Contents

• Breaking News
  

• Big corporate events

• Investment and financing updates

• Interesting & Noteworthy new products

• Impressive figures

Breaking News

1. Hong Kong beverage maker Vitasoy triggered mainland consumers’ boycott because the company offered condolences to the family of an employee who committed suicide after stabbing a Hong Kong policeman. Mainland actors Gong Jun and Ren Jialun, who have endorsement cooperation with Vitasoy, announced to end ties with the company. In Henan province, where was hit by torrential rains and was in short supply of food and beverage, people emptied the supermarket shelves but left alone Vitasoy products.

Vitasoy products suffered boycott

2. China’s leading infant formula enterprise Feihe completed the acquisition of 100% equity of Shaanxi Xiaoyang Miaoke Dairy Co., Ltd., a domestic goat milk powder company. The acquisition would help Feihe tap into new growth incentives and continuously strengthen its leading market position. Read more here. 

Xiaoyang Miaoke’s official website banner

Big corporate events 

1. Hey Tea unveiled its professional food nutrition and scientific research center with an initial investment of more than 30 million yuan. The center provides technical support for Hey Tea’s product research and development, product upgrade, quality management, supply chain management, raw material customization, raw material origin trace, consumer preference survey, etc.

2. Renaud Gabay, vice president of Abbott Nutrition in North Asia, said during the 21st CMBE (Children-Baby-Maternity Expo) that despite challenges brought by falling births and regulatory changes, Abbott has a long-term commitment to China and will continue to increase investment in the market. The company also launched its new A2 milk source infant formula.

3. Nestlé’s sub-brand Yiyang officially tapped into the Chinese middle-aged and elderly health food product market by launching two registered health food products: glucosamine calcium milk powder and probiotic protein powder, focusing on "increasing bone density" and "enhancing immunity.” The new products will make a presence in online e-commerce and offline drug stores, and will be further sold through emerging channels such as social e-commerce.

Nestlé Yiyang’s two registered health food products

4. Beyond Meat announced to launch its flagship store on JD.com, revealing the company’s further expansion in the Chinese plant-based meat retail market after partnering with Alibaba’s Hema and Metro China supermarkets.

5. Alibaba’s Hema established a new Neighbor Business (NB), aiming at community e-commerce. So far, Hema NB has opened more than 400 stores in 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Xi 'an, and Wuhan. Relying on Hema's robust storage and distribution system, Hema NB store can provide a convenience for customer to pick up the goods the next day.

6. Global boutique coffee brand Blue Bottle is on the course to open its first mainland store in Shanghai. However, there is no confirmed information about the site selection and whether the first store will be equipped with a bakery factory.

Investment and financing updates

1. Bytedance invested in food blogger Li Ziqi’s business partner - Weinian Brand Management, holding 1.48% of the share. Weinian Brand Management, founded in 2013, is a company that incubates and integrates KOL resources. The company started cooperation with Li Ziqi in 2016.

2. Functional coffee brand GuliCoffee has received a seed round of investment of millions of yuan. Established in 2021, GuliCoffee is positioned as a fancy functional coffee brand, focusing on natural, healthy, and beneficial ingredients and innovative flavors.

3. Hey Tea completed a new round of $500 million financing. Investors include Sequoia China, Black Ant Capital, Tencent, Hillhouse, etc. Hey Tea’s value reached an unprecedented 60 billion yuan, setting a new record of financing valuation in Chinese new-style tea drinking industry.

4. Boutique coffee brand Algebraist received a new round of investment from Tencent, whose valuation reached about 1 billion yuan. Founded in 2015, the brand has opened about 30 stores, most of which are located in Suzhou, and the rest are scattered in in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

Algebraist coffee’s store

5. Boutique coffee brand Seesaw announced to have completed an A+ round of financing of over 100 million yuan, with Hey Tea as one of the investors. Seesaw has developed a product line that combines high quality boutique coffee with creative flavors.

6. New coffee chain brand M Stand announced the completion of a B round of financing of over 500 million yuan. Established in 2017 in Shanghai, M Stand expects to open more than 100 stores within this year. The brand has been valued at around 700 million yuan.

7. New instant coffee brand Secre completed a new round of financing of nearly 100 million yuan. Founded in 2019, Secre is committed to providing convenient boutique coffee to consumers.

