News Release
2026 Mar 27
AEON Stores (Hong Kong) Co., Limited
AEON STORES ANNOUNCES 2025 ANNUAL RESULTS ACTIVELY EXPANDING STORE NETWORK AND PRIVATE BRANDS, ADVANCING DIGITAL OPERATIONS TRANSFORMATION OPTIMISING MERCHANDISE MIX TO ENHANCE CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND DRIVE SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN HONG KONG BUSINESS LOSSES
AEON Stores (Hong Kong) Co., Limited (“AEON Stores” or the “Group”; Stock code: 984) today announced its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2025. During the year, against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions and high tariffs, the global economy demonstrated robust resilience and maintained stable and moderate growth overall. Hong Kong’s economy recorded a notable recovery, though the local retail sector remained affected by a number of factors. The business environment in the Chinese Mainland remained complex, with consumer sentiment still cautious. Facing a volatile market environment, the Group actively responded to market changes and continued to promote merchandise reform, store network optimization and digital transformation, aiming to improve operational efficiency and maintain business resilience.
In 2025, the Group’s revenue decreased by approximately 3.7% year-on-year to HK$7,795.2 million (2024: HK$8,095.3 million). Gross profit margin was 28.4% (2024: 28.9%). Loss attributable to owners of the Company narrowed to HK$324.4 million (2024: loss of HK$338.1 million), of which losses from the Hong Kong business were substantially reduced, reflecting the effectiveness of the Group’s strategies and a continued improvement in profitability. The Group maintained a sound financial position, with cash and bank balances and short-term time deposits amounting to HK$608.8 million (2024: HK$830.6 million).
Mr. Takenori Nagashima, Managing Director of AEON Stores, said, “Over the past year, in the face of challenges arising from the macroeconomic environment and structural transformation of the local retail sector, the Group proactively adjusted its business model and advanced reforms across merchandise strategy, store network and operational management. We actively promoted merchandise reform and differentiation strategies, deepened the development of our private brands and expanded direct imports and themed promotional activities; at the same time, we optimised our store network by upgrading key stores and accelerating the development of small-format specialty store models; and firmly advanced digital transformation and e-commerce development to enhance profitability and customer experience. During the year, the Group continued to optimise internal management, improve operational efficiency, and achieved improvements in overall business performance.”
Hong Kong Operations
During the year, the Group accelerated its merchandise reform efforts, including restructuring its private brand portfolio and enhancing product differentiation. In addition to TOPVALU, HÓME CÓORDY and PEACE FIT WARM/COOL, the Group introduced fashion brand ESSEME during the year and further expanded SELF+SERVICE, which were both well-received by customers. This drove significant year-on-year sales growth of more than 21% for private brands. In terms of its product portfolio, the Group kept up to date with market trends and successfully launched popular IP products such as “Opanchu Usagi”. Concurrently, it further expanded its range of products imported directly from Japan and Southeast Asia, providing customers with a richer selection. In addition, the Group continued to provide customers with distinctive products and new shopping experiences through themed promotional events such as AEON’s “Vietnamese Fair”, “Japanese Food Fair”, “Korean Fair”, and “TOPVALU Fair”, thereby implementing its product differentiation strategy.
The Group continued to expand into different formats and flexibly develop specialty stores. During the year, in addition to the opening of AEON STYLE Kai Tak and the upgrade and revitalization of AEON STYLE Kornhill, the Group focused its resources on developing the “differentiation + high-return” specialty store models. This included the opening of the DAISO Japan WORFU store, the Green Code store, and the AEON Mono Mono Ngau Tau Kok Store, Tai Po Tai Yuen Store and Tsing Yi Store. Leveraging the advantages of specialty stores, including flexible locations, lower overall operating costs and relatively low rental costs, combined with the Group's high-value product mix, the model helped drive profit performance.
To enhance operational efficiency, the Group continued to advance its digital transformation, including expanding the application scope of Electronic Shelf Labels, self-checkout systems and the “Mobile Assistant”. In December, the Group also piloted Hong Kong’s first X-Trolley smart shopping cart at AEON STYLE Kai Tak. Equipped with product location features and rapid self-checkout options, it simplifies the shopping process for customers while reducing manual operations. During the year, the Group continued to enhance the promotion and operation of online platforms such as the AEON APP to strengthen its e-commerce performance. In addition, the Group implemented reforms across multiple fronts to increase overall efficiency, including improving warehousing and logistics efficiency, optimizing human resource allocation, and reviewing and adjusting leasing arrangements.
During the year under review, revenue from Hong Kong operations recorded a full-year revenue decline of approximately 4.1% to HK$3,592.3 million (2024: HK$3,746.0 million), and a loss of HK$192.4 million, which represented a narrowing compared with the corresponding period last year and a continued improvement in profitability (2024: loss of HK$288.2 million).
Chinese Mainland Operations
During the year, the Group capitalized on the increased customer traffic resulting from changes in the external environment, including the “northbound consumption” trend among Hong Kong residents. It opened eight new stores, including the AEON Guangzhou Hengbao Store, Guangzhou Lingzhan Store, Guangzhou Guanghuicheng Store, Guangzhou Hanxi Avenue Store, Guangzhou Tower Store, Shenzhen Longgang Renheng Store, Foshan MixC Store, Jiangmen Lihe Plaza Store. This enabled the Group to achieve its goal of increasing market share in the Greater Bay Area. Meanwhile, the Group revitalized and renovated the Foshan Oriental Plaza Store, Dongguan First International Store and Guangzhou Teemall Store during the year to meet customers’ evolving needs and provide differentiated shopping experiences. AEON STYLE Guangzhou Teemall broke away from traditional department store classification methods, by enhancing four key elements – merchandise, services, environment, and experience – to offer customers a personalized, immersive, and enjoyable shopping journey.
