Contents
Breaking News
Big corporate events
Investment and financing updates
Interesting & Noteworthy new products
Some impressive figures
Breaking News
1. Australian media The Australian reported that New Zealand headquartered a2 Milk could be the target of a takeover, with Nestlé possibly an interested buyer. a2’s 2021 annual report (30 June 2020-30 June 2021) shows that the Group experienced a challenging year, with revenue declining 30.3% to $1.21 billion. Find out all you need to know here.
a2 2021 Annual Report
2. Unilever's vice CEO Xiwen Zeng admitted in a recent interview that Magnum used different ingredients in its ice cream products on the Chinese market and international market, proving the earlier accusation of "double standard" to be true. Unlike using condensed milk in the ice cream for the European market, Zeng stated Magnum used reconstituted milk (milk powder with water) in China due to lack of fresh milk supply. Read here to find out more.
The Magnum ice creams
3. RABO BANK NEDERL-ANDS announced the top 20 global dairy companies for 2021. With annual revenues of $23 billion, Lactalis displaced Nestle ($20.8 billion) to become the largest dairy company. Chinese dairy enterprises Yili ($13.8 billion) ranked fifth and Mengniu ($11 billion) ninth.
Global Dairy Top 20, 2021
Big corporate events
1. PepsiCo has entered into an agreement with French private equity firm PAI Partners to sell Tropicana, Naked and other select juice brands across North America, and to sell certain juice businesses in Europe. The proceeds will reach nearly $3.3 billion. The deal may allow PepsiCo to optimize its portfolio, focusing on categories such as healthy snacks and zero-calorie beverages. The transaction will not affect the Chinese market for now.
2. Vitasoy announced that its net profit plunged 91-107% for the six consecutive months ended September 30, 2021. The decline was mainly due to a sharp drop in market demand in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2020-2022. In July 2021, the Group’s internal memo containing the Company’s condolences to the family of an employee who committed suicide after stabbing a Hong Kong policeman was widely spread on social media platforms, resulting in a boycott from Chinese mainland consumers. Products were removed from shelves in different sales channels in Mainland China in July, negatively impacting on the Group.
3. Milkground released its first-half revenue, which rose 90.8% year-on-year to 2.067 billion yuan. The Company's cheese business continues to grow, with revenue reaching 1.522 billion yuan, up 91.53% year on year. It has surpassed French brand Milkana to be the top 1 cheese brand by market share in the Chinese market.
4. Ausnutria announced the results for the first half of 2021. The revenue was 4.271 billion yuan, up 10.7% year on year. Revenue from its own-brand formula business was 3.741 billion yuan, up 9.7% year on year. The cow and goat milk powder business recorded a year-on-year increase of 16.9% and 2%, respectively.
5. OATLY reported its first-half revenue of $286.2 million, up 59.4% year on year. Asia has been OATLY's most powerful growth engine in recent years.
6. Feihe released the first-half 2021 results. Its revenue reached 11.54 billion yuan, up 32.6% year-on-year. Since 2016, Feihe's revenue has maintained double-digit growth for five consecutive years. Its infant formula market shares in China rose to 19.2% in May 2021.
7. U.S. coffee chain brand Peet’s Coffee revealed it had opened 40 stores in China by the end of the first half in 2021. It plans to accelerate expansion in China by opening 70 stores by the end of 2021 given the booming Chinese coffee market.
Peet’s Coffee shop
8. H&H Group released the results for the first half of 2021, showing that the Group's revenue reached 5.42 billion yuan, up 5% year-on-year. Biostime goat milk powder performed brilliantly, with a growth rate of 71.8%. Growth in the Adult Nutrition and Care business unit was also remarkable, with Swisse China delivering a robust 18.4% growth.
9. Mengniu Dairy released 2021 interim financial results. In the first half of 2021, Mengniu's revenue reached 45.9 billion yuan, up 22.3% year on year. The normal-temperature business achieved the fastest growth in the past five years, and the star product Deluxe increased by nearly 40%.
10. In the first half of 2021, Yili's total revenue exceeded 56.506 billion yuan, up 18.89% year on year. Yili achieved 42.407-billion-yuan and 7.627-billion-yuan revenue in the liquid milk and dairy & milk powder sectors, up 19.65% and 14.83%, respectively.
Investment and financing updates
1. Plant-based meat brand Except Meat completed tens of millions of yuan angel round financing. Established in 2019, the brand has launched ToB products such as plant-based meat dumplings and plant-based solid egg yolks.
Except Meat’s plant-based meat dumplings
2. Plant-based meat company V2Food announced the completion of nearly 350-million-yuan B+ round financing. This Australia-based company eyes to further tap into the Chinese market with more localized practices.
3. Shandong Sanyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., which sells erythritol products, accepted the initial review by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The company intends to raise 900 million yuan for the annual production of 50,000 tons of erythritol, driven by consumer’s increasing health awareness and demand for sugar substitute products. Standing out because of its sugar-free beverage, Genki Forest was Sanyuan Bio's largest customer in the first half of 2021.
