.5% higher than during the normal member days. The repeat purchase rate and frequency are all improved. During the Ramadan, we saw participation climb even faster, which tell us this has become a real habit for the consumer. Well, for the first year, Indonesia delivered a solid profit contribution. I believe with our adjustment to event, the profitability in this year would be much better than last year. More importantly, the membership and the repeat purchase become the primary engine for growth. The growth would be even higher. I'm truly confident on Indonesia. Let's also talk about North America, which is another heat.
I have already walked you through the store model and the strategic updates. Today, I'd like to address 2 questions, including tariffs and the consumer behavior under inflationary pressure. I believe those are opportunities for MINISO. First of all, our price band gives us the structure, the advantages. Our core price range in U.S. was around $5-$25. In that range, what drives purchase, emotional connection with IP. I love this, so I buy it. Where at the same time $5-$25 USD is quite alluring, but at the same time, a consumer looking for merchandise of specific IP won't walk away because of the small price increase. The tariffs and inflation translate directly into price elasticity. However, for us, we don't apply that the same way. Secondly, MINISO Supply chain capacity is being further upgraded.
From building a localized and specialized merchandising team, we're improving the entire supply chain, including product, strategy, and the supplier development. With strong cross-functional and the supply chain collaboration, we have launched our first SAL program, which can help to improve our supply capacity. Our goal can really support the U.S. business development. We operate in 120 countries and regions worldwide. Any successful store model from one market, proven IP playbook, could be quickly adopted worldwide. At the same time, the stable cash flow and scale economy can also give us the confidence and resources to invest in the U.S. The global complementary framework is not there for our competitors. Carriage and inflation are cyclical and short-term variable. They come, and they go. Where consumer demand over emotional IP experience is structural, it doesn't appear with micro volatility.
For strong companies, cyclical pressure is also the growth opportunity. This force is going to accelerate industrial shakeout and let truly differentiated brands stand out. In U.S., we are that differentiated brand. Let me just attend to TOP TOY now. In first quarter 2026, TOP TOY revenue grew by 51%. Net store grew by 21, reaching 355, 360 in China, and 79 overseas. In Q1 of this year, we launched a new proprietary IP, Xiao Yu, Daidai, and Bao Long Long. Along with proprietary IP same stores, together with Nomi, TOP TOY portfolio of proprietary IP stand out. The portfolio products become more mature. Our proprietary IP is being validated by the market. By the end of this month, we'll announce Zhao Lusi as TOP TOY's global brand ambassador. Her influence and recognition among young consumer will help us accelerate and reach more young consumer.
Coming next, let me just walk you through my H2 outlook. There are four drivers. First of all, membership is the most important lever for our same-store sales growth. The data tells a clear story. For full year 2026, member contributed 60% of the total sales. In Q1 of 2026, this number rose to 73%. In other words, nearly three-quarters of MINISO China business are coming from our members. There are two structural shifts behind that. I see that consumer accounted for 79% of the total sales for us. Are two highlights. First of all, contribution from repeated purchases continue to grow. In Q1 of this year, repurchase has already accounted for 60% of the member sales. New member acquisition is also accelerating.
In the first purchase contribution from the new members rose from 6% to 11% in Q1, which tell us when we convert new consumers into members, the quality of those new members are also improving. When more than 70% of your business revenue are coming from the consumers you can directly reach and engage, the growth shifts from being opportunity-driven to system-driven. That's the underlying logic behind our confidence why we are there for repeat purchase and ARPU expansion in H2. Secondly, benefit our channel upgrade already started to come through. For the full year, we plan to open close to 500 large format stores, with MINISO Land and flagship store making up increasing share. Certainly, North America and Europe set to enter into harvest phase in H2. The new store we opened in U.S. and Canada was of high quality.
