Market events

1.      On February 14, Candy Industry, a global media, released the 2022 global top 100 candy companies. Compared with last year, Mars, Ferrero Rocher, and Mondelēz International still maintained the top three. With 128 billion yuan sales, Mars was the only enterprise with more than 100 billion yuan in 2021. It was worthy to notice that this year, Want Want, based in Taiwan (China), ranked the 25th with 5.43 billion yuan sales (including non-candy products), becoming the only Chinese enterprise on the list.

2.      Tik Tok E-commerce’s GMV up to Nearly 6 Billion in 2021

The highest GMV of Tik Tok e-commerce in 2021 was about 6 billion yuan, of which more than 70% came from Indonesia and less than 30% from the UK.

Kuaishou's brand GMV grew by 1073% in 2021

According to the news on February 25, the public data of Kuaishou showed that more than 1000 famous brands entered Kuaishou e-commerce in 2021, the number increasing over 186% than the same period of last year. Compared with January 2021, the GMV of Kuaishou's e-commerce grew 1073% in brand self-run live-streaming.

3.      On February 22, Kuaishou announced that, since March 1, 2022, Kuaishou cut its link to another two e-commerce giants, Taobao and JD.com, implying that Kuaishou is building its own e-commerce ecosystem.

Company dynamics

1.      The functional drinking water brand Qing Xiaoqi announced that it had won a new round of angel investment of nearly 10 million yuan from Hanpan Ventures. Founded in 2021, Qing Xiaoqi aims to be a new high-end brand of active hydrogen functional drinking water to supply hydrogen element and verse oxygen element, proposing a new way of drinking water “One bag of hydrogen every day keeps the young state forever.”

2.      Beverage startups Waterdrops recently announced the completion of 60 million euros (about 440 million yuan) round B financing. The brand plans to first concentrate on the expansion of US market and then enter into China across southeastern Asia in the future.

Waterdrop’s product

3.      Affected by the epidemic, in the first fiscal quarter ended on January 2, 2022, Starbucks China’s revenue achieved 897.3 million dollars, a slight decrease of 2% year-on-year. However, Starbucks continues to expand its business in China, with the number of stores in mainland China reaching 5500.

4.      Organic nutrition company Orgain became Nestle Group’s subsidiary through wholly-owned acquisition. Founded in 2009, Orgain is now the leading plant-based functional nutrition company in the U.S. The company’s products include popular plant-based organic protein powder, functional shakes, protein shakes, etc. This company has entered China through Tmall, JD.com, and Costco, and achieved exponential growth in the Chinese market. 

5.      Craft beer brand "Ruien Brewed" recently completed a new angel investment of nearly millions of yuan, invested by Lanhai Zhongli Capital. Founded in March 2021, Ruien Brewed focuses on “Fresh beer delivery within 29 minutes” and B2B beer supply chain. It has cooperated with more than 300 restaurants and stores in Shenzhen.

6.      In 2021, Costa Coffee’s sales reached a high record in the past 15 years after entering into the Chinese market, thanks to its " Total Coffee Company " strategy. The strategy mainly includes improving the vitality of stores and accelerating the opening of new stores. It is expected that its store number will exceed 1,000 in 2025.

7.      The first coffee shop of China Post opened in Xiamen on February 14, selling coffee, tea, beverage, dessert, and souvenirs about China post. Among them, the price of coffee, tea and beverage usually lie in 20-40 yuan. China Post transforms and upgrades its post branches the original International Trade Post Branch by offering coffee and postal souvenirs while keeping the original post service, making it a new scene that people could enjoy post culture.

China Post’s coffee shop

8.      Proterra Investment took over an established company Zhonghong Bioengineering Co., Ltd. Zhonghong has focused on the health food and nutritional health food industry for more than 20 years. In 2021, its sales reached 500 million yuan, and its growth rate kept 30%-40% for several consecutive years.

9.      Seesaw Coffee, a chain coffee brand, received hundreds of millions of yuan of A++ round of financing. It concentrates on the theme of “creative drinks” such as launching new fruit tea that meets the preferences of young people, setting up a coffee training program, combining coffee with traditional culture, and other innovative ways. It achieved tripled sales in 2021 and planned to achieve triple growth in 2022.

10.  Cargill China launched its first functional food nutrition brand, Proliv. Proliv first released six functional snacks, including four kinds of gummies and two kinds of pressed candy, covering functions such as smoothing emotion, helping brain development, etc. As Cargill's first functional food and nutrition brand, the emergence of Proliv indicates that Cargill has officially entered China's big health market.

PROLIV’s products

11.  Shanghai Yiyun Pet Products Co., Ltd., the parent company of pet food brand "Pure&Natural", announced the completion of the first round of financing. Founded in 2009, Yiyun focuses on pet business and has multiple pet food brands, and one pet health brand. Pure&Natural is a brand established by Yiyun in 2013, focusing on high-end natural pet food.

12.  Popular yogurt brand Simple Love’s parent company will release a new yogurt brand, OP3N. It will target Gen Z as main customers and develop new forms and new tastes of yogurt. In terms of distribution channels, it will enter boutique supermarkets and convenience stores first.