4. Functional meal replacement milkshake brand WonderLab obtained investment from Temasek. It is the fourth new consumer brand Temasek has invested in China in the past year, following Manner Coffee, Genki Forest, and Hey Tea.
5. H&H Group announced to buy 100% of Zesty Paws, a U.S. pet nutrition supplement brand, at $610 million. In November 2020, the Group acquired the U.S. pet food brand Solid Gold at $163 million with 100% equity. The acquisitions will enable the Group to further expand its pet business in the Chinese market, with Zesty Paws and Solid Gold to offer consumers a full range of products from pet food to supplements.
6. Chinese children’s tuna snack brand Yukeai received 30 million angel round financing. The brand uses tuna DHA nutrition as the main selling point, with a product portfolio covering tuna sausage, tuna floss, and tuna roll.
Interesting & noteworthy new products
1. Danone Nutricia launched Fortimel Repair, the first skin health oral nutritional product in China. The main selling point of the new product is to help people with skin damage improve their skin condition more scientifically through the combination of particular nutrients in the formula. The launch of Fortimel Repair is based on the company's insight into Chinese consumers’ upgraded skin health and nutrition needs.
2. Japanese snack brand Glico introduced its beverage brand "Almond Effect" (扁桃仁效果) into the Chinese market. This plant protein beverage is originally imported from Japan, featuring 0 animal protein, 0 gluten, 0 cholesterol, and 0 lactose. It has three versions, sugar-free, original flavor, and cocoa flavor. The price is 59.7 yuan for three boxes.
3. Yoplait launched the icelandic yogurt in China, featuring 0 sucrose, 0 fat, low calorie, and high protein (each 120g-cup contains 11g protein). Icelandic yogurt is a new segment in the Chinese yogurt market.
Yoplait’s icelandic yogurt
4. Chinese yogurt brand Weiquan rolled out FITNESS PRO, a high-protein yogurt brand with low sugar and high protein (each 230g-cup contains 11.5g protein) as the selling point. The new product’s Tmall price is 230g*12 bottles/129.9 yuan.
5. Three Squirrels' children's snack brand, Deer Blue, launched an organic salt-reduced soy sauce. Compared with ordinary soy sauce, the new product’s sodium content is reduced by 33-43%, with no pigment, preservative, and essence.
6. Oreo launched a new zero-sugar series with two flavors, classic and rose. The Tmall price is 95g/boxes/11.9 yuan.
7. FFIT8 launched its new protein replacement milkshake series, which combines milk concentrate, whey concentrate, and soy protein isolate. Each bottle contains 25g of protein and rich dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
8. Chinese functional food brand Smeal launched new instant anti-helicobacter-pylori probiotics. The new product contains six Chinese-developed strains, including Lactobacillus reuteri, Acidophilus and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. The Tmall price is 1.5g*7/ box *8/557 yuan.
9. Bright Dairy and Bloomage Biotech jointly developed the “women’s beauty collection” functional milk. The new collection contains collagen peptide, sodium hyaluronate, and cranberry powder with three flavors, aiming to help women replenish collagen and rejuvenate skin.
Bright Dairy’s functional milk collection
10. BEKIND launched a new nut bar specially designed for children. It contains ground almonds, freeze-dried strawberry, and raisin, matched with natural honey and prebiotics to provide sufficient protein, dietary fiber, minerals, vitamin E, unsaturated fatty acid, and other nutrition to children. The product has two flavors, strawberry and yogurt, with a price of 12g*15 pieces/box /89 yuan in Tmall.
BEKIND’s nut bar for children
Some impressive figures
1. By the end of June 2021, Alibaba had 939 million mobile monthly active users (MAUs) in Chinese retail marketplaces, up 14 million from the previous quarter.
2. Nielsen data shows that in the first five months of 2021, domestic infant formula brands’ offline market share had increased from 31.4% to 39.6%, while foreign infant formula brands’ market share fell 6 percentage points to 32.9%.
3. In the first half of 2021, China’s consumer goods retail sales reached 21.2 trillion yuan, up 23% year on year. China's imports grew by 16%, and cross-border e-commerce imports reached 283.1 billion yuan, up 4.6% year on year.
4. With over 65-million daily active users, Bilibili surpassed Youku to become the third-largest long video platform after IQiyi and Tencent Video.
5. In the first half of 2021, China saw 57,000 newly-registered dairy companies, down 56% year-on-year. Currently there are more than 3.02 million dairy-related enterprises in China.
6. According to speculation of one financial media, the number of births in China would further fall by 16% in 2021 to 9.9876 million.
7. According to the 48th Statistical Report on China's Internet Development, by the end of June, the number of Internet users in China exceeded 1 billion, and the Internet penetration rate reached 71.6%.
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