This cohort will reach maturity and deliver high-quality same-store sales growth and margin improvement. 2026 is the year with highest density of IP. As we move into summer peak season, we have a very strong pipeline of major IP collection launch lined up. We could see some return this quarter from our earlier investment in the AI space. I firmly believe that we surprise lies in the efficiency gain AI can bring to our core business. Strong management capacity get amplified by AI, and the technology dividend from AI will flow first to organizations that already have high execution discipline and a very strong learning capacity. I surely believe we're going to continue to leverage AI to really support organizations who already have a very strong learning capacity.
For me and for my team, we are improving our understanding over AI and also continue to develop AI. What is MINISO? MINISO is a high-density operating organization, launch thousands of new SKUs every year, manage over 8,000 stores, and extends more than 100 markets and regions. For an organization like us, the drive for efficiency is our DNA. On the product development side, AI is supporting the trend forecasting and the assortment decision. On marketing, AI can improve our efficiency in content production and the customer stratification. On operation side, our smart floor system are helping us managing foot traffic by time and day. We approach change with a sense of humility. We see AI as an amplifier, amplifying the supply chain advantage, product development speed, and operational precision that MINISO already has. Recently, we also would like to leverage AI to forecast the product need.
In that way, we will be able to improve the customer loyalty. Those are the two prepared remarks I have for you. Now, I'm going to welcome Eason to walk you through the financials. Thank you.
Thanks, Jack. Welcome, everyone, to today's call. Please allow me to walk you through our financial result of this quarter. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are in RMB. Let's take a look at the completions of guidance. Let me just start by reviewing how we performed against the guidance we provided on the March earnings call. We delivered on every metric we guided for this quarter. Revenue. Group revenue was grown by 28.5%, which is higher than the 25% we made for the previous quarter. I will break down the growth driver by business unit later in my remarks. On same-store sales.
In Q1, MINISO China Mainland delivered high single-digit same-store sales growth, where North America delivered mid-double-digit same-store growth. The two strategic priority markets maintained a very strong momentum we saw in Q4 of 2025, driving group same-store growth to a mid-single digit number. It is worth mentioning, Europe and Latin America also delivered positive same-store sales growth in Q1. The trend will be continued in Q2. Let's also take a look at the top line. In Q1 of 2026, group GMV reached CNY 10.1 billion, grew by 26%. Total revenue grew by 28.5%, reaching CNY 5.7 billion. Let's break down by brand. MINISO Brand revenue was CNY 5.17 billion in Q1, up by 26.6%. MINISO China Mainland was CNY 3.23 billion, up by 29.6%. MINISO China Mainland continued to perform exceptionally well.
This was the fourth year-over-year growth rate in the past nine quarters, and the fifth consecutive quarter of accelerated growth following Q4 of 2025. The success of our China business validates our strategic direction is right, our operating playbook is solid. We will use China experience as our benchmark, use this proven operating experience to drive breakthroughs in international business, turning China's success into a powerful engine for overseas growth.
MINISO overseas revenue was CNY 1.94 billion, grew by 22%. TOP TOY revenue was CNY 510 million, grew by 51.4%, continued a very strong growth trajectory. Let's take a look at same-store sales. In Q1 of this year, Mainland China delivered strong same-store sales growth with high single-digit growth number. MINISO overseas, including the third-party distributor, also delivered solid low single-digit growth. Looking ahead, we will continue to strengthen our same store across three dimensions, people, product, and stores. First of all, people.
We leverage in-store traffic data to capture peak hours, regularly run in-store engagement activities, capitalizing on peak occasions like Mother's Day, 520 Lover's Day, and Children's Day, and the Dragon Boat Festival to drive traffic through online to offline activation. On the other side, we use internal mechanisms such as in-store competitions for the best in-class mentoring to continue to improve our operation capacity. At the same time, as Jack here has already mentioned, the value of our domestic membership system continued to be unlocked. In Q1 of 2026, members' contribution to the sales growth from 60% to 73% this quarter. Empowered by our large store and IP strategy, we continued to acquire new customers and use refined operations to close the loop from acquisition to retention and repeat purchase.
