MINISO, the Chinese retail giant, has reported a strong performance for the March quarter of 2024. The company witnessed a 26% year-over-year (YoY) increase in revenue, amounting to RMB 3.72 billion. This growth was fueled by a significant rise in average store count and same-store sales, with the company adding 108 new stores in Mainland China and 109 in overseas markets.
Additionally, MINISO's adjusted net profit saw a 28% YoY increase, reaching RMB 620 million, while gross margin hit a historical high of 43.4%. The company's overseas business particularly stood out, with a 53% revenue increase and a 21% growth in same-store sales.
Key Takeaways
- Revenue up by 26% YoY, reaching RMB 3.72 billion.
- Adjusted net profit increased by 28% YoY to RMB 620 million.
- Gross margin at a historical high of 43.4%.
- 217 net new stores opened globally within the quarter.
- Overseas business revenue up by 53% YoY; same-store sales grew by 21%.
- Plans to increase TOP TOY stores from 50 to 100 this year.
Company Outlook
- Aiming for a 50% sales mix of IP products and high affordable products by 2028.
- Focus on product innovation, O-to-O models, and strategic category sales growth in China.
- Target of 250 TOP TOY stores by the end of 2024.
- Emphasis on a simple and focused corporate culture for long-term success.
Bearish Highlights
- Lower growth in Tier 3 and smaller cities in China.
- China's lower average GP margin negatively impacted the overall GP margin.
Bullish Highlights
- Strong position in IP collaborations and launch of popular Chiikawa.
- Significant growth in U.S. market with a 130% CAGR from 2021 to 2023.
- Recovery rate of 98% in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in China.
- Improved GP margin in China due to product optimization.
- Overseas markets, especially the U.S., experienced 30% to 40% same-store sales growth.
Misses
- No specific misses reported in the earnings call.
Q&A Highlights
- MINISO's ticker symbol was not mentioned in the provided summary.
- Discussion on the potential for margin expansion and cost savings in the U.S. through better logistics and distribution.
- The company's management sees a turning point for TOP TOY due to a more rational competitive landscape and stronger supply chain.
MINISO's earnings call revealed a company in the midst of a significant growth phase, with particular success in expanding its international footprint and developing its IP product line. The company's strategic focus on product innovation and market expansion, coupled with an efficient operating model, has led to a substantial increase in revenue and profits. With its sights set on a balanced sales mix and an aggressive expansion of its TOP TOY business, MINISO appears poised to continue its growth trajectory in the coming years.
InvestingPro Insights
MINISO's robust quarterly performance is echoed in its financials and market standing, as reflected by the latest InvestingPro data. With a market capitalization of $7.5 billion, the company's growth story remains strong. The Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio stands at 24.18, suggesting that investors are willing to pay a premium for its earnings potential, which is supported by a substantial year-over-year revenue growth of 51.35% in the last twelve months as of Q4 2023. This growth momentum is also highlighted by the company's gross profit margin of 42.46%, aligning closely with the reported historical high gross margin in the article.
InvestingPro Tips highlight MINISO's financial health and market performance. Notably, the company holds more cash than debt on its balance sheet, providing it with a solid foundation to pursue its ambitious expansion plans. Moreover, MINISO has raised its dividend for three consecutive years, offering an attractive yield of 2.65%, which can appeal to income-focused investors. These factors underscore MINISO's commitment to shareholder returns and financial stability.
Investors interested in deeper analysis can find additional InvestingPro Tips, including insights into MINISO's industry positioning and profitability forecasts. There are 11 more tips available that can provide a comprehensive view of the company's prospects, which can be accessed at https://www.investing.com/pro/MNSO. To enhance your investment research experience, use the coupon code PRONEWS24 to get an additional 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription.
