Recently, the news that the well-known cheese brand Bajifu has received a strategic investment has spread.
According to public information, this investment is the establishment of a strategic partnership between Cathay** and Bajifu's parent company, S**encia Fromage & Dairy, a specialty cheese group, and an exclusive strategic investment in Bajifu.
It is worth noting that since December last year, the cheese track has been in constant action. At a time when the involution of the dairy track is intensifying, why has the subdivided cheese track become a place for capital to "dig treasure"? With the help of capital, will there be a "catfish" in the cheese track, creating new momentum for the cheese and even dairy tracks?
The cheese track is constantly moving,
The "cake" is getting bigger and bigger
Exclusive strategic investment in cheese brand Bajifu to help Bajifu further adapt to the changing needs of the Chinese market and drive product innovation and brand development. "Cathay publicly revealed the reason for investing in Bajifu. However, the investor did not disclose the exact amount.
In addition to the battle pitch won by Bajifu, the cheese track news continues.
According to the data, at the end of December 2023, Tsingshan Capital announced that it would give the cheese brand Cheese God Family millions of dollars in Pre A+ round of financing, after receiving the first round of financing from Junlebao Dairy and Jinpai Investment.
In December of the same year, Pinwo Food announced that its Deya cheese factory in Songjiang District, Shanghai was officially put into operation, entering the cheese industry to pan for gold; In August of the same year, Feihe officially launched Thrive Chew Milk Powder Cheese; Yili, Mengniu, Junlebao, JuneYao Health, Panda Dairy and other dairy companies are also accelerating their layout, and the cheese market is getting bigger and bigger.
In terms of industry scale, enterprise survey statistics show that there are 1,505 related enterprises in China's cheese industry, with 149, 98, and 90 new ones added from 2021 to 2023, and 3, 4, and 6 financing events respectively, of which the main brands that will receive financing in 2023 include Cheese God Family (2 cases), Miaofei (1 case), etc.
Phased ceilings appear,
The "throes" of the cheese industry?
The influx of enterprises has accelerated, and the "cake" has been accelerated and expanded. In this context, what is the market capacity?
Judging from the performance data of the "first cheese share" Microcoland, its 2023 performance forecast shows: "Microcolando is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company in 2023 of 4800 72 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 46."83%～64.55%。The net profit after deducting non-profits was 4.8 million yuan to 7 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8954%-92.83%。”
In the industry, Nielsen data shows that from 2020 to 2022, the retail sales of cheese in China will be 323.8 billion yuan, 419.2 billion yuan, 433.7 billion yuan, the growth rate was respectively. 5%；In the first half of 2023, the overall sales of retail channels under the cheese market** will increase by 24% year-on-year**.
Song Liang, an analyst at China's dairy industry, said frankly that the cheese industry is facing a phased ceiling, and the reason why capital bucks the trend and increases the cheese industry is more about the long-term growth potential of cheese. Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the food industry, said: "In 2025, cheese companies without scale will slowly withdraw from market competition. After the whole industry has been well evolved, the entire sales and profits of companies like Microcolando are also expected to further recover, but this will take a certain amount of time. ”
Industry insiders bluntly said that most of the main brands of cheese retail consumption are developing children's cheese, but this demand is limited after all. From the perspective of experience, the future catering, ** and other directions may be an important direction for the development of cheese, and there may be a large deviation between the supply and demand of the current cheese market. The industry may enter a period of painful change.
The track is maturing day by day
Accelerating the process of innovation?
The above ** are all from the Internet, invaded and deleted).
In 2023, the domestic cheese market is in the stage of 'surviving'. Dr. Cheese, a cheese brand, once said this in an interview.
According to the data, Dr. Cheese is an emerging brand established in 2019. In the second full fiscal year after the product was launched in May 2020, Dr. Cheese had revenues of nearly $1 billion. From brand burst to "survival", Dr. Cheese may have become a true portrayal of small and medium-sized cheese brands.
Considering the precipitous decline in the profitability of the head cheese company, does this mean that the market demand for cheese is mismatching with the original development path of the enterprise?
The relevant person in charge of a domestic cheese company revealed that the nutritional value of cheese is attracting consumers' attention, and the sales of cheese gift boxes before the Spring Festival this year are better than expected.
With the change of consumption trends, consumers are no longer satisfied with the shallow demand for cheese, which is known as "the best in milk", and only adds various "fruit flavors" or attractive packaging.
This change in consumption may provide new opportunities for some cheese deepeners. For example, Sanyuan Food was the first to launch domestic cheese, Bajifu created cheese sticks, etc., and some dairy companies tried to promote the development of the domestic cheese track. Compared with the Western cheese market, the domestic cheese market has not been fully opened over the years, which is more or less due to the acceptance of cheese taste by the Chinese people.
Under the premise of consumer demand-oriented and consumer behavior changing, will the industry change come?
Song Liang once pointed out: "Therefore, for companies like Microcolando, the first should promote the diversification and multi-category development of cheese and move towards the direction of catering and baking, and the second should still make efforts in the snack innovation of products to expand the best snack cheese." ”
At present, with the continuous improvement of consumer awareness and market maturity, the cheese track, which has fallen into a "dilemma", may have entered a critical period of "breaking the situation". Who will take the lead in developing new increments for the cheese track and bringing new momentum to the dairy industry?