In the near future, we will leverage AI capacity plus membership data to make sure we continue to have the demand forecast, the precision targeting, and the channel iteration continue to drive the same-store growth number. Second, let me talk about the product. We continue to align category with seasonal and holiday consumption trend, use hero SKUs to drive a structural upgrade in the personal sales mix. In H1 of this year, our IP preparation has broke through across diversified categories, covering high-value IP for K-pop superstar brand JENNIE, the Sweetworld brand growth, and classic lifestyle aesthetic TASC season. This fully validates the connectivity of our global IP platform. In H2 of this year, we're going to heavily launch the World Cup collections, Chiikawa plus Sunbear collaborations, and the Toy Story movie. The hero IP will help to drive the high attachment rate. Secondly, our store.
We continue to upgrade the store display and visual identity. In Q1 of this year, we completed renovation to around 80 stores. The average daily sales improved by more than 50% post renovation. The result validates the effectiveness of the model strategy. We will continue to make it right. Let me also talk about our store network. At the end of this quarter, we have already more than 8,500 stores. MINISO, we have 8,210 stores worldwide, a net increase of 722 stores. MINISO China store number grew by 380, where overseas we net added 404 stores, reaching 3,670 stores by the quarter end. TOP TOY have 875 stores, with 355 stores by the quarter end. 39 are located outside China.
In Q1 of this year, we opened high-quality theme park, for example, MINISO Land and MINISO Space in Sanya CDF Mall, MINISO Land in Grandview Mall in Guangzhou, MINISO Land in Dongmen and Shenzhen, as well as MINISO FRIENDS in IAPM Mall in Shanghai. By the end of this quarter, the Space, Land, and FRIENDS stores reached 44 in total. In this quarter, we're going to have the SUPER MINISO, a new theme park lineup, bringing the total to 61 by the quarter end, covering 32 cities across China. Together, theme park stores, flagship ones, and the large store ones accounting for 12% of the total store count contributed 30% of the sales. We expect to roll out more better theme park stores by the end of this year and deliver a joyful and unique shopping experience to our user. Let's talk about our GP margin.
GP margin was 43.3% for Q1 compared with 44.2% in the same year last year. We have a 0.9 percentage point decline due to three reasons. First of all, high-margin overseas business represents a small share of the total group revenue. Secondly, the return of the value-for-money assortment in China. Disciplined pricing has translated into higher volume. Thirdly, an increasing mix from our new domestic product, like the quick commerce stores, which are still in a margin ramp-up stage. Let's also take a look at expenses. The total operating expense, excluding SBC, grew by 34% in Q1. The total expense ratio was 29.2%, compared with 28% in Q1 last year. Within that, selling expense grew by 37.7%. The selling expense ratio was 24.5%, up by 1.6 percentage points. G&A expenses grew by 17.4%, slower than the revenue growth, representing 4.7% of the revenue, a decline of 0.4 percentage point.
The growth of the selling expense was primarily driven by investment in operating store licensing fees and advertising and promotion activities. First of all, in Q1, the revenue from direct operating stores grew by 50% YoY, while related expense grew by 35%, demonstrating an ongoing optimization in our DTC store-level economics. Direct store-related investment include staffing, rent-related expenses, depreciation, and amortization. Secondly, advertising and commercial expenses grew by 74%, accounted for 3% of the revenue. That was mainly because of the brand upgrade initiative and the proprietary IP marketing. We invest in brand awareness to reach a broader consumer base, reflecting our strategic investment in building brand equity. Thirdly, logistics expense grew by 43.5%, stably representing between 1.5%-2% of the revenue. Fourthly, licensing fee grew by 42% in this quarter, in line with our strategic investment in IP development, stably representing 2.4%-2.6% of the revenue.