Full transcript - Miniso Group Holding Ltd (MNSO) Q1 2024:
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to MINISO's Earning Conference Call for the March Quarter of 2024. [Operator Instructions] And be kindly noted that this event is being recorded. We have announced our quarterly financial result earlier today. An earnings release is now available on our Investor Relations website at ir.miniso.com. Joining us today are our Founder and CEO, Mr. Jack Ye; and our CFO, Mr. Eason Zhang. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to the safe harbor statements in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call as we'll be making forward-looking statements. Please also note that we will discuss non-IFRS financial measures today, which we have explained and reconciled to the most comparable measures reported under the International Financial Reporting Standard in the company's earnings release and filings with the U.S. SEC and Hong-Kong Stock Exchange. The currency unit is Chinese Yuan, unless otherwise stated. In addition, we have prepared a PowerPoint presentation for today's call, which contains financial and operational information for this quarter. If you are using Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) Meetings, you should be seeing it right now. You can also revisit it on our IR website later. Now, I would like to hand the conference over to Mr. Ye. And Ms. Allis Chen from MINISO IR team will translate for Mr. Ye. Please go ahead, sir.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to MINISO Group's Earnings Conference Call. March quarter marked our highest Q1 store opening space ever and laid a solid foundation for the target of net addition 900 stores to 1,100 stores in 2024. Also, we have maintained a solid financial performance, while rapidly expanding our overseas directly operated markets.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: At the group level, our revenue increased 26% year-over-year to RMB 3.72 billion. The increase were primarily due to an around 19% increase in the average store count and an overall around 9% same-store sales growth. In the current uncertain economic environment compared to the consuming companies of similar scale globally, MINISO have maintained a leading growth rate in the industry.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Behind the rapid growth, we observe several trends that are shaping our future. Firstly, Chinese companies are expanding globally with vast opportunities ahead. As a company, MINISO leveraged Chinese supply chain capabilities to expand overseas at early stage, and has secured a fast first-mover advantage. With the store network in over 100 markets and extensive local operational experience, now we are moving forward to globalizing our MINISO brand. Secondly, along the current of time, there were emerging numbers of world-class consuming brands from China. MINISO's goal is to ride the wave and become a super brand. Thirdly, despite increasing uncertainties in the global economic environment, interest-driven consumption is still on the rise. Our target is to achieve 50% IP product sales and 50% high affordable product sales by 2028. It was because after the pandemic, we observed the co-existing of rational consumption and interest-driven consumption in domestic consumption behaviors. And this trend is similar across the world. And IP consuming goods is a good example for this trend. The scale of global IP-consuming goods is around RMB 2 trillion and remains highly decentralized. Per capita consumption of IP-consuming goods in China, it's only RMB 51, which is only 1/4 of the global average and 1/6 piece of that in the United States. This is, in this case, are vast opportunities for IP-consuming.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Gross margin stands at 43.4%, which is an increase of 4.1 percentage points year-over-year, setting a new historical high. This improvement was primarily attributable to the increased overseas revenue contribution and the optimization of the gross margin for TOP TOY. Moving forward, with the fast-growth of overseas revenue, higher IP product sales contributions and the blooming of TOP TOY, the momentum for gross margin enhancement remains robust. Meanwhile, we're still committed to providing affordable products, pursuing healthy increase in gross margin. Adjusted net profit of the March quarter was RMB 620 million, increased 28% year-over-year with an adjusted net margin of 60.6%.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Now, I will walk you through business updates for our 3 major segments; MINISO Mainland China, MINISO Overseas and TOP TOY.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Let's start with MINISO Mainland China, which continues to grow in high qualities. Offline GMV increased 60% year-over-year, compared with 5% increase of the domestic retail sales of consuming goods, according to National Bureau of Statistics. In particular, same-store sales recovered to over 98% of last year's high space, continued to outperform our peers. In this context, average transaction value remained stable and the transaction volumes recovered to 98%. Entering into June quarter, same-store sales trends remains positive, with year-to-date same-store sales recover rates reaching nearly 100% of the same period last year. Keeping an industry leading same-store sales growth will be one of our priorities in this year.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: We summarized two reasons for achieving outperforming same-store sales. First, we stick to product innovation and solidify our differentiated product strengths, leveraging our observation of consumer -- consumption trends in our own advantage. We are gaining market shares for strategic categories such as blind boxes, toys, beauty tools and skin-related products, et cetera. In Q1, sales from such categories accounted for over 40% in China, winning year-on-year sales increase of more than 40%, driving a 60% growth of total sales in China. Among these, blind box categories saw a linearly 200% growth and travel-related products achieved nearly a 70% growth.