Chicmax Pivots to Multi-Brand Strategy Amid Market Slowdown

On August 17, 2026, Hong Kong-listed beauty conglomerate Shanghai Chicmax Cosmetic Co., Ltd. disclosed its financial guidance for the first half of 2026. The group expects H1 revenue between 3.718 billion yuan and 3.759 billion yuan ($552 million to $558 million USD), representing a year-over-year decline of 8.5% to 9.5%. Net profit is projected to land between 120 million yuan and 130 million yuan ($17.8 million to $19.3 million USD), down 78.4% to 76.6% compared to the same period last year.

While the beauty market faces broader growth decelerations, Chicmax founder and CEO Lv Yixiong stressed in an internal memo to employees that short-term earnings fluctuations take a backseat to organizational efficiency and scientific talent, which he considers the primary moat for major cosmetics groups. Following the H1 dip, company revenue returned to positive year-over-year growth in July and August.

Lv described the current environment as a strategic consolidation phase necessary for transitioning Chicmax from a domestic market leader into an international cosmetics group. Rather than cutting budgets during the first-half squeeze, Chicmax maintained investment in core operational pillars, including overseas supply chains, ingredient research, and talent acquisition.

Alongside financial adjustments, Chicmax is executing a deliberate shift in brand strategy: pivoting from reliance on explosive growth from a single flagship brand toward a multi-brand, multi-category portfolio. Industry attention is moving away from whether main brand KANS can maintain its top sales rank, focusing instead on how effectively the group's secondary brand engines generate sustained revenue.

KANS Transforms from Livestreaming Leader to Full-Category Beauty Brand

Chicmax's strategic realignment starts with elevating KANS, its flagship anti-aging skincare label. In 2025, KANS generated 7.36 billion yuan ($1.092 billion USD) in revenue—a 31.6% year-over-year surge that accounted for 80.2% of Chicmax's total group top line. However, corporate management views KANS as more than a single skincare pillar.

Having surpassed 100 million active users, KANS is expanding into color cosmetics, men's grooming, and personal care. Built on established anti-aging lines like its Red Capsule series, the brand is pushing into higher-efficacy formulations and wider price tiers. In 2025, KANS surpassed 100 million yuan in sales across 10 distinct product categories.

This category expansion coincides with a transformation in sales channels. Third-party market data shows KANS substantially increased self-hosted livestreaming on Douyin—TikTok's Chinese sister app—while reducing reliance on external influencer promotions. Simultaneously, KANS expanded its offline reach by launching nationwide across WOW COLOUR beauty specialty stores.

By moving from single-item hero products to multi-category operational systems, and from social video dominance to omni-channel distribution, KANS is building systemic capacity to serve broader demand segments.

Emerging Growth Curves: newpage and ARMIYO Enter Expansion Phase

As KANS diversifies, Chicmax's secondary and tertiary growth drivers are scaling rapidly. Pediatric and adolescent skincare brand newpage has completed initial market validation to become the group's second revenue pillar, while sensitive skincare brand ARMIYO serves as its third growth driver.

newpage posted revenue growth from 153 million yuan ($22.7 million USD) in 2023 to 880 million yuan ($131 million USD) in 2025—a nearly sixfold increase over three years, raising its contribution to 9.6% of total group revenue.

Initially targeting infants aged 0 to 6, newpage expanded into products tailored for children and teenagers aged 6 to 18. While its original infant soothing cream holds top sales rankings on Alibaba's Tmall e-commerce platform, its newly launched school-age skincare line grew nearly twentyfold in 2025.

Extending customer retention from infancy through adolescence effectively raises the revenue ceiling traditional baby care brands encounter as children grow older. The expansion of newpage also validates Chicmax's shared corporate infrastructure, which supplies formulation research, clinical testing protocols, and channel playbooks across different brand divisions.

Meanwhile, sensitive skin brand ARMIYO relies on its proprietary ingredient Artemisia Oil AN+ and medical-academic partnerships to build technical barriers. The brand's signature single-dose ampoules have recorded cumulative sales exceeding 95 million units over four years.

Where newpage demonstrates horizontal scalability into premium baby and youth skincare, ARMIYO confirms Chicmax's vertical capability to commercialize basic scientific research into clinical-grade functional beauty brands.

Scaling the Portfolio: Chicmax Pursues Its '1+5+10+30' Brand Matrix Target

Beyond KANS, newpage, and ARMIYO, Chicmax is building out a broader platform-driven ecosystem. In the second half of 2026, the company plans to launch a licensed Hello Kitty beauty line alongside mother-baby brand Light Guardian and a dedicated line named after co-founder and pediatrician Cui Yutao. The group also recently took over Chinese domestic operations for Israeli Dead Sea skincare brand AHAVA.

The group's brand matrix now spans six key beauty sectors: mass skincare, mother-baby and youth care, personal care, color cosmetics, sensitive skincare, and premium skincare.

Under Chicmax's long-term roadmap, management aims to build:

• 1 flagship brand reaching 20 billion yuan in annual sales
• 5 major brands achieving 5 billion yuan each
• 10 growth brands hitting 3 billion yuan each
• 30 global brands generating 1 billion yuan each

This portfolio expansion relies on centralized corporate capabilities across channels, talent, research, and manufacturing:

• Distribution: Self-hosted livestreaming playbooks built on Douyin are being deployed across newer brands, alongside expansion into offline retail environments.
• Talent: Chicmax recruits experienced brand managers and uses equity incentives to align performance with brand valuation.
• R&D: The company operates research centers in Shanghai and overseas, holding nearly 200 patents and proprietary actives like Cyclohexapeptide-9 and Artemisia Oil AN+.
• Manufacturing: Upgrades to the smart factory at Chicmax Technology Park cost 400 million yuan ($59.4 million USD), establishing a daily capacity of 2 million bottles as China's first AI-operated automated cosmetics production workshop.

Long-Term Capital Commitments Replace Short-Term Fixes

As China's beauty market shifts from rapid volume growth to intense market-share competition, success increasingly favors companies with operational scale, proprietary ingredient IP, and diversified distribution networks rather than single-product viral spikes.

Chicmax broke ground on a manufacturing facility in Indonesia, scheduled to commence operations in July 2027, marking a concrete step in its global supply chain strategy. This overseas push aligns with a broader trend where Chinese beauty brands expanding overseas are establishing local manufacturing and social commerce footprints across emerging markets.

Additionally, dermatologist Zheng Zhizhong recently joined Chicmax's scientific advisory board to reinforce its clinical skin research, while equity-sharing models aim to retain core talent across brand divisions.

With KANS and emerging brands returning to growth in Q3 2026, Chicmax's multi-brand matrix is positioned to hedge domestic market shifts while building a footprint in international cosmetics markets.