The growth of the G&A expense was primarily due to higher staffing cost. In line with our business expansion, G&A grew slower than revenue. Let's also take a look at other net gains. As being talked with many of you, for the previous quarter four, in Q1, we recorded a large investment gain with other net income related to our direct investment in an AI company. Following that company's recent IPO and meaningful share price appreciation, we recorded RMB 870 million in fair value gains. I'd like to remind all of you, the management doesn't view this type of gain as reflective of our profit and the core operating business, so it's been excluded from adjusted operating profit and adjusted net profit. In addition, the line item also include net foreign exchange gains and losses.
With forex volatility in Q1, we record a net forex loss of more than CNY 8 million in this quarter, which going to impact our margin by 1.5%. Generally speaking, our forex exposure may come in from the holding foreign currency-dominated assets, for example, cash equivalents, or receivables, or carrying foreign currency-dominated liabilities such as our USD-dominated convertible bonds. In Q1, the forex losses mainly come from the intercompany receivables from our subsidiaries in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Indonesia. The forex gains and losses don't reflect the true operational performance of our core business. As the share of our DTC business continue to grow, the impact of the forex will also increase. The guidance we're going to provide you will exclude the forex impact. Well, for non-IFRS, there will be some item need to be adjusted.
I listed it here for you, including six. The first one is equity settled Share-Based Compensation, SBC. SBC expense in Q1 was CNY 510 million, an increase of CNY 84 million because of the top line. The second one is gain from the indirect investment in our AI company. This is actually a non-IFRS with an investment of CNY 817 million represent unrealized and the mark-to-market gains arising from the change in the fair value.
The third one is losses from the fair value change in derivatives and the issuance of the cost related to convertible bonds. By the beginning of last year, there will be a one-time insurance fees that won't occur this quarter. In Q1, the interest expense on convertible notes was CNY 50.4 million, of which CNY 45.7 million are non-cash. The actual cash interest paid by the company for this convertible note was only CNY 4.7 million.
Interest expense on the loan used to acquire our stake in YH was CNY 23 million. In Q1 for YH, the performance was truly good. The net profit was CNY 290 million as we hold 29.4% of the equity stake in YH. We recognize approximately CNY 77 million in income from YH in Q1, and we also have the change in carrying value of the redemption liabilities arising from the preferred shares. All those items will be excluded from adjusted net profit.
Effective tax rate was 24.9%, which was 20% last year. Let's take a look at the profitability. I was talking about adjusted operating profit. Adjusted operating profit, excluding the net forex loss, grow 40.3% reaching CNY 840 million in this quarter. The adjusted operating margin, excluding the net forex loss, was 40.7% compared with 60.6% in the same period of last year. Let me just walk you through the gap.
First of all, gross margin declined by 0.9% YoY. The total operating expense, excluding SBC, grew by 1.2% YoY. The above partially offsetted by other items, resulting in a total impact of 1.8 percentage point on the adjusted operating margin. It's been declined from 16.6% to 40.7%. As you can see that for this quarter, the increase in our overall expense ratio was increased significantly compared with the previous quarters, where for the full year, we aim to well control the expense ratio and continue to stabilize the GP margin. In other words, we are going to stabilize the operating profit margin for the company as a whole. In H2 of this year, as a peak sales season of the overseas market continue to approach, we are going to honor our commitment for this goal.
Regarding working capital, by the end of Q1 of 2026, the inventory turnover was 101 compared with 102 days in the same period of last year. MINISO China managed inventory turnover was at 67 compared with 83 last year. MINISO overseas inventory was 254. That was 208 last year. The increase of overseas inventory was primarily driven through the inventory build-up ahead of the store opening. The second one is due to the logistics instabilities. In some strategic market, we have a more flexible supply chain management strategies, increase the safety stock in overseas market. Over the time, there will be significant room to optimize overseas inventory turnover. Let's also take a look at the cash flow, liquidity, and capital allocation. By the end of this quarter, our cash position stood at CNY 7.05 billion, remaining healthy.