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Second, our offline-to-online models, or O-to-O, developed rapidly. In Q2, its sales increased by over 80% year-over-year, effectively compensating for the natural decline in foot traffic after the public holidays and driving the growth of our same-store sales. Compared to same-store sales, top selling SKUs within O-to-O are predominantly concentrated to IP products and items that cater for immediate consumer needs. This year, we have implemented several operational optimization measures such as extending the operational hours of O-to-O and improving service qualities.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: This quarter, we added 108 net new stores in Mainland China, setting a new record for Q1. Structurally, there are several things we are noticing. First, over 50% of new stores were located in the first- and second-tier cities. With the normalization of economics, we have identified lots of promotions within China's top-tier cities that present promising opportunities for future store expansion. Second, the total numbers of our directly operated stores have reached 29, nearly doubling 60 stores from a year ago. It was due to our ongoing exploration over the past year into various channel metrices, including directly operated flagship stores. We will continue to refine our channel strategy this year, and looking forward to sharing more details about it in the near future. Lastly, store network in Mainland China has seen high-quality development, with store closure rate remaining healthy at around 1.4% for 3 consecutive quarters.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Moving on to MINISO Overseas business update.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Firstly, overseas business will once again exceed our most optimistic expectations. Revenue was RMB 1.2 billion, up 53% year-over-year. In particular, revenue from directly operated markets has seen a straggling year-over-year growth of 92%, or 84% on a comparable basis, achieving a growth rate of over 80% for 4 consecutive quarters. Directly operating markets account for 58% of our overseas revenue, which fell year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter increase in revenue share.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Secondly, GMV in overseas increased by 46% year-over-year, with a 104% increase in the directly operated markets and a 29% increase in distributor markets. On a comparable basis, the growth rate were 78% and 35%, respectively. Amongst key regions, North America increased by nearly 110%. Europe increased by over 80%. Latin America was 40% and Asia was 34%. Structurally, Latin America and Asia are the top 2 markets, accounted for nearly 3 quarters of overseas GMV, while Europe and North America markets are growing rapidly with over 20% GMV contribution. Especially in North America, when we relaunch its operations in late 2021, it accounted for only 7% of overseas GMV and now it's 13% already. We expect that the share of Europe and North America will continue to rise rapidly.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Thirdly, one of the key driver of GMV rapid growth was the same-store sales, which grow by 21%. Within this, directly operated markets saw a 32% same-store sales growth, while the distributor markets grew by 80%. Across nearly all overseas regions, we have achieved positive same-store growth, with North America increased by around 32%, Latin America by around 25%, Asia by around 19% and Europe by around 13%. In addition, top 20 overseas countries and regions as a whole achieved a 23% same-store sales growth.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: In March quarter, we added 109 net new store in overseas markets, another new record for Q1 store openings. Having learned from the lessons of last year's store expansions, we will exert stronger control over the pace of store openings this year, aiming to open more high-quality stores before the peak season in Q4. Structurally, 60% of the new stores were contributed by directly operated markets, with Indonesia and the United States together contributing over 40%. Amongst key regions, Asia contributed over 60% of new stores, while North America and Latin America contributed 70% and 10%, respectively.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: In 2024, we further deepened our implementation of IP strategy. For example, we celebrated Chinese New Year with Qiqi and TT from Disney. And in responding to our consumer demand, we initiated innovative online event, a full parade celebrating the Barbie 65th Anniversary new collections to draw attention. Moreover, the launch of Chiikawa at the end of March sparked a phenomenal consumer craze. These development partnership has further solidified our undisputed status as leader in IP collaborations. These collaborations can be summarized with 5 unprecedenteds; unprecedented sales performance, unprecedented product launch speed, unprecedented efficiency, unprecedented coverage and the unprecedented enthusiasm of Chiikawa fans. This collaboration is a milestone for our product team in which they have improved capabilities in identifying trends, IPs, R&D, supply chain management and the products we built and enable a rapid product launch and high-quality standards. It also set a very successful benchmark for future IP co-branding and marketing. I strongly believe that the brands that bring joys to consumers and put consumer first will finally be favored by customers. MINISO have created multiple phenomenal IP collaborations events, thanks to our strong IP conversion capabilities. We are pleased to see that more and more young consumers on social media platform such as Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) and Xiaohongshu are tagging MINISO and request us to collaborate with more IPs.