From the frenzy of queuing to snap up the products to second-hand dealers "dare not accept them", is the "Hermès of gold" no longer a hot seller?
Laopu Gold, regarded by the outside world as the "Hermès in the gold sector", is rarely launching large-scale discount promotions.
Compared with previous periods, this round of promotions of Laopu Gold has made considerable improvements in discount duration, discount intensity and product coverage. Most offline products can enjoy a 10% discount, and the actual payment price of some online products is as low as 15% off the original price.
In the second-hand market, the recycling price of some Laopu Gold products can even be equivalent to a 40% discount of the original price; more stores no longer recycle Laopu Gold, claiming that "it is very easy to suffer losses".
In fact, as a player mainly engaged in gold jewelry business, Laopu Gold's performance is highly correlated with gold prices. Last year, gold prices soared all the way, but since the beginning of this year, gold prices have corrected significantly. Even Laopu Gold, which positions itself against luxury brands, is facing considerable pressure on the cost side.
According to the latest performance forecast disclosed by Laopu Gold, the company expects its revenue in the first half of the year to be about 19.8 billion yuan to 20.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60% to 66%; the adjusted net profit measured under non-IFRS standards is about 4.31 billion yuan to 4.36 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 83% to 85%.
However, many institutions pointed out that Laopu Gold's second-quarter performance fell short of expectations, and lowered its earnings forecast and target price.
As of the close on August 11, the latest market value of Laopu Gold is about 64 billion Hong Kong dollars, which has shrunk by more than 120 billion Hong Kong dollars from its historical high.
Laopu Gold launches big promotions, some second-hand merchants say they "dare not take in its products"
According to Stock Star, on July 23, Laopu Gold officially launched a Qixi Festival preferential activity lasting for nearly a month. Not only the activity duration is extended, but the activity intensity is also increased compared with the 15% discount last year.
Taking Laopu Gold's Beijing SKP store as an example, after superimposing preferential activities such as shopping full reduction, multiple points, and full-gift rewards, some scalpers directly posted a quotation of "21% off for Laopu Gold at Beijing SKP" online.
According to Yicai, after visiting a number of Laopu Gold stores in Shenzhen, it found that although the counter price was not directly reduced, multiple stores launched preferential activities, and most styles can enjoy a 10% discount.
The discount intensity on online channels is even more obvious. In the official flagship store of Laopu Gold, a diamond-inlaid gourd pendant is priced at 20939.3 yuan, and the page shows an immediate reduction of 3720.7 yuan. The actual payment price is equivalent to 15% off the original price, and lower than the discounted price of offline stores.
Many shop assistants said that the discount is to give back to new and old customers, and some discounted products may be redesigned or discontinued later; the current discount is for existing inventory, with limited quantity, while supplies last.
As for whether the continuous decline in the international gold price recently will affect the official price of the store, the clerk said that direct price reduction is rare, and the current discount activity is more like a disguised way of price adjustment.
At the same time, the price of Laopu Gold in the second-hand market has also shrunk: in an offline second-hand luxury store, a Laopu Gold pendant of about 7 grams is quoted at 13,800 yuan. According to the clerk, the original price of this product in the counter was more than 20,000 yuan before, which is equivalent to a 30% to 40% discount.
In the recycling link, the aforementioned second-hand luxury store clerk said that the price needs to be determined separately according to the style, and the quotation cannot be given directly.
Among the stores that give clear recycling quotations, Laopu Gold, like other brands of gold jewelry, is purchased at a discount from the market gold price, without additional brand premium. More stores no longer recycle Laopu Gold, bluntly saying "it is very easy to lose money".
Some consumers reported to Chinanews that the 8.46g cross-shaped vajra pendant they bought for more than 20,000 yuan in March this year is now only quoted at 12,000 yuan by second-hand recyclers, which is almost a 40% discount.
The "chill" is also reflected in passenger flow. In July this year, a netizen in Hangzhou, Zhejiang posted on the Xiaohongshu platform that the offline Laopu Gold stores in the local area no longer have the lively scene of customers queuing to enter the store as before.
Positioned against luxury brands, focusing on "fixed price sales"
Public information shows that Xu Gaoming, the founder of Laopu Gold, was originally a civil servant. In 1995, Xu Gaoming went into business and entered the tourism industry. Later in 2004, he founded Golden Treasure Company, which is mainly engaged in gold jewelry and playware business.
In 2009, Xu Gaoming opened the first ancient gold jewelry store, and officially named the brand "Laopu Gold" in 2014.
Tianyancha shows that in December 2016, Laopu Gold Co., Ltd. was officially registered and established. Eight years later, Laopu Gold was successfully listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It is worth mentioning that at the very beginning of its establishment, Laopu Gold was unwilling to follow the traditional jewelry gold giants such as Chow Tai Fook to capture the sinking market with tens of thousands of offline stores. The company constantly emphasizes its high added value beyond gold, and the intangible cultural heritage value is one of its key competitive advantages.
Laopu Gold claims to be the first brand in China to promote the concept of "ancient method gold", and also the top brand of ancient handmade gold ware in China.
In 2019, Laopu Gold pioneered the use of pure gold as the base material and manually inlaid diamonds, completely subverting the traditional standard of using K gold as the base material in the diamond jewelry industry.
In addition, as the "first drafting unit", Laopu Gold participated in the compilation of China's first group standards for Ancient Gold Jewelry and Ancient Gold Diamond Inlaid Jewelry.
While focusing on the concept of "ancient method gold", Xu Gaoming also set the tone for Laopu Gold to adhere to the high-end route. The company set strict store access requirements, and chose stores in prime locations of high-end shopping malls in first-tier cities.
In 2017, Laopu Gold's first store in Beijing SKP officially opened. Since then, most of its stores are located in top shopping malls such as SKP, Hang Lung Properties, and MixC.