In April and May of this year, we distributed dividends over $160 million, bringing our cumulative shareholder return to CNY 6.23 billion. We believe our share price is currently significantly below its intrinsic value. Jack has already announced by the end of April, he intends to increase his shareholding. The company also planned to conduct share buybacks based on the market condition. Going forward, we will continue to maintain disciplined cost control and prudent working management. We are balancing the growth with a delivery stable and predictable returns to the shareholders. Last but not least, let me just give you the outlook. Standing here by the end of May, we are highly confident in achieving the full year target. We expect for the full year 2026, the revenue we're going to have a high double-digit growth. Three-year compound growth rate would be no less than 22%.
Full year net store addition would be 450-500. Jack has already mentioned, we're going to pay more attention to the quality of the development. 450-500 net store increase would be adjusted as we continue to balance the quality of the store. However, overall speaking, we are still very confident in hitting our target. Regarding the same-store performance, MINISO China and North America, we hope we can continue a positive same-store sales growth. Excluding forex gains and losses, we expect adjusted net profit growth to accelerate compared with 2025 on full year basis. While the overseas macro environment presents significant challenges, our expectation for the first half operating readout remain unchanged. We believe the revenue will grow by 20%-22%. Net store addition will be 210-230. The MINISO China same-store sales maintain a mid-single digit positive growth.
North America same-store sales maintain a high single-digit to low double-digit growth. That concludes my prepared remarks. I'm happy to take your questions. Thank you.
Thanks for Eason, thanks for Jack. All the investors and analysts, please state your name to have your name and the institution you represent. Please make sure you only raise one question each time. Let's first of all welcome Michelle from Goldman Sachs to raise the first question.
Hello, Jack and Eason. Thanks for giving me the chance to raise a question. Congratulations for the company of having a good performance despite the challenges. My question was regarding overseas markets. They're being touched upon by Jack Yan. You see the crude oil price have risen and stay elevated. Could the management team share with us what is the demand from the key overseas market?
What would be the distributor order, pricing, cost of goods sold, and the transportation and the logistics? What are the impacts on your business, and what would be your response strategies? If in the next few quarter, there are some key upside and downside risks, which are the market and factors that you are most associated with? Are there any market that's going to have a huge fluctuation, and what are the market you're confident on? Thank you.
Thank you very much. A very good question. Let me help to address this question. First of all, on product mix. While systematically laying out the share of the high-margin categories. Proprietary IP product and IP collaboration limited edition are key focus. We also started to pursue narrowing but deeper strategy, concentrating on the true hero product and proactively on the tailor and SKUs.
Fewer categories, but a greater operating depth and efficiency in each. This is, in itself, the most direct way to hedge against cost pressure. On the supply chain, we have extended the raw material stocking circle from the SKU from two months to three to four months, locking the cost ahead of the time. End-to-end stocking price is still stable, gives us sufficient buffer. For U.S. market, over the past two weeks, we started the differentiated price tags, taking price first on high frequency, high velocity items. For example, like a bottom to water and a T-shirt. On the bottom now, we see GP margin already improved compared with April. The price increase roll out further. We believe that U.S. GP margin would continue to stay stable or even go up.
Looking ahead into the next three quarters, the upside risks include successful execution of the pricing adjustment, structural margin improvement, the rising mix of proprietary IP, as well as the logistics cost pressure from the sustained high crude oil and potential pressure on the ticket size if the consumer sentiment is certain continue to go weaken. Overall speaking, we're still very proactive for cost management.
Thank you very much. Thanks for Jack.
Coming next, let me just welcome Samuel from UBS. The line is open for you, please.
Thank you. Thanks for Jack Ye, and thanks for Ethan, and thanks for Christina. I have a question regarding your Indonesia and Mexico market. I heard a few remarks from Jack Yan regarding the Indonesia market outlook, but let me just ask you a follow-up question. What are the same-store sales and the overall sales trends in Indonesia and Mexico over the past two months in April and May? What is your strategy for both market, especially Mexico? How should you comment on the sales and profit growth outlook for both market in 2026? Thank you.