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: In this quarter, IP products accounted for 26% of total sales. In Mainland China, IP accounted for about 25%, increased slightly year-over-year. In overseas, IP product shipment increased by over 100% and contributed over 40% of total shipment. We are steadily moving forward to our targets of 50% IP stores by 2028.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: Moving on to TOP TOY. We believe that turning point for the TOP TOY business has arrived. After 3 years since inception, TOP TOY has grown into a leading players in pop toy industry with an annual sales of RMB 1 billion and with 160 stores across nearly 70 cities around Mainland China.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: With the business moving on track, we have stronger confidence in TOP TOY's rapid expansion and have, therefore, raised its store opening targets from this year from 50 to 100, which means that we will have 250 stores or so -- TOP TOY stores by the end of 2024.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: During this quarter, TOP TOY's revenue increased by 55% year-over-year, driven by a very high quality of 26% same-store sales growth and a net addition of 44 stores year-over-year.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: With a rapid growth in sculp, TOP TOY is set to unlock profit potential gradually and has achieved positive profitability for 2 consecutive quarters. On one hand, through the optimization of product mix, its gross margins improved by around 8% point year-over-year. On the other hand, as operational leverage took effect and with more targeted investment in marketing, its expense ratios have been further reduced.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: The year of 2024 is the new starting point for 5 years development plans of MINISO Group, beginning with the ending target in mind. It's a philosophy I uphold as always. To realize our long-term goals, we need to pursue excellence, detailed orientation and continuously develop high-quality work. Therefore, this year, I have spent a lot of time encouraging the developments of corporate culture that are simple, efficient and straightforward, one that simplifies complexities and maintains strategic focus. We want to embrace a professional, focused and simple culture at MINISO. We process with necessary patience and persistent and remains committed to a long-term approach, taking each step with cares and diligence to accomplish our 5-years development plan.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Allis Chen: I will now turn the call over to Eason for a review of our financial performance.
Eason Zhang: Thank you, Jack, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Let me walk you through our financials for this March quarter. Please note that all numbers are in renminbi, unless otherwise noted. And I will also refer to some non-IFRS measures, which have excluded share-based compensation expenses. Revenue saw a robust increase of 26%. As highlighted by Jack, we are particularly encouraged by a strong same-store sales growth or SSSG of 9%, achieved concurrently with a rapid expansion of our global store network. In Mainland China, MINISO same-store sales surpassed 98% of previous figure, a high benchmark set up the release of pent-up demand following the COVID lockdown. The overseas market SSSG reached 21%, surpassing the peak season's SSSG of 20% observed in the last December quarter, with a particular [ north of ] 32% same-store sales growth in overseas directly operated markets and 18% growth in distributor markets. Additionally, TOP TOY's SSSG was remarkably at 26%. Regarding our channel mix, we have noted a significant surge in the contribution from our overseas markets. The share has grown from 23% in CY '21 to 33% in the current quarter. This increase is particularly pronounced in our overseas directly operated markets, which have seen their contribution to total revenue more than doubled, climbing from 8% in CY '21 to 19% in this quarter. Additionally, TOP TOY has been consistently gaining traction, with its revenue share escalating from 3% in CY '21 to 6% in current quarter, indicating its revenues to unlock even more significant potential moving forward. We are optimistic about this shift towards a more diversified revenue stream, which underscores the strength and resilience of our business model. Gross profit margin reached 43.4%, marking another historical high and representing a 4.1 percentage point increase year-over-year. This improvement is attributable primarily to 2 factors. First, there was a higher revenue contribution from overseas markets, particularly directly operated segments, which accounted for over 4.7 percentage points increase of condensed GP margin. Second, the optimization of TOP TOY's GP margin resulted from a strategic shift towards a product mix with greater profitability. SG&A expense amounted to RMB 856 million in total, constituting 23% of our revenue, an increase from about 20% a year ago. Despite this shift, the structure of the major expenses remained stable, indicating effective cost management amidst expansion. This year-over-year increase was attributable to; number one, increased personnel-related expenses, logistics expenses and other expenses in relation to the growth of our business. Number two, increased