(Yicai) March 21 -- Shares of Pop Mart skyrocketed after the Chinese toy company revealed more than twofold profit growth for last year due to overseas expansion and this year, sales should at least double outside the mainland.

Pop Mart, a retailer of collectible toys, [HKG: 9992] closed 16 percent up at HKD28.65 (USD4), or more than 40 percent higher than at the beginning of this year.

Last year, Pop Mart's total net profit surged by 129 percent to a historic high of CNY1.1 billion (USD150 million) and revenue increased by 37 percent to CNY6.3 billion, another all-time high, the Beijing-based seller of toys often sold in blind boxes wrote in its annual report released yesterday. The gross profit margin rose to 61.3 percent from 57.5 percent.

Revenue coming from offshore markets, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, will rise by no less than 100 percent this year from last year, Wang Ning, chairman and chief executive, said during the earnings call. Wang had said earlier that he is confident that this year, such markets will surpass the firm's total revenue in 2019, essentially replicating the retailer's early domestic success.

Offshore revenue more than doubled to CNY1.1 billion last year, making up almost 17 percent of the total, up from 10 percent. Pop Mart started selling its products online in late 2018 and opened its first physical store abroad in South Korea in September 2020. After that, it has expanded to Southeast Asia, Europe, and Australia.

In 2023, Pop Mart added 37 new stores outside the mainland, along with an addition of 39 vending machines to have a total of 80 stores, as well as 159 'robo shops' in these markets.

However, the mainland is still the biggest market for Pop Mart. Last year, domestic revenue tallied CNY5.2 billion, up by 26 percent, and the sum made up more than 83 percent of the total. One of the most lucrative channels was Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, as e-commerce on the short-video platform generated CNY283 million (USD39.3 million) in sales, rising by more than five times.

Pop Mart opened 55 new stores to have a total of 363 physical stores on the mainland as of last year. Moreover, it added 123 vending machines to reach a total of 2,190.

Curiously, the brand is expanding its influence as it opened Pop Land, a 40,000-square-meter theme park in Beijing, last September.

Editor: Emmi Laine