13.  Chinese cheese brand Dr. Cheese gained a new round of financing. Founded in 2019, Dr. Cheese mainly sells cheese products for children. In 2021’s double 11 shopping festival, its sales exceeded 100 million yuan, implying the Chinese cheese market is rising.

Interesting & noteworthy new products

1.      Chinese bottled water brand C’estbon released a new high-end water brand, L'EAU (怡宝露), which means water in French. C'estbon’s action aims to upgrade its brand and compete for a place in the domestic high-end mineral water market.

L’ EAU

2.          To cater to young people who are eager to try new things, McDonald's launched coriander-flavored ice cream. Although customers' comments are mixed, McDonald's has again succeeded in attracting everyone's attention with new products.

Coriander ice-cream

3.      As fitness has gradually become the most popular lifestyle of urban people, people's demand for sports drinks is also growing. ELECTRO X seized the opportunity to launch the first “pH8.8 natural soda water” and "no fragrance electrolyte beverage" in China to target urban fitness enthusiasts and female consumer.

ELECTROX’s product

4.      Chinese health snack brand Taste Lab released a new product, Orange Chocolate, emphasizing one piece only contains 29 calories.

Taste Lab’s Orange Chocolate

5.      Want Want introduced a new product, plum wine. It creatively combines Longjin Tea and plum to create a fresh taste.

Want Want’s plum wine

6.      Recently, Coca cola introduced a new taste of coke, STARLIGHT, whose inspiration was from outer space. The product was first sold in North America in February 2022 and enter China in March 2022.

Coca-cola’s Starlight Edition

Regulatory updates

1.      On January 29, 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) together with the National Health Commission (NHC) and General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) jointly released a notification to crack down on the production, sales and importation of foods added with gold or silver, both in the forms of foil or powder. More details on ChemLinked.

2.      On February 16, 2022, the China Institute of Food Science and Technology unveiled the exposure draft of GB 22570 National Food Safety Standard Complementary Food Supplements. Any comments should be sent to tangyb@ninh.chinacdc.cn before February 28, 2022. More details on ChemLinked.

3.      On February 20, GACC issued an announcement to remind consumers to "temporarily avoid buying through any channels" and "immediately suspend eating" the milk powder produced by Abbott's factory in Sturgis, Michigan. In this regard, Abbott China responded on February 21 that the products involved were Abbott nutritional products, which were voluntarily recalled in the United States. Among the products voluntarily recalled this time, except Similac Human Milk Fortifier, an infant nutritional supplement, other nutritional products sold by Abbott China in the mainland will not be affected. More details on ChemLinked.

4.      On February 21, 2022, eight departments (including the Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Ecological Environment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs, and Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office of PRC) jointly announced to optimize the List of Import Goods through Cross-border E-commerce. The new list has been effective starting from March 1, 2022. More details on ChemLinked.

Impressive data

1.      The latest report from Kantar Consumer Index shows that China's urban fast-moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sales grew by 3.1 percent year-on-year in 2021 and 3.7 % compared with 2019. The overall market has gradually recovered from the impact of the epidemic.

2.      According to Kantar, China’s overall food and beverage market grew by 2.3% in 2021, with the beverage market recovering growth, liquid milk and cheese market continuing to expand, and ice cream and pet food market maintaining a high growth trend.

3.      According to Lianshang, 69 financing events occurred in the new consumption field in January this year, with a total amount of over 7.9 billion yuan. The food and beverage sector was still investors’ focus, with a total of 20 financing events.

Financial results

1.      On February 15, 2022, Eastroc Beverage released the 2021 annual performance announcement. According to the report, the total revenue of 2021 was 6.978 billion, up 40.72% year on year. Net profit was 1.193 billion yuan, up 46.9% year on year.

2.      Recently, Nestle, the biggest food company worldwide, released its 2021 financial statement, which shows its full-year sales in 2021 was 87.1 billion Swiss francs (614.3 billion yuan), up 3.3 % year-on-year and the highest in a decade. Sales in Greater China were 5.558 billion Swiss francs (39.2 billion yuan).

3.      On February 10, PepsiCo announced its financial statement of 2021Q4 and the whole year of 2021. Net revenue for 2021Q4 was $25.248 billion, up 12.4% year-over-year. For 2021, net revenue was $79.4 billion, up 12.9% year-over-year. The Asia-Pacific region, which includes China, recorded net revenue of $4.615 billion in 2021, up nearly 34% year-on-year.

4.      The world's second-largest spirits and wine group, Pernod Ricard, reported a record sales of nearly 6 billion euros and profits from continuing operations of nearly 2 billion euros for the first half of its 2022 fiscal year. China has become an essential boost for its business in Asia.

5.      Recently, Netherland Friesland released the 2021 financial statement. Friesland China performed well with double-digit net sales growth for the year, including more than 20% growth in the cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) business and new business and more than 30% growth in specialty dairy business. Friesland's Royal Friso continues to lead the ultra-high-end milk powder market, with its annual sales increasing by more than 50%.