Thank you. I think I have already covered Indonesia market. Let me talk about Mexico. The Mexico trend was positive. Same-store sales already turned positive. Latin America are also delivering positive growth. From April to May, same-store sales improved meaningfully. Strategically speaking, we're going to work on channel upgrade. Mexico used to be dominated by small stores under 300 square meters. This year, we're going to roll out another store. Larger store not only means a larger floor footage.
It represent a comprehensive upgrade on IP density and dwell time to improve the higher ticket size and repeat purchase. Our largest store practice in China is fully validated. We're going to have it in Mexico now. Looking to the full year, Mexico, the same-store sales should maintain positive. New store benefit as the channel upgrade would be visible in H2. Latin America has a substantial consumption power and the fragmented competitive landscape. As long as we open right store and execute IP operation well, the market is still quite promising. For Mexico, we're going to have larger stores starting from H2 of this year. We really look forward to its performance. Thank you.
Thanks for Samuel, and thanks for Jack. Let's welcome Anne from Jefferies.
Thank you. Thanks for Christina.
I have a question regarding the mainland China market. As you can see that generally speaking, social retail data is not looking right. However, as I was talking to the expert, we found out MINISO store, your performance is much better than other peers. Is it possible for you to share with us, are there any strategic updates that you can share with us? What are we going to do next? Just now, we have already mentioned some of our franchisees, they're happy to open the large stores. Can I just kindly ask you, are there any capital support we provided to our franchisees? Any strategies you have on the China market we'd happy to hear.
Thank you very much. Let's talk about renovation progress. We renovated around 80 stores this quarter with clear result.
Average daily sales increased by 50% post renovation, validating the effectiveness of our store upgrade strategy. For 2026, we plan to renovate more than 300 stores, we need to do it in a phased pace and a proactive intervention way. In other words, open big, close small, open good, and close weak. Transferring those aging undersized stores into new store formats with place to emphasize on evaluating the visual identities, standard display, IP experience mix, and to have efficient renovation strategy. Let's also talk about franchisee profitability and paybacks from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026. The share of the profit franchisee store continued to go up. The GP margin continued to expand. On payback period, larger store are meaningfully higher than the store level profitability.
For some of the best performing MINISO LAND store can even achieve a payback within 6 months, compared with around 18 months for the standardized stores. In 2026, we continue to reinforce the franchisees their understanding over the large stores. We received some positive feedback from many of our large store franchisees. About 50% of the new store application received by the headquarters are for large store format. The feedback indicate the franchisees are increasingly willing to invest in large store renovation. It also reinforce the importance of our strategic shift towards improving per store quality. Thank you.
Thank you, Anne. Coming next. Let's welcome Yang Runbo from CICC please.
Hi, Jack and Eason. I have a question regarding Mainland China this season. As we can see in April and May, the micro consumption data in China is still fluctuating. I'd like to ask the management team, in terms of the foot traffic and willingness to spend, are there any change? What trend are you observing across different city tiers and consumer cohorts?
Same-store average daily order volume and average ticket size are both going up. The ticket size is approaching CNY 14. There's one driver that is becoming more important for our China growth, that is membership operation. It's most important strategy we have. A high quality, highly engaged membership system provide more predictable growth with strong resilience going through the industrial circle. The data tell us very clearly, members spend at a meaningful higher than the non-members. The higher the share of the member sales, the higher the quality and predictability of the overall business might be. For the past few months, our membership ratio increased from 60% to more than 70%, driven primarily by new consumer acquisition.
In H1 of this year, we'd like to work on the member acquisition. In H2, we will focus on repeated purchase. When the two are combining together, it can help to complete a membership growth flywheel. Taking a look at the city tiers, we observed some positive trend. Consumption potential being unlocked for all tiers. Same-store sales are all positive for all city levels. Provincial capitals are driven by large store as well as top level IP. Tier cities are driven by potential penetration and customer acquisition. The growth was pretty healthy during the Chinese New Year. We roll out the trendy toys to the countryside strategy, bringing MINISO IP product and the same product experience to county level market, and which can help us to have the same-store sales in county level reach double-digit number.
