Morning Light Holdings spins off Kolip H-shares listing: intensifying competition in the office direct sales industry, significant slowdown in revenue growth, price wars lead to repeated lows in gross profit margins

Produced by: Sina Finance Listed Company Research Institute

Author: Zhu

On March 16, Morning Glory Co., Ltd. (晨光股份) announced that it plans to spin off its controlling subsidiary, Keli Pu Technology Group Co., Ltd. (科力普科技集团股份有限公司) (formerly known as “Shanghai Morning Glory Keli Pu Stationery Co., Ltd.” (上海晨光科力普办公用品有限公司); hereinafter “Keli Pu”), for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

There are many participants in the office direct-sales segment where Keli Pu operates, competing side by side with Qixin, DeLi, Office (欧菲斯), JD Enterprise Purchase (京东企业购), Alibaba’s government and enterprise division (阿里政企), and others, and the phenomenon of product homogenization is severe. For general office supplies such as paper, pens, file folders, etc., the level of standardization is high, prices are transparent, market competition is fierce, and gross margins are generally in the range of 3%~8%. As a core component of revenue, this directly drags down overall gross margin. In recent years, Keli Pu’s gross margin has been declining year by year, hitting repeated new lows. Its net profit margin is even only around 2%.

In terms of overseas business, although Morning Glory’s export sales revenue has continued to grow, its growth rate has slowed year by year. It accounts for less than 5% of total revenue, making only limited contribution to overall performance. Emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia have relatively large growth potential, but local consumer spending levels are comparatively low and price sensitivity is high—there is a mismatch between Morning Glory’s product positioning and market demand. In addition, external factors such as intensifying international trade frictions, frequent currency exchange rate fluctuations, and rising sea freight costs also increase uncertainty in overseas business operations.

**　　Revenue growth rate slows sharply; gross margin keeps falling to a record low**

Morning Glory Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive stationery supplier and office services provider that integrates creative value and service advantages, advocates a fashionable stationery lifestyle, and offers end-to-end solutions for learning and work scenarios. Its traditional core business mainly involves the design, R&D, manufacturing, and sales of writing instruments under Morning Glory and its affiliated brands, student stationery, office stationery, and other products, as well as Morning Glory Technology’s internet and e-commerce platforms. Its new businesses mainly consist of the office direct-sales business, Keli Pu, and the retail big-store business, Nine Wood Miscellany Society (九木杂物社) and Morning Glory Living Hall (晨光生活馆).

Keli Pu official website

According to the company’s official website, Keli Pu was established in 2012. It is a benchmark enterprise in China’s ToB e-commerce retail platform sector. It is committed to providing one-stop service procurement solution for various types of customers, such as government departments, central state-owned enterprises, financial institutions, the top 500 private enterprises, and the top 500 foreign-funded enterprises, among others. Its business scenarios cover one-stop office procurement, MRO industrial supplies, marketing gifts, and employee benefits.

As of now, Morning Glory directly holds 77.78% of Keli Pu’s shares. The actual controlling persons—Chen Huwen (陈湖文), Chen Huxiong (陈湖雄), and Jie Chen Xueling (陈雪玲)—hold 4%, 3.3%, and 1.5% respectively. Five employee shareholding platforms together hold the remaining 13.42% of shares, and all of their executing affairs partners are the company’s core management personnel.

After more than ten years of development, Keli Pu has grown into Morning Glory’s main growth engine, with its revenue scale surpassing the company’s traditional core business. From 2022 to 2024, Keli Pu’s operating revenue was 10.92 billion yuan, 13.307 billion yuan, and 13.831 billion yuan, accounting for 54.66%, 56.99%, and 57.09% of the company’s total revenue, respectively.

But good times didn’t last. Keli Pu is now facing a growth bottleneck. In 2024, its revenue growth rate slowed sharply, falling for the first time to single digits. Its net profit also declined for the first time, with a drop as high as 19.80%. In the first three quarters of 2025, Keli Pu’s revenue grew year over year by 5.83%. Its growth rate still remained at single digits, which is worlds apart from the previously common double-digit growth.

From the perspective of industry commonality, office direct-sales companies generally have the characteristics of low gross margins, heavy asset bases, and intense competition.

For general office supplies such as paper, pens, file folders, etc., they have a high level of standardization, transparent pricing, and fierce market competition. Gross margins are generally in the range of 3%~8%, and as a core component of revenue they directly reduce overall gross margin. MRO industrial supplies such as hardware, tools, and labor protection products have the attributes of bulk commodities, with low unit prices, fast turnover, and limited room for price negotiation. Their gross margins are only 2%~5%. Moreover, their share continues to rise, further diluting gross margin.

At the same time, there are many participants in the office direct-sales segment; companies such as Qixin, DeLi, Office (欧菲斯), JD Enterprise Purchase (京东企业购), Alibaba’s government and enterprise division (阿里政企), and others compete head-to-head. The phenomenon of product homogenization is serious. Smaller players grab market share with low prices, and top companies are forced to follow with price cuts to maintain their share, keeping gross margins under sustained pressure. In addition, as digital procurement becomes more widespread and price transparency increases, the product price gap is further compressed, and the gross margin space for related companies narrows accordingly.

