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79-Year-Old Tao Huabi Returns to Lead Lao Gan Ma: Introduces AI Full-Chain Factory Management...
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- DeepHorus
According to Guandian.com, at the Guizhou Provincial Quality Development Conference, Li Xin, executive deputy general manager and chief quality officer of Lao Gan Ma, disclosed that Lao Gan Ma's full-year revenue in 2025 reached 5.4 billion yuan, setting a record high in the brand's history. ITHome's October 13 report also covered this. This figure once again made Lao Gan Ma a focus of attention.
Lao Gan Ma founder Tao Huabi retired in 2014 and transferred her equity to her two sons. Afterward, the company changed its chili recipe, causing a change in taste and a decline in performance; revenue once fell to 4.2 billion yuan. Changes during this period prompted market discussion about Lao Gan Ma's traditional flavor and business direction.
In 2019, Tao Huabi returned to frontline management to oversee the company. She restored traditional raw material standards and continued to invest funds to advance intelligent upgrades of the factory area. The company implemented a full-chain AI management system, relying on intelligent transformation to stabilize product quality and thereby return to peak performance.
Currently, Lao Gan Ma's workshops have fully launched an AI visual quality inspection system, achieving 100% traceability of core raw materials. High-speed industrial cameras scan chili peppers on the conveyor belt and can identify moldy and spotted chili peppers in 0.3 seconds. The system uses airflow to automatically remove nonconforming raw materials, reducing the defect rate of key process products to 0.02%.
Public information shows that in the third quarter of 2025, Lao Gan Ma ranked first in the Chinese-style seasoning sauce category, with its market share long maintained at around 55%. At present, Lao Gan Ma's production capacity exceeds one million tons, and its products are sold to 160 countries and regions around the world. These figures reflect its production capacity scale and global channel coverage.
From revenue once falling to 4.2 billion yuan to full-year revenue reaching 5.4 billion yuan in 2025 and setting a new brand high, Lao Gan Ma's performance curve is closely related to Tao Huabi's return, the restoration of raw material standards, and the implementation of AI management. Li Xin's disclosure of the above data at the Guizhou Provincial Quality Development Conference also showed the outside world the path for traditional food enterprises to carry out intelligent transformation. It also indicates that quality management and intelligent investment are becoming important support for its performance recovery.
Against the background of Tao Huabi taking the helm again, Lao Gan Ma is combining full-chain AI management and quality control with production capacity and global sales. In the future, whether it can continue to maintain its leading share in the Chinese-style seasoning sauce market and sustain revenue growth will depend on the balance between intelligent quality control and traditional flavor. The market will also watch whether this model can provide a reference for the traditional condiment industry.
