Reporter | Zhao Xiaojuan
Editor | Yahan Xiang
Sunshine Dairy (SZ001318) only lasted for 9 trading days in the most "sunny" days in the stock market.
This time-honored milk company from Jiangxi was paid attention to for 9 consecutive daily limit increases in the A-share market, but four months later, the stock price of Sunshine Dairy was knocked back to its original form. As of September 29, the closing price of was 15.13 yuan, which has been cut in half compared with the highest point of 32 yuan.
Sunshine Dairy is a veteran dairy company in Jiangxi. Its industry covers the research and development, production, dairy livestock breeding, scientific research and development and market sales of dairy products and dairy beverages. It has two core brands: "Sunshine" and "Everyday Sunshine". The company's main products include fresh milk series, yogurt series, milk beverage series, functional dairy series and other varieties, among which low-temperature fresh milk is its main product.
Looking at other second- and third-tier markets in China, it seems that any provincial capital city has such a "sunshine dairy industry". For example, Yantang Dairy in Guangzhou, Manor Ranch in Lanzhou, and the once listed Huishan Dairy ; there are also Maiquer, who fell from the altar, Kedi Dairy , which became popular with "little white milk" but was involved in arrears disputes, and Sichuan Jule Co., Ltd., which has not given up for its IPO for five years.
's revenue scale is not large and its development is relatively stable. However, it is well-known in the local area and its huge profits are enough to support its small steps. But their stories seem to be staged according to similar scripts - they are at their peak when they go public, and their performance plummeted after soaring, and then plummeted; or they may become an Internet celebrity and suffer from management or food safety issues and become depressed. What exactly went wrong with
? After
was launched, the growth potential of regional dairy companies was not enough to make the market excited
compared with outsider competitors, regional dairy companies have their own small but beautiful advantages.
Sunshine Dairy wrote in the 2022 semi-annual report that combined with the company's sales channels, cold chain transportation system, and the company's geographical advantages as a local enterprise and localized production, the company has formulated a differentiated product strategy , with "low-temperature and fresh-keeping" products such as low-temperature dairy products and low-temperature milk beverages as the main products, avoiding direct head-on competition with large dairy companies such as Yili Co., Ltd. and Mengniu Dairy, which mainly uses room-temperature milk on the product .
is a social platform such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin . Products such as Sunshine's colostrum, transparent bagged pure milk, peach-flavored low-temperature yogurt and other products were "blooded". In the evaluation, some users compared Sunshine Dairy's milk with Mengniu Daily Fresh Language and Guangming Yoube Fresh Milk, in order to highlight the localization advantages of Sunshine Dairy's low-temperature products. For example, high-calcium concentrated pasteurized milk with a shelf life of only 7 days, and protein can reach 4.2 grams, and the price still has certain advantages compared with foreign fresh milk.
But after Sunshine Dairy entered the capital market in May this year, its performance was also placed in the spotlight. From 2019 to 2021 before
was listed, Sunshine Dairy's revenue was RMB 543 million, RMB 523 million and RMB 631 million, respectively, and its net profit was RMB 104 million, RMB 105 million and RMB 136 million respectively.
, like many small dairy companies that "listed as the peak", Sunshine Dairy suffered a Waterloo in its first semi-annual report on its listing - its revenue in the first half of the year was 271 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.61%, and its net profit was 55.66 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.72%. At the same time, the gross profit margins of all categories of Yangguan Dairy also declined to varying degrees. The reason given by
's financial report is that due to the impact of the epidemic in Jiangxi Province from late March to mid-May 2022, the flow of people in Nanchang City and some prefecture-level schools were restricted from entering the social area, and the sales channels for milk delivery were greatly affected. From March to May, Sunshine Dairy's sales revenue and sales volume decreased significantly, and its net profit also declined to a certain extent.
market is relatively concentrated, and its original advantage as a risk resistance will also become a disadvantage when the epidemic strikes.
In addition, the poor expansion of the off-site market has also made Sunshine Dairy's entire expansion path worse.
In 2019, Sunshine Dairy, Anhui Huahao Trading Co., Ltd. and Nanchang Heda Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. established Anhui Huahao Sunshine Dairy Co., Ltd. to enter the Anhui market. In 2021, Anhui Sunshine achieved sales revenue of 15.5174 million yuan and net profit of -6.4158 million yuan.In the first half of this year, Anhui Sunshine achieved a total operating income of 8.6027 million yuan and a net profit of -3.7379 million yuan. In addition, Sunshine Dairy, a subsidiary of Sunshine Dairy, is not yet operating. Even if
is listed, its management shortcomings cannot be directly patched
In order to break the situation of sluggish base camp and unsatisfactory external expansion, these dairy companies have chosen to go to the capital market and seek funds. This is also the current situation that China's small traditional dairy companies are generally facing. In addition to the competition among national dairy companies such as Yili , Mengniu , New Hope , the retreat for regional dairy companies is narrower. As a result, many local dairy companies have been listed in recent years.
, but it is easy to go public and has a considerable risk. Many local dairy companies have loopholes in management and operation, and logging into the capital market cannot directly help them repair their shortcomings.