expenses in relation to directly operated stores, including payroll, rental expenses, D&A expenses, as well as marketing expenditures for new store opening, all of which are essential investments for our new store openings and ongoing success of our directly operated business. Let me give you an example. By March quarter, we had 281 such stores in overseas market, up 131 stores or 87%. And in Mainland China, we had 46 such stores for our 2 brands, up 21 stores or 84%. As we rapidly expand our overseas directly operated markets, there may be a temporary surge in related expenses. And we might observe fluctuations in this experience across different quarters in the year, as we have been talking this for 2 quarters in our earnings conference call. However, we are confident that the high gross margin, driven by the increased revenue contribution from our directly operated markets will more than offset the operating expenses and product tech margins in this March quarter, for example, revenue from our overseas directly operating market soared by 98% and 84% on a comparable basis, which has outpaced the growth in expenses. The shift expansion of our overseas directly operated markets may also have a consequential impact on the distribution of our operating profits. Let's look at the distribution of CY '23. So, over 60% of our operating profit during that year from overseas markets were realized in the second half in contrast to over 50% of operations in Mainland China. So consequently, 55% of our total OP profit for that year were realized in the second half. So, this trend is expected to continue in CY '24, with profits even more steered towards the second half of the year. Turning to profitability. Operating profit was RMB 743 million, up 29% year-over-year. OP profit margin was 20%, up from 19.5% in the same quarter last year. Adjusted net profit was RMB 617 million, up 28% year-over-year. Adjusted net margin was 16.6%, up from 16.4% in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA was RMB 965 million, increasing by 37% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 25.9%, compared to 23.9% in the same period of 2023. Adjusted basic and diluted earnings per ADS were both RMB 1.96, increasing by 29% year-over-year. Turning to cash position. As of end of March quarter, we maintained a strong cash position of RMB 7.3 billion. In April, we distributed cash dividend of about RMB 650 million, more than 50% of our adjusted net profit generated during the second half of CY 2023. We are committed to a dividend payout ratio of at least 50%, and bring sustainable and foreseeable returns to our shareholders. Turning to working capital. The China inventory turnover remains efficient. By March quarter, 24% of MINISO Brands inventory were located in overseas compared to 18% a year ago. Inventory turnover days were 83 days on brand level, including 72 days for MINISO Mainland China and 153 days from MINISO Overseas directly operated markets. And for top 20 markets in overseas distributed markets, inventory turnover days was comparable to the level of our DTC market. Structurally, inventory over 180 days accounted for about 9% on group level, flat year-over-year. Turning to capital allocation. Net cash flow generated by operation was RMB 652 million. CapEx was about RMB 122 million, and free cash flow was RMB 530 million. We repurchased RMB 71 million worth of stock in first quarter. If we included the dividend paid out in April, we have returned around RMB 720 million back to our shareholders year-to-date. Since our U.S. IPO, we have returned RMB 3.5 billion to our shareholders, and we will continue to commit to a capital allocation strategy that balances growth and return. Our performance in March quarter once again demonstrates the strength and resilience of our business model and reflects our ability to execute on our IP and globalization strategy. I'm very confident that we will once again meet our full-year target and deliver on our fun and value to our consumers worldwide. Thank you. And this concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please, we are ready to take questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question is coming from Ms. Michelle Cheng from Goldman Sachs.
Michelle Cheng: So, I have three questions here. Firstly, regarding the domestic same-store sales trend. Can management share the recent same-store sales performance by the OCD? And the store optimization is the key focus for this year. So, is there any progress management has shared with us and how this will impact the traffic and ticket size? And second question is regarding the U.S. expansion. So, can you share with us the latest store economics and the sales trend? And we talked about exploring the new locations this year. So, can management share with us any strategic development of U.S. business? And third is on GP margin. So in the slide, management shared the GP margin like-to-like change. But it looks like the China business, GP margin was down. So, can we have more color on the factors?
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Eason Zhang: Thank you, Michelle, for your question on flagship strategy. So the basic idea is that we really want to open as many flagship stores as we can in the vast commercial areas. So since CY '23, we have opened a series of very good flagship stores such as Beijing Road store in Guangzhou, Huaihai Road Store in Shanghai and Jiuxianqiao stores in Beijing. We have accumulated a lot of operational and store expansion experience during this store open and its operations, but still I think it's at early days. We are still optimizing the UE and models of our flagship strategy. As I mentioned in prepared remarks, I hope we can share more in our earnings conference call in the near future.