8. Snack brand A1 Snack Lab completed a strategic financing worth of hundreds of millions of yuan, whose post-investment valuation reached more than $1 billion. Founded in 2016, A1 Snack Lab is an Internet-based food enterprise mainly selling through mobile e-commerce channels. It owns more than 300 SKUs, including baking, nuts, and meat products.

Interesting & noteworthy new products

1. Budweiser launched two new products in China -- Fusion energy drink and Zhiyu sparkling water. Fusion energy drink is Budweiser's first non-alcoholic beverage launched in the Asia-Pacific region. The two new products feature zero fat and low/no sugar, in line with consumers’ health needs.

2. Sunbites, a snack brand under PepsiCo, launched the children's freeze-dried yoghut cube. Each 100g contains 100 million CFU imported live bacteria. Sunbites was established in China in 2019 with a self-positioning as a snack brand for "young white-collar women." In this January, the brand transformed itself into a "parent-child snack brand."

3. Glico launched the Pretz midnight cookie series. The new series includes popular midnight snack flavors such as crayfish, spicy fried chicken and grilled lamb. The price is 6.9 yuan per box on Tmall.

Glico’s Pretz midnight cookie series

4. Adopt a Cow launched children's milk powder, targeting children aged 4-12. The new product adds 55mg/100g hydrolyzed egg yolk powder to support children’s bone growth.

5. Nescafé China launched the coffee-flavored sparkling water featuring zero sugar and zero fat. The price is 12 bottles / 69.9 yuan.

Nescafé’s coffee-flavored sparkling water

6. Functional gummy brand BUFFX partnered with Shanghai Pharma Health Science to launched the BUFF X Ca™️ high-calcium gummies. The calcium source of the product is tricalcium phosphate. The product also adds vitamin D3 to help boost calcium absorption. The new product is sold at the BuffX Tmall flagship store for 250mg*60 tablets /149 yuan.

7. Bright Dairy's ambient yogurt brand Momchilovtsi cooperated with the trendy brand SmileyWorld to create a co-branded series—summer limited smile bottle. The new series contains 7 kinds of different flavors. Each flavor is corresponding to a different smile icon. The price is 7 bottles / 49 yuan.

Momchilovtsi’s co-branded smile icon series

8. Yogurt brand Niumao Heihei launched the weight management yogurt, with each bottle adding over 10 billion active Lactobacillus graini BNR17. Lactobacillus graini BNR17 has won the 2018 U.S. Weight Management Ingredient Award. Besides, it is worth mentioning that the yogurt’s milk source comes from the Tibetan Plateau, one of the world’s four largest ultrapure regions.

Some impressive figures

1. In the first half of 2021, there were 15 financing events happened in the tea-drinking sector, and the disclosed amount exceeded 5 billion yuan. The financing number and amount were higher than the whole 2020.

2. In the first half of 2021, Friesland China maintained a mid-double digit growth with organic increase of 16% in net sales. Friesland’s infant formula brand Friso Prestige achieved a new high share in the ultra-high-end sector, and its cross-border e-commerce business grew by more than 30%. Friesland also announced to donate 1 million yuan to provide nutritional support to 800 Chinese orphans aged 1-3.

3. Abbott reported 2021Q2 global sales of $10.2 billion, up 35% from a year earlier. Global sales in Abbott's nutrition business were $2.1 billion, up 9.5% year on year.

4. According to Nestle's 2021H1 results, sales in the AOA region, which includes China, rose 1.5% to CHF 10.2 billion. China posted double-digit growth, with the professional catering business as the biggest growth engine. In addition, coffee, condiments, dairy products and Purina pet care all posted strong double-digit growth.

5. In the first half of 2021, Danone's revenue was €11.8 billion, up 1.6% from a year earlier. Sales in Danone's specialized nutrition business fell 2.6% year-on-yea. China delivered a polarized performance, as there was a very strong growth in international labels in e-commerce platforms, while a 45%-60% decline in cross-border indirect channels due to Europe and Hong Kong ports closure.

6. In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, Starbucks China reported its revenue of $905.2 million, up 45% year on year. The number of Starbucks China stores reached 5,135.

7. Chinese fast food accounted for more than 85% of the fast-food market in 2021Q1, while Western fast food accounted for less than 15%, according to the 2021 Fast food Industry Development Report released by China Hotel Association.

8. Chinese seasoning brand Liuyuexian and News Weekly jointly released China's first White Paper on Salt Reduction. According to the white paper, the average daily salt intake of Chinese people in 2020 was 9.3g, far exceeding the WHO recommended daily standard of 5g.

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