This tells us emotional demand for IP and the trendy toys cover a much broader audience. Young people in county, they also have the same demand. They simply don't have the shelf and adequate supply before. This can also see MINISO brand has already covered different consumer cohorts. The depth of the China market is far greater than what is being generally appreciated by the market.
Coming next, let's welcome Xu Xiaofang from Citic please. Okay. We may move to the next question first. Let's welcome Shi Di from Huatai Securities first.
I don't know if you hear me.
Yes, great. Loud and clear. Thank you.
I'm Shi Di from Huatai Securities. I have a question regarding the same-store sales in China. We see in Q1 of this year, the company did a good performance on same-store sales. In the next few quarters, the baseline was being elevated. How are you going to comment on the same-store base rising and the subsequent quarter performance? What strategies and tactics are in place to sustain the same-store growth?
You're right, the baseline is indeed rising, but we have a clear and a systematic strategy in place. Let me just share with you a few data. During the May Labor Festival, domestic sales grew by a high double-digit number, outpacing major competitors. Average daily sales hit an all-time high, even higher than daily average during the Chinese New Year holidays earlier this year. We see some third-party data show us foot traffic was under pressure during the May Day holiday, but our store, the entry level improved by 4.1%. Average personal traffic also grow, means we drove traffic against the headwinds. By categories, toys, digital accessories, and travel categories delivered 25% growth, which is a hard-earned result.
For sustaining same-store growth, we have the following strategy. For IP preparation, we continue to deliver differentiated and high-frequency launches. For example, with the global exclusive license for F1 plus Disney collaboration. In May through June, there will be a few gifting seasons with Mother's Day, Children's Day, Father's Day, and 520 Lover's Day. We have already built a dedicated assortment and event plan according the gifting data to improve average ticket size. For operating, we also roll out the foot traffic contest at a store, and to further empower our store. The supply chain also continue to improve. Even during the May Day holiday, we can unlock the sales window. Even if the baseline is going up, we have a diversified toolkit, and we are confident we continue to deliver strong same-store performance. Thank you.
Thanks for Jack. Madam Xu, are you there from CICC? Can you unmute yourself for questions?
Yes. Christina, thank you. I have to say sorry, there might be some technical issue with my line. Jack, listen. Good afternoon. I have a question regarding your proprietary IP. For the past few six months, we see that your proprietary IP started to show up in your store media and the lower cities. The design's been quite interesting. Is it possible for you to share with us your proprietary IP, for example, Yuyu as well as the pipelines?
Thank you. A radical question, let me elaborate on that. Third-party licensed IP and proprietary IP, since selling the same product, the logic would be different. Let's talk about the GP margin. Proprietary IP product have a high margin compared with licensed IP, the underlying logic matter the most. Proprietary IP is most exclusive and absolutely differentiated.
If you want to sustain the GP margin, you need to have a proprietary IP. The pricing power, operating elasticity, and the entire value chain of the proprietary IP sits fully in our hands. It also provides long-term high margin mode. You need to think about how to diversify the monetization model. A mature proprietary IP isn't sell product. You can sub-license it to the third party. You operate across multiple formats, and it can also drive content production and upgrading the IP capacity. Those are all extreme high-margin business model that compound over time. Yuyu appearance on the red carpet and entry in professional way reflect build up the brand value rather than sell product only. We're building our proprietary IP. We're building a business model on an entirely differentiated style. That is most important upgrade for MINISO long-term profit structure. Thank you.
Thanks for Jack. Coming next, let's welcome Mr. Ting from Changjiang Securities, please.