Keli Pu’s core customers are large government and corporate clients such as central state-owned enterprises, government entities, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies. These customers have large procurement scales and high concentration, and extremely strong pricing power. Under tendering/bidding and framework agreement models, price is the core competitive factor. Keli Pu needs to use high cost-effectiveness as its core strategy and proactively compress gross margin space to obtain orders, which naturally suppresses gross margin. In addition, major customers are price-sensitive and require cost transparency, making it difficult for companies to shift costs through price premiums, further limiting the ability to improve gross margin.

From 2020 to 2024, Keli Pu’s gross margin has shown a downward trend year by year, at 10.98%, 9.37%, 8.35%, 7.15%, and 6.94% respectively, for a cumulative decline of 4 percentage points. Gross profit was 549 million yuan, 728 million yuan, 913 million yuan, 952 million yuan, and 960 million yuan respectively. In the first three quarters of 2025, Keli Pu’s gross margin continued to fall further, declining year over year by 0.34 percentage points to 6.21%, setting a record low.

It can be clearly seen that Keli Pu’s net profit is far lower than its gross margin, with profitability space being substantially compressed by operating costs. Taking 2024 as an example, Keli Pu’s net profit margin is about 2.33%, only about one-third of its gross margin for the same period.

**　　Accounts receivable keep rising; overseas revenue share is extremely low**

From an operating model perspective, the nationwide warehousing network, logistics delivery, and digital platform development are all heavy-asset models, with rigid costs such as warehouse depreciation, logistics fulfillment, and platform operations. At the same time, B-end centralized procurement generally involves long payment terms of 3–12 months, resulting in a higher proportion of accounts receivable and increasing the cost of capital occupation.

As Keli Pu’s business scale expands, Morning Glory’s accounts receivable have continued to rise. From 2021 to 2024, the ending balance of the company’s accounts receivable was 1.721 billion yuan, 2.957 billion yuan, 3.587 billion yuan, and 3.861 billion yuan respectively. As a proportion of revenue for the period, it was 9.77%, 14.79%, 15.36%, and 15.94% respectively, showing an upward trend year by year.

As of the end of September 2025, the ending balance of Morning Glory’s accounts receivable had reached 4.86 billion yuan, an increase of 1.0 billion yuan from the beginning of the period. This accounted for 28.05% of revenue in the first three quarters, up 4.12 percentage points year over year.

Meanwhile, Morning Glory’s days sales outstanding (DSO) for accounts receivable has also continued to increase, meaning that the company’s cash collection speed has slowed and the collection cycle has lengthened. From 2021 to 2024, the company’s days sales outstanding were 33.55 days, 42.11 days, 50.44 days, and 55.33 days respectively. In the first three quarters of 2025, it continued to rise to 67.94 days, increasing by 7 days year over year.

In terms of cash flow, from 2021 to 2024, Keli Pu’s net operating cash flow was 37.625 million yuan, 430 million yuan, 638 million yuan, and 527 million yuan respectively, with relatively large fluctuations. In the first half of 2025, net operating cash outflow was 494 million yuan, and the outflow amount expanded by 32.45% year over year, causing the net operating cash flow in Morning Glory’s consolidated financial statements to decrease by 2.42% year over year.

As of the end of June 2025, Keli Pu’s total assets and total liabilities were 6.646 billion yuan and 4.156 billion yuan respectively, representing 42.28% and 62.54% of Morning Glory’s consolidated financial statements; the asset-liability ratio was 62.53%, which is 20 percentage points higher than Morning Glory’s consolidated financial statements.

In overseas business, Morning Glory is also facing the dilemma of slowing growth. From 2022 to 2024, the company’s export sales revenue was 702 million yuan, 854 million yuan, and 1.039 billion yuan respectively, with year-over-year growth rates decreasing from 67.91% to 21.61% and 21.59%—showing a continued slowdown. As a share of total revenue, it was 3.51%, 3.66%, and 4.29% respectively, and it has long remained at single-digit levels, resulting in limited contribution to overall performance.

In the first half of 2025, Morning Glory’s overseas business revenue reached 557 million yuan, up 15.92% year over year, with its growth rate for the first time falling below 20%. Due to the year-over-year decline in total revenue, the overseas business share increased to 5.16%.

The overseas market expansion difficulties stem from multiple factors working together. On the one hand, the stationery markets in Europe and the United States are highly mature, with a stable competitive landscape. Local brands such as Pilot, Mitsubishi, and Sedlo (施德楼) hold dominant positions, and channel barriers are deep, making it hard for new entrants to break through. On the other hand, emerging markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia have relatively large growth potential, but local consumer spending levels are comparatively low and price sensitivity is high—there is a mismatch between Morning Glory’s product positioning and market demand. In addition, external factors such as intensifying international trade frictions, frequent currency exchange rate fluctuations, and rising sea freight costs also increase uncertainty in overseas business operations.

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Responsible editor: Company Watch