For example, Maiquer (SZ:002719), who finally got out of the circle through the path of Internet celebrities, but shocked the dairy industry due to the food safety propylene glycol incident, has no way out. In June this year, Maiquer will face a fine of about 73.15 million yuan for pure milk because of the detection of banned additives propylene glycol . Such a penalty is a fatal blow to Maiquer. The return resulted in a net loss of 175 million yuan in the first half of the year, which means that Maiquer directly lost the sum of profits in the past nine years.
If there is no food safety incident , Maiquer can even be said to have successfully fought from Xinjiang to the Internet celebrity milk brand nationwide. With the help of live broadcasts, social platform sharing and other methods, Maiquer has dominated the Tmall dairy sales list for the past two years, and has not yet fallen suddenly and has been removed from the shelves on the Internet.
Another brand that also has a hot product comes from Henan Kodi Dairy .
directly brought Kodi Dairy's turnover to 1.03 billion yuan in 2017 because of its transparent packaging milk product "Little White Milk" developed at the end of 2016, which is also the best performance since its listing. However, Kodi Dairy has since fallen into a fraudulent performance due to the arrears of dairy farmers' milk payments and employee wages. By 2021, Kodi Dairy's revenue fell to 590 million yuan. In May this year, Kodi Dairy was terminated by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
and the impact of this vulnerability is huge. Once you fall, it is often difficult for dairy companies in these areas to get up again.
dairy expert Song Liang told Interface News that there is no doubt that it is a certain fact that Maiquer's performance was dragged down. In the current market environment where milk competition is fierce, the food safety incident in Maiquer will definitely be a fatal blow. Even if it recovers in two or three years, Maiquer may no longer have Maiquer's position in the market. The listing of
is not the end point, innovation is
Theoretically, China's milk market, especially the low-temperature milk market, is sufficiently scattered, leaving a certain amount of breathing space for regional enterprises. Li Shengli, chief scientist of the national dairy industry technology system, once predicted at the industry forum that the domestic low-temperature fresh milk category will develop at a growth rate of 10% to 15% per year in the future, and the output will reach 10 million tons by 2025.
However, the innovation of low-temperature dairy products is slow and it is difficult to produce popular products, especially low-temperature fresh milk that is in a state of high loss, low gross profit, and sensitive raw milk prices for a long time. It is difficult for regional enterprises to show their strength in this category, and for this reason, it is necessary to use capital to expand outward.
Although peers are not always ideal after listing, some local dairy companies are still rushing into the capital market urgently.
Sichuan Jule Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jule Shares") has been waiting for this for five years. The company has been sprinting for IPO since 2017 and has updated its prospectus to date and has not yet successfully made an IPO.
, which is so urgently listed, Jule Co., Ltd. has grown up in the Sichuan market where Yili, Mengniu and Guangming are both making efforts. Under the attack of local dairy companies New Hope and Tianyou, relying on the large single product of milk-containing beverage "So Le Milk" to achieve revenue scale of 1.4 billion yuan. Its main feature is Sour Milk, which is also a differentiated competitive product of Jule Co., Ltd.
At present, Jule hopes to further complete the national layout through the power of the capital market. The company acquired 55% stake in Heilongjiang Huifeng Dairy in 2020 and began to leave the Sichuan market. At the same time, it has laid out the yogurt, fresh milk and room temperature milk businesses in addition to its core business, in addition to its milk-containing beverages.
But again, it also fell into a "dead loop".
goes out of the local area, which means re-entering the competitive ecosystem surrounded by strong enemies. Without the advantages of own ranch and local brand awareness, it is difficult to copy the existing advantages of the base camp.
In addition, since the second half of 2020, the price of raw milk has been setting new highs. According to the latest monitoring data of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in September, the average price of fresh milk in 10 major dairy cows was 4.14 yuan/kg, a year-on-year decrease of 4.6%. However, this data has risen sharply from 3.53 yuan/kg in 2018 and 3.82 yuan/kg in 2019.
The trend of rising raw milk prices is not friendly to regional dairy companies with external raw milk procurement.
Song Liang told Interface News that with the rapid growth of demand for low-temperature fresh milk, major domestic dairy companies have launched low-temperature fresh milk products, especially the entry of the two giants Mengniu and Yili. With the advantages of their brand and channel penetration rate , they directly enter the market of other regional dairy companies to "grab the territory".
On the other hand, the emergence of the "Shaoba" technology low-temperature fresh milk with a longer shelf life has expanded the sales coverage of traditional low-temperature fresh milk, and cross-regional competition among regional dairy companies has further intensified.
These factors affect the future development trajectory of local dairy companies. In the high-pressure market competition and rising raw material costs, the only direction for local dairy companies to break through may be product research and development.
For example, Yantang Dairy’s fresh milk pudding is a new product launched in the first half of this year. This milk product, which is between liquid and solidification, caters to the trend of “fresh milk dessertization”. In addition, seeking more diverse brand cooperation with the help of geopolitical advantages provides ideas for some regional brands to explore new markets.
The high-end milk "Vippine" under New Hope Dairy has formed a linkage with the coffee brand and has quickly gained consumer recognition in the East China market. Beijing’s local fresh milk brand Sanyuan has made its presence heard in local catering channels through cooperation with the new internet celebrity brand "Lanxiong Fresh Milk".
In today's consumer goods market, listing is just a financing channel, and is no longer a sign of the success of a company. The funds obtained after entering the capital market can help them enhance their voice in the supply chain and invest more R&D and innovation energy. Only in this way can local dairy companies stand the test of both capital market and consumer market in the long run.
