Contents
Breaking news
Big corporate events
Investment and financing updates
Interesting & noteworthy new products
Some impressive figures
Breaking News
1. On September 2, 2021, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) unveiled "GB 23350-2021 Requirements of Restricting Excessive Package—Foods and Cosmetics" in replacement of GB 23350-2009, intending to address the growing excessive packaging problem. The new GB standard will come into force on September 1, 2023, allowing a two-year transitional period for stakeholders. Read more here.
2. Shanghai Yakult Dairy Co., LTD., an affiliate of Yakult, has been fined 450,000 yuan for promoting the "important role of probiotics in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 virus." Yakult’s lactic acid bacteria beverage is not a registered health food in China, which means it is not allowed to claim any medical effect, including the preventive effect on COVID-19 virus. Therefore, Yakult is suspected of misleading and cheating consumers, which violates relevant laws and regulations.
3. Ke Niu Le (可牛了), a joint venture of Coca Cola and Mengniu Dairy, announced in Shanghai its entry into the low-temperature milk market with the launch of the Fairlife (鲜菲乐) brand. China is Fairlife's first overseas market outside North America.
Fairlife low-temperature milk
4. Luckin announced the "milestone" progress of the Company's restructuring in three consecutive announcements on September 21: The Company signed a settlement letter of USD 187.5 million with the plaintiff's representative of a securities class action made by US investors; the Company submitted a debt restructuring plan for convertible bond creditors to the Cayman court; the Company submitted the 2020 annual report including the audited financial report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The market value of Luckin Coffee increased tenfold since it was delisted in June last year.
Big corporate events
1. OATLY officially started a partnership with FamilyMart, as its latest move to further expand distribution channels in the Chinese market. FamilyMart has over 2,900 stores in China.
2. Pernod Ricard released its results for fiscal 2021 ended June 30. The company reported strong sales growth in the past fiscal year, driven by two must-win markets in the U.S. and China. Among them, sales in China increased by 44% to more than 1 billion euros, hitting an all-time high.
3. Chinese online instant coffee brand Saturnbird opened its first offline concept store “into_the Force” (原力飞行) in Shanghai. The store offers three product lines of Basic Coffee, Planet Anfu (Anfu Road limited), and Seasonal Flight. Besides the basic line, others are special flavors priced at 38-52 yuan.
4. Reckitt Benckiser Group announced the completion of the sale of its China Infant Nutrition (IFCN) business to Primavera Capital. Zhu Dingping, the former executive president of H&H Group BNC China, becomes mead Johnson's first mainland Chinese executive. See our previous report here.
5. Coca-Cola launched the new packaged Coca-Cola products in the Chinese market. The new packaging covers classic Coke and Diet Coke, including PET bottles and cans of different sizes. The new package added the words "Recycle me," encouraging consumers to recycle beverage containers to promote sustainable development.
The new packaged Coca-Cola products
6. Feihe, China's largest milk powder producer, launched its first FSMP (Foods for Special Medical Purpose) product Beishuxiao (蓓舒消), featuring lactose free formula for babies. The new product also adds OPO, making it the only special medical infant formula powder with OPO in China.
Feihe’s lactose free formula for babies, Beishuxiao
7. Yum China announced a partnership with Italian coffee brand Lavazza Group to accelerate expanding Lavazza's coffee shop network in China. Both parties will inject $200 million into the joint venture to open 1,000 stores by 2025. As of the end of August, Lavazza had 22 outlets in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
The Lavazza shop
8. Fonterra announced its fiscal 2020/21 revenue of NZ $21.124 billion, up 1% year on year. The adjusted EBIT for Greater China rose 10% year-on-year to NZ $403m, making it the biggest contributor to profits among Fonterra's three markets.
9. Beyond Meat announced a partnership with Sam's Club, Walmart's warehouse club in China, to roll out its signature plant-based meat burger products in all Sam's Club stores in 21 cities. This cooperation further expands Beyond Meat’s retail landscape in the Chinese market.
Investment and financing updates
1. Simple Love Yogurt’s parent company Pucheng Dairy, Hokkai Pastures, a yogurt brand under Genki Forest, and New Hope Dairy successively announced becoming the strategic shareholders of AustAsia, a Singapore-based company running 10 large-scale dairy cattle farms in China. To obtain a sustainable and stable supply of high-quality milk sources is the primary purpose of investing in greenfields for these dairy-related consumer goods companies.
2. Children's snack brand Duomaomao (哆猫猫) completed tens of millions of yuan of A-round financing. This is the fourth round of funding for the company within less than a year after it was founded.
3. Helens, the largest offline pub chain in China, was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), priced at HK $19.77 per share. Helens positions itself as the "Starbucks of the Night." It now has 528 stores with a valuation of 25.8 billion yuan.
The Helens pub
4. Innovative nutritional food brand Yololand completed millions of dollars of angel round financing. Yololand was established in April 2021, providing healthy, interesting, and convenient nutritious food to modern office workers in their office time.
