Plunge 51%! The first stock of 'medical aesthetic masks' reports a bomb!

The "first stock of medical aesthetic masks" suffered a performance bomb.

On the evening of August 21, the beauty company Fuerjia released its 2025 interim report, which showed that Fuerjia achieved revenue of 863 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.15%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 230 million yuan, a sharp drop of 32.54% year-on-year; and net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 166 million yuan, a significant decline of 48.66% year-on-year, nearly halving.

From the financial report data, it can be seen that in the first half of 2025, Fuerjia's business performance showed a comprehensive decline. Among them, the net profit of Fuerjia in the first half of 2025 experienced the largest year-on-year drop, and the revenue showed a high single-digit decline for the first time in nearly five years.

Regarding the reasons for the revenue decline, Fuerjia stated in the financial report that the company optimized its offline channels during the reporting period. The main reason for the decline in net profit was the continuous increase in promotional expenses.

According to the financial report, in the first half of this year, Fuerjia's sales expenses surged to 420 million yuan, a significant increase of 39.56% year-on-year, accounting for 48.67% of revenue. In contrast, the company's R&D investment in the first half was only 23 million yuan, accounting for only 2.7% of revenue.

This means that in the face of fierce market competition, Fuerjia spent heavily on promotion in the first half of the year but still could not reverse the decline in revenue. To some extent, this reflects Fuerjia's current path dependence and strategic dilemma.

Affected by this, on August 22, Fuerjia's stock price once fell by more than 2%, and finally closed down 1.38%. On the same day, the A-share market surged across the board, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising 1.45% to stand above 3,800 points, and the ChiNext Index rising more than 3%.

If we look at a longer time period, Fuerjia's stock price has continued to weaken since its listing in August 2023. As of the close on the 22nd, it was reported at 27.17 yuan, a cumulative drop of 51.2% compared to the issue price, with a total market value evaporation of more than 14.8 billion yuan.

This once highly sought-after "first stock of medical aesthetic masks" in the capital market is now facing dual pressures of performance and valuation.

Competition Intensity in the Cosmetics Track

According to public information, Fuerjia is a professional skin care product company. With its first-mover advantage in the field of medical dressings, it quickly rose to become a star company in the beauty industry. The company's main products include medical device dressings and cosmetics such as masks, toners, essences, and lotions, forming a product system driven by Class II medical device products suitable for mild to moderate acne, promoting wound healing and skin repair, and various forms of functional skin care products.

The latest financial report shows that in the first half of this year, medical devices contributed 238 million yuan in revenue, accounting for 27.61% of total revenue, a sharp drop of 48.07% year-on-year; cosmetics revenue was 625 million yuan, accounting for 72.39%, a year-on-year increase of 29.95%.

The gross profit margins of Fuerjia's two major categories both exceeded 80%. Among them, the gross profit margin of medical devices increased by 2.93% year-on-year to 84.22%, while the gross profit margin of cosmetics decreased by 1.11% year-on-year to 80.42%.

This also indicates that the competition in the cosmetics industry is becoming increasingly fierce, with leading companies aggressively entering fields such as medical aesthetics, launching a series of medical aesthetic brands, and price wars intensifying.

According to the total retail sales of consumer goods data for January-March released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of cosmetics in China in the first quarter of this year reached 114.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%. Looking at the total retail sales of consumer goods data for the same period released by the National Bureau of Statistics over the past five years, the total retail sales of cosmetics in the first quarter of this year hit a new high, but the year-on-year growth rate declined. This reflects that cosmetics companies above the designated size are undergoing structural adjustments.

This situation is obviously unfavorable for Fuerjia, as cosmetics contribute more than 70% of its revenue.

Facing the worsening competitive situation, Fuerjia, which started with medical dressings, revealed in its financial report that in terms of product layout, it will continue to deepen the fields of Class II and Class III medical devices, continuously expand its product line, and focus on promoting the R&D innovation, production transformation, and registration of skin improvement and injection medical devices.

In addition, the financial report data shows that Fuerjia is still highly dependent on the development of the "Fuerjia" brand, and its product lines and sales revenue are concentrated in patch products. In the context of economic downturn and the company's dual decline in profit and revenue, it urgently needs to create a second growth curve.

In response to this, Fuerjia also revealed in its financial report that in the future, it will focus on the cultivation of sub-brands, simultaneously implement the "Fuerjia" brand upgrade and flexible and diversified marketing strategies to effectively respond to market competition challenges.

Burning Money and Betting on Online Channels

It is worth noting that Fuerjia has long relied heavily on offline distribution channels. To improve this situation, the company proposed in 2024 to increase investment in live e-commerce and launch new actions such as "cooperation with top live broadcast rooms" and "self-broadcast content delivery."

Looking at Fuerjia's sales situation on the channel side from 2022 to 2024, offline channel sales and proportions have shrunk year by year, while the scale of online channels has expanded year by year, and in 2024, the proportion exceeded 50% for the first time.

In the first half of 2025, Fuerjia's online channels contributed revenue of 695 million yuan, accounting for 80.50%, a year-on-year increase of 47.11%; offline channels contributed revenue of 168 million yuan, with the proportion dropping from 49.74% to 19.50%, a sharp decline of 63.99% year-on-year.

Fuerjia's online channels are divided into direct sales, distribution, and consignment. Online direct sales mainly refer to its official flagship stores on major e-commerce platforms, with revenue of 536 million yuan in the first half of this year, accounting for 62.12%; offline channels are almost entirely distribution, covering medical aesthetic clinics, cosmetics specialty stores, large supermarkets, and chain pharmacies.

With the change in sales strategy, the price Fuerjia has paid is also very high. The financial report shows that in the first half of 2025, Fuerjia's promotional and advertising expenses increased significantly by 39.56% to 420 million yuan, far exceeding the growth rate of revenue.

Fuerjia explained in the financial report that this was mainly due to the increase in personnel salaries and the increase in promotional expenses during the reporting period.

Considering the current trend of the cosmetics industry moving online, Fuerjia's transformation still seems somewhat lagging.

Fuerjia stated in previous investor relations activities that in the future, with the strong promotion of the platform, the online scale will increase slightly.

Compared with the heavy spending on marketing, Fuerjia's investment in R&D has been criticized.

According to the financial report data, Fuerjia's R&D investment in the first half of 2025 was only 23.3265 million yuan, accounting for only 2.7% of revenue. As of the end of the reporting period, the company had only 69 R&D personnel.

Compared with peers, there is still a big gap. The R&D investment of beauty companies such as Bloomage Biotech and Jinbo Biotech usually accounts for more than 5%.

The financial report shows that as of the first half of 2025, Fuerjia has been approved for 31 patents; the company has only 3 approved Class II medical device registration certificates; 88 ordinary cosmetics filings, including 32 in 2025; and 3 special cosmetics registrations, including 0 in 2025.

In addition, changes in regulatory policies have also brought challenges to Fuerjia. In April 2025, the National Medical Products Administration issued the "Medical Device Classification Rules (Revised Draft for Comments)", which clearly proposed to reclassify medical dressing products, which will weaken the "medical bonus" attribute of medical dressing products.