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Eason Zhang: So for question about the U.S. about its UE and store expansion plan, so we have seen the uptrend continues in this year and in second quarter. Actually, since the fourth quarter of CY ‘21, under the very excellent operation of our local team there, the U.S. business has been kept in a very high-growth speed for a lot of quarters. According to our data, we have achieved like 130% CAGR for our sales in U.S. between CY ‘21 and CY ‘23. In this March quarter, the same-store sales of United States still maintained a very high growth of 30% to 40%. And that is one of our resources of our inner confidence about the United States market. Now at this moment, we have around 150, 1-5-0, 150 stores in the United States and our annual target for store net opening is 8 to 100 stores. According to our experience and our internal data, during the past 2 years in the United States, the December quarter, the peak season will account for more than 50% in terms of revenue and net profit and with a very obvious seasonality. And with the U.S. revenue share getting bigger and bigger this year, it will definitely help us to achieve our annual target. And for your question about the SSSG recovery rate in different tier cities in China, I’d say, in this year, we have seen Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities outperform lower tier cities, at least for MINISO. So, we are 98% recovered in the first quarter. And in Tier 1 and Tier 2, I’d say it’s near to 98%. And in Tier 3 and low cities, it’s like mid single digits lower compared to last year. And for GP margin, please go back to the waterfall charts. Yes, for GP margin, if you look at this chart, you will see that the MINISO in China has a negative contribution of 1.7%. But this chart is calculated by based on weighted average. So because our MINISO Mainland China’s gross margin is lower than the group level average, so it is a negative drag of the overall GP margin. So, this is the case for last Q1 in last year and this year. And in this year, we have seen the GP margin in Mainland China improved on a year-over-year basis. So with its revenue contribution decreased on a year-over-year basis, the drag was lower compared with one year ago. Thank you, Michelle, for question.
Operator: The second question is coming from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC), Ms. Lucy Yu.
Lucy Yu: So for the overseas market, same-store sales has been expanding at 21% in the quarter. What are the major key drivers behind that, and how should we think about the future same-store sales for the overseas market? Secondly is on overseas direct to retail op margin. What's the like-for-like expansion in the first quarter? And what is the optimal level for op margin in the longer run? And thirdly is on the flash store of Chiikawa in early this year. So, it has contributed a lot to our store sales as well as helping us to test the popularity of some IP in China. So, can we comment that are we going to do more about these kind of flash stores?
Jack Ye: [Foreign Language]
Eason Zhang: Lucy, thank you for question on Chiikawa and the pop-up store strategy. So MINISO's position is global IP collection store. Any single IP will not contribute significant revenue contribution. So as investors need to diversify their portfolio, we do the same thing when choosing IP. We want to introduce more and more new IP and world-class IP, and fully diversify our IP portfolio. And the second point that is MINISO is very -- our style is very cautious and we are down to earth to deliver results. CY '24 marks the first year of our 5-year development plan and we have high confidence to achieve these growth targets. And for the pop-up strategy, yes, there will be some small scale of testing in big cities, in cities where a lot of -- have a lot of young people, young customers such as Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenyang, Changsha and in North China, we will focus on these regional centers such as Xi'an. So, we have about a dozen of pop-up stores on our pipeline at this stage. And for a question about the same-store sales growth of overseas market, I would say the most significant same-store sales growth comes for our directly operated market, especially in markets like the United States. And in Europe, markets are important, distributor market. So, let's take U.S. market and U.K. market as two examples. We have seen the drive comes from both traffic and average sales price or average order value during the past several quarters. And behind this with the -- we think there are 2 reasons. The first is we are improving our brand awareness in both of these two markets. And a lot of new people come to us, a lot of new young customers, a lot of family come to visit MINISO store and become our members. So, we have a lot of improvement on this side. And second is the product optimization. As Mr. Ye just mentioned, about 40% of our overseas shipment is IP products now, increased by more than 100% during March quarter. With this improvement, with this increase, we have high confidence to attract more customers, come to us and buy more things. And yes, we have seen same-store sales growth increased for a couple of quarters. And I would say in this June quarter, we still see the trend maintained. But you are right, at the end of the day, it will get normalized. I think for this year, for the remaining quarters, the major driver will still come from store network expansion and same-store sales growth. But the former will contribute more to our overall sales growth. And for the overseas DTC market margin profile, if you compare the operating margin of -- on a group level, last year op margin was 20% -- 19.5%. This year is 20%. So, we have a very small improvement on this side. And if you look at China, China is very mature business. So, you can assume that China's margin is stabilized. And if you look at overseas, it's improved. It's improved both in directly operated markets and in our distributor market.