As of the end of 2025, Laopu Gold has opened only 45 self-operated stores in 16 cities. Compared with 2024, the company added 10 new stores last year, and optimized and expanded 9 stores.
In the whole year of 2025, more than 80% of Laopu Gold's sales performance (25.793 billion yuan) came from offline stores, and the sales performance of a single store reached 573 million yuan.
"Laopu Gold's vision is to build a world-class high-end brand and the world's number one gold brand", Xu Gaoming once made a bold statement at the 2024 performance briefing, "We have adjusted from benchmarking international jewelry brands to benchmarking international luxury brands. Laopu Gold is not a brand that simply sells jewelry, we position ourselves as a full-category brand".
In order to align with luxury brands, most of Laopu Gold's products have abandoned the traditional sales method of "weight per gram + processing fee", and adopted a fixed-price sales model.
This makes the converted gram price of Laopu Gold products much higher than the price of gold in the same period. Citi once pointed out in a report that Laopu Gold's premium over traditional gold jewelry merchants has exceeded 55%, and some calculations show that the highest premium can reach more than 80%.
Some media believe that this set of strategies is extremely effective in the cycle of rising gold prices. Consumers believe that "gold itself is rising, and buying means earning", which makes them easily have the illusion of cost performance for "fixed price" products.
According to public reports, Laopu Gold raised prices for 3 rounds in 2025, with an increase of more than 50%. Before each round of price adjustment, Laopu Gold stores in many places often have long queues of people rushing to buy all night, and some stores are even sold out.
However, once the gold price turns downward, consumer psychology reverses completely — the sentiment of "buy when price rises, not when it falls" spreads, and wait-and-see replaces rush buying.
According to National Business Daily, in the recycling market, a second-hand luxury store owner said: "When gold prices rise, some people will buy Laopu Gold products even if there is a premium of two to three thousand yuan per gram. But once gold prices fall, the premium will be greatly reduced."
Second-quarter performance fell short of expectations, market value shrank by more than 120 billion Hong Kong dollars from the high point
Since 2025, gold prices have experienced drastic fluctuations. Data from the Shanghai Gold Exchange shows that the price of Au99.99 once doubled from more than 600 yuan per gram at the beginning of 2025 to a maximum of 1256 yuan per gram at the end of January this year.
However, gold prices have generally corrected this year, falling to 860 yuan per gram at the end of June, and closing at 946.7 yuan per gram as of August 11.
According to National Business Daily, in the face of cost pressure, most gold jewelry enterprises choose to hedge or control inventory, but Laopu Gold has taken a reverse move to hoard gold on a large scale without any hedging.
The reason why Laopu Gold made such a choice may be found in Xu Gaoming's previous statement — "Once we choose hedging, it means that we have abandoned the original intention of building a world-class brand."
In the cycle of rising gold prices, this strategy made Laopu Gold make huge profits; but in the cycle of falling gold prices, the high-priced inventory hoarded also increased the company's "burden".
In 2025, Laopu Gold achieved a major performance explosion, with annual revenue of 27.303 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 221%; net profit recorded was 4.868 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 230.45%.
At the same time, Laopu Gold's inventory scale also soared from 4.088 billion yuan at the end of 2024 to 16.044 billion yuan at the end of 2025, with a growth rate as high as 292.49%.
On July 27 this year, Laopu Gold released its performance forecast. The company expects its sales performance in the first half of the year to be about 22.7 billion yuan to 23.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60% to 65%; revenue is about 19.8 billion yuan to 20.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60% to 66%; the adjusted net profit measured under non-IFRS standards is about 4.31 billion yuan to 4.36 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 83% to 85%.
Laopu Gold said that the main reasons for the performance growth in the first half of the year are: the continuous expansion of brand influence, continuous optimization and iteration of products, and the improvement of high-end customer consumption, gold ware consumption, and repurchase rate.
Laopu Gold believes that with the gradual implementation of targeted strategies such as new product launch and iteration, high-end customer management, as well as the continuous optimization and expansion of the store network, it is expected that the support for revenue and net profit will be significantly presented in the second half of 2026.
However, many institutions pointed out that Laopu Gold's second-quarter performance fell short of expectations, and lowered its earnings forecast and target price.
According to Morgan Stanley's calculation, based on the median value, Laopu Gold's second-quarter sales amounted to 3.5 billion yuan, with an average monthly sales of about 1.2 billion yuan, which was only 40% of the level in March 2026. The second-quarter net profit ranged from 600 million yuan to 700 million yuan, lower than market forecasts.
Goldman Sachs lowered Laopu Gold's net profit forecast for 2026 to 2028 by 14% to 15%, and lowered its target price from 650 Hong Kong dollars to 560 Hong Kong dollars. Its tracking data shows that Laopu Gold's Tmall flagship store sales in the second quarter of 2026 plummeted 63% year-on-year, reversing the strong 155% growth in the first quarter.
Citi pointed out that Laopu Gold's second-quarter net profit was about 30% lower than its and market expectations. The institution warned that the weak sales of Laopu Gold in the second quarter were mainly dragged down by the two major channels of SKP and Tmall. These two major channels used to contribute about 30% of sales, but now they have dropped to about 20%, and the decline cannot be completely offset by the sales of new large stores opened in the second half of 2025.
Although it was once called one of the "three golden flowers of Hong Kong stocks" by the outside world, Laopu Gold's recent performance in the capital market is not satisfactory.
As of the close on August 11, Laopu Gold's share price is 362 Hong Kong dollars per share, down more than 60% from the peak in the middle of last year. The latest market value is about 64 billion Hong Kong dollars, which has shrunk by more than 120 billion Hong Kong dollars from the high point.