5. Mr. Beaver’s, a seafood snack brand, completed a pre-A financing round of tens of millions of yuan. Mr. Beaver’s snacks feature high protein, low fat, and preservative-free.
Seafood snack brand Mr. Beaver’s
6. Healthy snack brand ffit8 completed tens of millions of yuan A+ round of financing. ffit8’s core offering is the protein bar, which wasJA sold more than 10.5 million items in 2020.
7. New Zealand pet food company ZIWI said it had agreed to be acquired by Chinese private equity firm FountainVest Partners. The deal values ZIWI at about NZ $1.5 billion.
8. Alcohol-free beer brand Xinling raised tens of millions of yuan in the angel round financing. The brand targets beer lovers who want to control calories and alcohol intake but pursue taste.
Interesting & noteworthy new products
1. Shandong-based dairy brand Zhaori Weipin (朝日唯品) launched a niche high-end yogurt. The raw materials come from recycling ecological pastures with 50 years of Japanese recycling farming experience. The packaging is made of plant material and is fully biodegradable. The price is 2 cups/79.8 yuan.
Zhaori Weipin’s new yogurt
2. Coca-Cola's new grain beverage brand Zhibaishuo (植白说) launched its oat milk developed by Coca-Cola's Asia Pacific R&D center. Unlike other oat milk products, which are inclusively oat-based, this new product also adds whole milk powder and collagen peptides (264mg per box). The Tmall price is 2 boxes/19.9 yuan.
3. Miufo launched the first Kvarg fresh cheese in China. Each 120g cup of fresh cheese contains 9.6g of high protein and is specially fortified with 1.2 billion LGG probiotics to protect gut health, with no extra sugar and additives. There are three flavors of passion fruit chia seed, classic, and chili mango. The price is 120 g*3 cups/69 yuan.
4. Chocday launched its oat milk dark chocolate in original, coconut, and latte flavors. It features sugar-free, gluten-free, high dietary fiber, and high cocoa content (52%).
Chocday’s oat milk dark chocolate
5. KFC cooperated with OATLY to offer plant-based oat ice cream for the upcoming autumn. The new product is made with imported oats and features 0 trans fatty acids. It is friendly to lactose intolerant groups and is available in two flavors of chocolate oats and strawberry oats.
6. Ausnutria's Aunulife rolled out a probiotic solid drink for children. It exclusively adopts the first independently developed strain in China -- Lactobacillus rhamnosus MP108, highlighting that it is more suitable for Chinese babies.
Ausnutria's Aunulife probiotic solid drink for children
7. Plant-based meat brand STARFIELD launched a new line of shredded plant-based meat products in three flavors of classic hot, green peppercorn, and extreme hot. The new products contain no sugar or artificial colors, and reduce sodium by 50% and oil by 30%.
STARFIELD’s shredded plant-based meat products
8. Weiquan launched the “Oat Power” oat milk featuring 0 lactose, 0 cholesterol, and 0 fragrance. The biggest highlight of the product is the use of ESL short-time sterilization technology, which extends the shelf life to 21 days. The new product is priced at 950g/box/76.9 yuan on its Tmall flagship store.
9. Junlebao's milk powder Little Luban launched liquid milk for children aged 3-7 years old. The new product transforms the solid form of milk powder into a liquid form, fitting a wider range of scenarios such as going to school and traveling. The Tmall price is 200ml*12 cups/2 boxes/239.9 yuan.
Junlebao's Little Luban liquid milk for children
10. Aptamil launched Zhuobei Infant formula liquid milk for infants aged 0-6 months. It adds NuMMOs™ to mimic the oligosaccharides in breast milk, and anhydrous cream (0.75%) as a natural source of milk fat.
11. Coca-Cola China launched Lemon Dou (柠檬道), a low alcohol beverage brand featuring Japanese lemon-flavored sparkling wine. Lemon Dou has three lemon flavors, each containing different alcohol content and lemon juice: Honey lemon (3.4% alcohol, 10% lemon juice), Classic lemon flavors (5.6% alcohol, 15% lemon juice), and Salt lemon (7.5% alcohol, 10% lemon juice).
Some impressive figures
1. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the infertility rate among Chinese couples of childbearing age has climbed to about 12 to 18%.
2. According to GlobalData, as consumers increasingly shift from offline to online, China's e-commerce scale is expected to grow by 17.2% to $2.1 trillion in 2021, making it the world's largest e-commerce market. It will continue to grow and is expected to reach $3.3 trillion by 2025.
3. In 2020, the main business revenue of the top 12 enterprises in the dairy industry totaled at 267.617 billion yuan, accounting for 63.79% of the total.
4. According to a report released by PWC, Rabobank, and Temasek, Asian consumers are expected to double their spending on food from $4 trillion in 2019 to $8 trillion by 2030, making the continent the world's largest food and beverage market. China will remain the biggest market in the region.
5. From January to July of 2021, China imported a total of 2.509 million tons of dairy products, up 31.3% year on year. The import value was 8.384 billion US dollars, up 16% year on year. However, infant formula and yogurt dropped significantly by 25% and 26.4%, respectively.
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