Thank you. Thanks for the management team. I'm Ting Yang from Changjiang Securities. I have a question regarding the Europe business. It seems the business growth in Europe is quite fast, and you are still in the investment phase. Europe is a big market for you to explore. Can I ask Guofu Ye here, can you share your view on the long-term opportunities in Europe and the specific strategy plan? For the mid and the short run, what would be the pace of the store investment in Europe this year, the profit quality of the new stores, and what would be the change of the margin for the store? Thank you.
Europe has delivered continued positive same-store sales growth this year, with the leading category being trendy toys categories, for example, like the Blita Brush and the Blind Box. This is also the reason for us to go for international expansion. We're not bringing in product others already selling. We're rather bringing the consumption scenario of IP trendy toys, open new demand. Channel upgrades are progressing in parallel. The store will roll out in Q1 of this year. Regarding the profitability, Poland and Germany are strong proof point. Both directly operated stores have outperformed expectation. The store-level and marked-out or operating margin reached double digits. The Germany overall operating margin for us more than 10 stores has already stabilized with double digits. Other markets are ramping up. Q1 is traditional the earth season for retail. It is also the best window to prepare for new store opening.
Our long-term profitability target for Europe is DTCSKGermany has already achieved that. Other markets will follow up. Europe is a market with long-term cultivation. We have the patience and we have a clear pathway there. Thank you.
Thanks for Jack Ye, and thanks to Mr. Ting for the question. Coming next, let's welcome Wu Chenxi from Guotai Haitong. The line is open, please.
Thank you. Jack , Eason, and Christina, thanks for giving me the chance. I have a question regarding U.S. It says that you operate the largest store format in U.S. for quite a while. Is it possible for you to walk us through the operational details as well as the operational result? We can see that, what would be the purchase frequency of your U.S. members? Is it improved as you roll out large stores?
Thank you, Ms. Wu. As I was emphasizing again, that is what we are doing now. For the past two to three years, MINISO continued to build up our non-U.S. consumer goods, the largest DTC network in the local area. Starting from January of 2024, we started to explore the large store. Before that, you say that we entered into U.S. market in 2017. By then, majority of our stores are located in U.S. shopping malls. From January of 2024, we started to have our bottom-proof stores being opened, and we started to build our understanding of a buzzer. By the beginning of this year, Javier went to U.S. to tour around our stores. We find out our buzzer store has already moved into a 2.0 version time. What does 2.0 version mean? Our 2.0 version store is not picky about the business district at all.
You can say that for our good and large buzzer stores, even in an average business district, its store sales and efficiency per square meter is still been looking right. Compared with the 1.0 version buzzer store, the 2.0 version are actually showing better profitabilities. We have already provided you a single store profit model in the U.S. Generally speaking, for a single store, the payback takes around one year in the U.S., where for the 2.0 version store, the payback period is being controlled within one year. Well, for MINISO, we are committed for the long-term business, and we stick to the long-term investment. For the 2.0 version store, and it provide above expectation single store performance, and it is also sustained and continued with improvement.
In other words, in the near future, our U.S. 2.0 version store can be rolled out to more cities and more business districts. It's a proven success, which can help us to continue to unlock its potential in the U.S. market. The second question, you were talking about the sales data from our members. In China, we have a very mature and well-established CRM operation system. In that way, we will be able to extend our success China membership management to the U.S. For the past one year, the sales growth from our U.S. members has been quite significant. The China started to do membership in 2018, and in 2021, the membership sales exceed half of our total business. We made five years making membership spending accounted for half of our revenue, where in the U.S., we only spent one year to make that happen.
We can also see the repurchase rate of the U.S. consumer is no less than that of the Chinese members. That's the reason. We believe we're going to have a very healthy store efficiency this year, and we have every confidence for that. Thank you.
Thanks for Jack Ye, and thanks for Eason. Thanks for all the investors and analysts for your questions. Thanks for everyone to be a part of our earnings call. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact my team. Thanks for your attention this call for MINISO. See you next quarter.