Revenue from the Chinese Mainland operations recorded a full-year revenue decline of approximately 3.4% to HK$4,202.9 million (2024: HK$4,349.3 million), and a loss of HK$159.7 million (2024: loss of HK$65.8).
Prospects
Regarding the Hong Kong operations, looking ahead to 2026, Hong Kong’s economy is expected to continue the recovery trend seen in 2025. Benefiting from the rebound of the Chinese Mainland economy, a stronger Renminbi, and consumption stimulus measures, the retail sector is set to regain momentum. The Group will drive sales and profitability through a series of operational reforms and strategic initiatives, while strengthening cost management and institutional reform to achieve its overall business objectives.
In terms of product structure, the Group will optimize the assortment of its private brand products and strengthen their sales performance to differentiate itself in the market, consolidate its differentiated competitive edge, and leverage the products as an engine for profit growth. In addition, the Group will focus on growth categories and those with share gaps, and improve its sales structure and gross margin performance through more precise merchandise strategies and resource allocation. It will also continue to provide products that highlight AEON’s unique characteristics and offer highly competitive prices through global sourcing and increased direct imports. At the same time, the Group will explore new business growth opportunities to fill gaps in its current assortment and provide suitable exclusive products tailored to customer needs.
The Group will continue to accelerate the expansion of its specialty stores, with the goal of opening 10 new AEON Mono Mono stores in 2026. It will also strengthen its profitability by refining its product portfolio, supply chain, and promotional activities. In addition, the Group will continue to review its store portfolio, make flexible adjustments as needed, and proactively monitor store performance. Where necessary, it will streamline its retail network to improve operational efficiency.
Facing pressure from rising fixed costs, the Group will focus on improving inventory management and turnover efficiency in order to boost gross margin and cash flow. At the same time, it will strive to reduce overall logistics costs and improve operational efficiency through supply chain restructuring, the introduction of new logistics models, the activation of the Shenzhen warehouse, and strengthened collaboration with AEON TOPVALU Co., Ltd.
Additionally, the Group will accelerate its digital transformation to drive long-term competitiveness through technology. It will work closely with AEON Digital Management Center to apply digital technologies across merchandise management, the supply chain, store operations, promotions, and management. This includes an AI security system, smart shopping carts, the ONE AEON membership system, e-vouchers and the “Mobile Assistant”, enhancing the customer experience and the Group’s operational efficiency. Meanwhile, the Group will expand the scale of the AEON APP and increase the number of self-pickup locations to optimize existing services and enhance the Group’s market competitiveness.
Regarding the Chinese Mainland operations, the year 2026 marks the beginning of the “15th Five-Year Plan” for the Chinese Mainland economy, with macro policies expected to focus on expanding domestic demand. The Group will seize relevant opportunities to rebuild its operational foundation and accelerate the pace of business transformation. The Group will clearly define its target customer base and deliver tailored products and services based on their specific needs. At the same time, it will prioritise membership management to steadily increase both membership numbers and purchase frequency. In addition, by expanding the sales scale of the AEON APP and improving real-time delivery services, the Group will deepen the online-offline integrated experience, thereby boosting customer loyalty and lifetime value.
In terms of store format deployment and product structure, the Group continues to expand its Supermarket operations with the aim of increasing its market share. Leveraging its existing TOPVALU products as the foundation of its stores offering, the Group seeks to establish a low‑cost operating model while simultaneously developing new products to build a competitive edge in both price and quality. The Group plans to open 3 new Supermarkets in the coming year.
To ensure it achieves its strategic goals, the Group will proceed with the concurrent development of new systems, logistics, and organizational structures. By upgrading its system and logistics center, the Group will integrate a new regional distribution hub to support its business growth in South China, and, through digitalization and infrastructure enhancements, comprehensively improve on-site operations and store efficiency.
Mr. Takenori Nagashima concluded, “While macro uncertainties persist, market volatility and changes in consumer behaviour will become the new normal. Nevertheless, Hong Kong’s economy is expected to sustain its recovery driven by a rebound in financial markets and event-driven economic initiatives, while Chinese Mainland seeks stable growth momentum through policies to expand domestic demand, bringing confidence to the recovery of the retail sector. Looking ahead, to achieve the Group’s development objectives, AEON will remain customer-centric and continue to innovate, deepen operational reforms and digital transformation, proactively identify changes in customer traffic and demand structure, increase membership numbers and customer loyalty, strengthen merchandise mix and services, accelerate multi-format expansion, and enhance overall operational efficiency through supply chain restructuring, logistics model optimisation, inventory management and cost control, thereby creating sustainable returns for shareholders.”
About AEON Stores
AEON Stores was established in Hong Kong in 1985 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1994. The Group is mainly engaged in the operation of general retail businesses (General Merchandise Stores and Independent Supermarkets). Currently, it operates 10 GMS, 3 independent supermarkets, 25 independent Living PLAZA by AEON, 28 independent DAISO Japan, 9 AEON Mono Mono, 6 KOMEDA'S Coffee and 1 JELYCO DO By KOMEDA'S Coffee in densely populated districts in Hong Kong. It also operates 20 GMS and 25 independent supermarkets in Guangdong Province, the PRC.
For more information：
AEON Stores (Hong Kong) Co., Limited
Corporate Communication Department
Tel.：（852）2165 0777
Email：[email protected]
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