Operator: Third question is coming from J.P. Morgan, Mr. Kevin Yin.
Kevin Yin: Very quick translation. For the U.S., help us walk through the key assumptions for the GP, OP net profit and the potential margin expansion -- the driver for the potential margin expansion. China IP percentage of 25%, no change, [AP flattish, but GP margin was up. And thirdly, license fee, why it was declining in the first quarter?
Eason Zhang: Thank you, Kevin, for the question. We do not disclose in too much detail on our U.S. at this moment because it's still at very early stage. But I assume your assumptions are fair enough to a certain extent. And as I answered Lucy's question, the driver of 30% to 40% same-store sales growth come from both traffic and AOV, traffic and AOV. U.S. is beginning -- has began to build its CIM system from this year. So hopefully, we can share with you more in the future. And about the synergy of the different U.S. stores, you are right. At this moment, we have 150 stores. I'd say the biggest three states are California, Texas and Florida and next by, New England area and so on. But apparently, our inner store are quite separated. So, we have improved. We have a lot of improvement, a lot of room to improve on this cost saving in terms of logistic expenses or distribution expenses. For example, the related expense in the United States accounts for low single digit or even mid single digit of its sales. But compared to more mature business of China is only less than 100% -- 1% in China. So, we have a lot of improvement. And the GP margin of China increased because of the product optimization. As we say like, blind box increased by 100%. Travel-related products increased by 200%. As we mentioned, these products has higher GP margin. So, this is a product mix optimization. The IP license fee is all about cut off. It’s cut off. So, this is one quarter, right? If you look at a full year or even longer term, the IP license fee should be a relative of a [indiscernible] cost.
Operator: The fourth question is coming from UBS, Mr. Samuel Wang.
Samuel Wang: My question is regarding TOP TOY. So when Mr. Ye commented on TOP TOY's business, he mentioned that there's a change in timing for TOP TOY's business, a turn around. And also he vised up the store opening target this year. So, my question is regarding -- what makes the management believe that there's a turning point for this business and also what are the drivers for the same-store sales growth in Q1 and going forward?
Eason Zhang: Thank you for question, Samuel. Yes, we have seen several changes. First of all, the change – we have seen a more rational competitive landscape in this pop toy market. 3 years ago, 4 years ago, 3.5 years ago, when we launched TOP TOY, it was in a highly competitive market. A lot of new players, newcomers come in this sector. But after 3 years, a lot of small players has created competition and left a lot of wide space, not only in the prime locations, but also the better value chain, supply chain and so on. The second is on the supply chain side. TOP TOY with 160 stores has been a leader of Its sector. So it has higher bargaining power with its suppliers, I mean, with the toy brands, with ODM manufacturers or even with landlords. So these are the 2 sides we have seen. It’s getting better. And for TOP TOY, we have mentioned, it has been making money for 2 consecutive quarters. So last December quarter, I’d say it was just breakeven, has a little profit. This quarter – since this quarter, we have seen TOP TOY has been making a decent profit margin because of, as we mentioned, 8 percentage points, improvement in GP margin and a comparable decrease in its OpEx ratio. So, that means mid-teens or a low-teens to mid-teens improvement in its op margin. And we are also happy to see that its profit mix – its profit structures are getting more and more healthy, not only in its proprietary exclusive products, but also in third-party products. For example, blind box is a major category within TOP TOY. So, third-party blind box from third-party suppliers, its GP margin also has been improving during the past several quarters because its higher bargaining power, because its larger scale and so on.
Operator: Thank you all again for joining us today. Now, we shall conclude our call. See you in next quarter. Goodbye.
Eason Zhang: Thank you.
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