A Shenzhen-based confectionery company has joined the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On April 28, Amos submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Bank of America Securities, China Merchants Securities International, and JPMorgan Chase acting as joint sponsors. This Shenzhen-based Chinese confectionery company, which started as an OEM manufacturer, aims to become the first Chinese confectionery company to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Based on retail sales in 2025, Amos will be the largest confectionery company in China and the fifth largest gummy company globally. From 2023 to 2025, the company's compound annual growth rate of retail sales is 61.9%, while the average growth rate of the global confectionery industry during the same period is 5.9%. Among the top 30 confectionery companies globally, Amos has the fastest growth rate. Amos's product portfolio revolves around the keywords "happiness" and "health," represented by the Amos and Biobor brands respectively. Ames, a brand specializing in creative candies, targets young consumers' demand for fun and visually appealing products, such as 4D building block gummies, Peelerz peelable gummies, and musical lollipops. The 4D building block gummies are essentially building blocks, allowing for both assembly and consumption. Peelerz peelable gummies emphasize "real peel, real fruit flavor, and real juice," featuring a realistic 3D mango shape and 60% pure fruit juice content, and once topped the US food and beverage sales charts on TikTok Shop. The musical lollipops incorporate a bone conduction chip into a traditional lollipop, allowing consumers to listen to music through bone conduction. For example, the musical lollipops available on the company's Tmall flagship store offer a variety of flavors, including medleys of TikTok songs, hip-hop rap medleys, happy birthday songs, and ancient Chinese poems. Some consumers commented, "You can hear the music when you put it in your mouth, and you can hear it even more clearly when you bite down on it. You can hear it most clearly when you bite down with earbuds. It can be played out loud when inserted into the box, but the volume isn't loud. Two songs are played on repeat, giving you a feeling of not wanting to throw it away after you've finished it." Other consumers said, "I spent over 20 yuan on a lollipop, but the sound quality is like a completely faulty wired headphone. It's okay to try it once, but I wouldn't repurchase it." Observer.com noted on the Ames Tmall flagship store that the discounted prices for the building block bucket gummies, Piles peeled gummies, and music lollipops are 38.9 yuan/350g, 38.9 yuan/328g, and 17.9 yuan/piece, respectively. Meanwhile, Want Want's "Molten Peeled Fruit Juice Gummy" is priced at 45 yuan/1kg after discount, and regular gummies are 9.9 yuan/200g. Regardless of the polarized consumer opinions, Ames products are priced significantly higher than traditional candies in the end market. In other words, the company has repositioned candies, originally a low-priced product category, into a higher price range through creativity, engaging gameplay, and cross-category elements. This is one of the key reasons why it can maintain high gross profit and growth rate despite the general "low-price competition" in the traditional candy market. The prospectus shows that in 2025, the Ames brand's revenue reached 1.97 billion yuan, a three-year increase of 289%. The Beobao brand, on the other hand, plays the role of a "second growth curve," focusing on the nutrition and health sector. The prospectus states that Beobao is an early participant in China's active probiotic gummies industry, emphasizing science-based formulas. According to Frost & Sullivan, Beobao's probiotic gummies ranked first in sales among similar products in China in 2025, based on retail price. However, the prospectus data shows that the development of the two brands is not balanced. The Ames brand's share of revenue increased from 47.2% in 2023 to 70.7% in 2025, while Beobao's share declined from 15.6% to 7.2%. In its prospectus, the company explained that the high growth of the Ames brand was mainly driven by demand for best-selling products such as Piles and 4D gummies in multiple regions and sales channels. The decline in the proportion of Beaubo's revenue was relative, and its absolute revenue was still growing. The company expects that as Beaubo expands into more markets, its contribution to revenue will gradually increase. In addition to its two proprietary brands, Ames retains its ODM business, providing product development and manufacturing services based on the needs of leading retailers and consumer brands. The financial data disclosed in the prospectus is the most convincing part of Ames' IPO story. From 2023 to 2025, the company's revenue was RMB 1.07 billion, RMB 1.571 billion, and RMB 2.782 billion, respectively, nearly tripling in three years; net profit during the same period was approximately RMB 137 million, RMB 198 million, and RMB 600 million, respectively, with net profit in 2025 increasing compared to 2023.This represents a growth of approximately 338%, exceeding the revenue growth rate. More noteworthy is the change in revenue structure. The prospectus shows that overseas revenue accounted for 68.0% of total revenue in 2024, rising from 52.8% in 2023 to 77.1% in 2025. In other words, by 2025, over 77 RMB out of every 100 RMB in revenue for Ames will come from overseas markets. North America contributed 1.47 billion RMB in revenue in 2025, accounting for 52.7% of the company's total revenue, making it the company's largest single regional market. Based on overseas revenue in 2025, Ames holds the largest overseas market share among all Chinese confectionery companies. Leveraging its channel resources accumulated in the North American market, Ames entered the Japanese market and partnered with KANRO, Japan's second-largest confectionery company, to sell 4D gelatin gummies, distributing its products in convenience stores such as 7-Eleven. From North America to Japan and South Korea, and then to Europe and Southeast Asia, Ames' products have been sold to more than 80 countries and regions worldwide before its IPO filing. To support its global production capacity needs, Ames continues to invest heavily in its production base construction. In March 2024, the Ames Food Guangdong (Jiangmen) Production and R&D Base, located in Jiangmen, Guangdong, went into full operation. As the group's second headquarters, the base represents a total investment of over 700 million yuan, covering an area of nearly 120,000 square meters, equipped with a 100,000-level cleanroom, and a maximum annual output value of 3 billion yuan. The company also plans to establish a manufacturing base in Vietnam, which is expected to begin operations around the end of 2026. The story of the strategic renaming to Ames dates back 22 years. Ma Enduo, now 56, was born in Xinning County, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, a small county town located in southwestern Hunan bordering Guangxi. In the late 1980s, he entered Yunnan University as the top liberal arts student in his county. From 1997 to 2004, he worked at Shenzhen Tianjun Grain and Oil Food and Shenzhen Tianjun Industrial, accumulating experience in the food trade. In September 2004, he independently founded Shenzhen Jinduoduo Food Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen, and has since served as Chairman of the Board, Director, and CEO. The prospectus reveals that Ma Enduo has approximately 30 years of experience in the confectionery and food, marketing, and food engineering industries, earning him the nickname "Uncle Amos" in the industry. The company's beginnings were not glamorous; its main business was OEM manufacturing for overseas brands, providing product development and manufacturing services—a common growth path in Chinese manufacturing: exchanging OEM manufacturing for technological accumulation and channel recognition, then aiming to break through with its own brand. The turning point came with Ma Enduo's dedication to its own brand. In his view, "OEM manufacturing is just cash flow for a company, while a brand is its asset." Based on this judgment, Jinduoduo successively obtained HACCP, BRC, and ISO 22000 certifications, preparing for compliance in the high-end export market. The moment the first Amos candy appeared on the shelves of Walmart in the United States marked a crucial transformation for the company from an OEM manufacturer to a brand owner. On March 10, 2026, the company completed its shareholding reform and officially changed its name to "Amos Food (Group) Co., Ltd." The name change from "Jinduoduo," with its strong Chinese local flavor, to the more internationally recognized "Amos" reflects the company's ambition to enter the international capital market. The prospectus shows that Amos has a relatively concentrated shareholding structure. Ma Enduo directly holds 59.09% of Amos's shares, and through Gongqingcheng Gongchuang and Amos Gongchuang, he holds 7.17% and 0.47% respectively, totaling 66.73%, making him the actual controller of the company. External shareholders include Fosun International, Shenzhen-based venture capital firm Tongchuang Weiye, and Shenzhen Guangdian Capital (Yinji Guangda). Notably, the company distributed a dividend of 530 million yuan just before its IPO. This scale of dividend distribution is not uncommon among companies planning to go public, but it is also a common topic of market attention. Amos's high growth in a blue ocean market is not an isolated phenomenon, but rather closely related to its niche market. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the global confectionery market size was approximately RMB 538.1 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to approximately RMB 703.3 billion by 2030. Among them, gummy candies are expected to reach a market size of RMB 242.1 billion in 2025, making them a high-growth sub-category within the confectionery sector. However, a closer look reveals a clear structural differentiation within the industry. On one hand, traditional chocolate giants have been facing the dual pressures of rising cocoa costs and shrinking profits in recent years. Hershey's net sales in fiscal year 2025 were approximately RMB 11...Hershey's revenue reached $700 million, a 4.4% year-on-year increase, primarily driven by price increases. Management stated in the earnings call that the price increases planned for 2025 would not fully cover cocoa cost inflation in 2026. Gross margin in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025 compressed to 37%, a decrease of approximately 17 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Looking ahead to 2026, Hershey expects first-quarter earnings to continue facing pressure from both high-cost inventory and tariffs, with a full-year net sales growth target of 4%-5%. In contrast, gummy candies, especially functional gummies, are experiencing high growth. QYResearch data shows that the global functional gummies market reached $12.894 billion in sales in 2025 and is projected to reach $22.778 billion in 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.47% from 2025 to 2032. The impact of the "sugar control" consumption trend on the confectionery industry is not one-sided. On one hand, traditional candies, high in sugar and calories, are facing pressure; on the other hand, gummies (especially those with added functional ingredients like vitamins and probiotics) have found common ground between the health supplement and candy markets thanks to their taste, portability, and "health added value." The main consumers in this category have expanded from children to adults. According to GlobeNewswire data, approximately 67% of adults aged 18 to 34 prefer supplements in the form of gummies. Ames operates in this structurally upward-trending niche market. Its Ames brand focuses on creative gummies with high emotional value, while its Beobao brand focuses on functional probiotic gummies; both segments are at the high end of the industry's growth curve. However, beyond the market's advantages, Ames still faces challenges. For example, with overseas revenue accounting for over 77%, the company is highly dependent on the North American market. Given the uncertainties surrounding international trade policies, exchange rate fluctuations, and the geopolitical environment, this high dependence on a single market implies corresponding operational risks. The company also listed changes in trade policies, tariffs, and dependence on major markets as risk factors in its prospectus. Furthermore, the "Beobao" brand, which the company has high hopes for as its second growth engine, is currently experiencing a continuous decline in its share of revenue. How to truly make this brand a growth engine is a question the company needs to answer in the future. According to the prospectus, the funds raised by Amex in this Hong Kong IPO will be mainly used to expand the company's global production layout, internationalization strategy, deepen its global sales channel network, promote global brand building and localized marketing, strengthen R&D investment, and digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading. From a small food trading company in Shenzhen in 2004 to a company submitting its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2026, Amex has completed its transformation from OEM to brand, and from local to global, in 22 years. The bell for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has not yet rung. Regardless of its final market performance after listing, Amex's prospectus is already posing questions to the capital market: as a Chinese confectionery brand goes global, what kind of growth story can it tell, and can it withstand the scrutiny of the public market? The Hong Kong stock journey of China's largest confectionery company has just begun.