Recently, the two giants in the domestic food and beverage industry, Uni-President and Master Kong, have successively disclosed the 2021 semi-annual report. In the first half of the year, their revenues and profits were not increased, and their performance was not satisfactory.

  In the first half of the year, Master Kong achieved revenue of 35.396 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.47%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 2.04 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.5%.

Unified revenue was 130.067 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%; net profit attributable to the parent was 847 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 20.4%.

  China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpeng said that, in contrast, Master Kong's semi-annual report contains more gold, its brand effect and scale effect are also more significant, and the disadvantages of Unity are increasing.

  Instant noodle business revenue is declining

  From the perspective of revenue composition, the main businesses of the two giants are both composed of food and beverages.

  During the reporting period, Tingyi's instant noodle business revenue was 12.722 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.67%, and its proportion in the group's total revenue fell from 45.27% to 35.94%.

  According to data released by Nielsen, a global monitoring and data analysis company, in the first half of 2021, the overall sales of the instant noodle industry fell by 7.7% year-on-year, and sales fell by 7.3% year-on-year.

Although the sales volume of Master Kong's instant noodles declined year-on-year, its sales volume market share rose to 45.4%, and its sales market share was 47.9%, ranking first in the market.

  Master Kong said that the decline in the net profit of the instant noodle business was mainly due to the increase in the price of raw materials and changes in the mix, especially the excessive increase in the price of palm oil, which brought certain cost pressures to the company.

  In the first half of the year, Uni-President’s food business had revenue of 4,710,06 million yuan, of which instant noodle business revenue was 4,398 million yuan, which also declined compared with last year’s revenue of more than 5 billion yuan.

  Zhu Danpeng said that from the instant noodle category alone, Uni-President is likely to be surpassed by Jinmailang this year. "The main reason is that the company as a whole does not pay enough attention to it, and it is a bit of warm water to boil frogs."

  High-end instant noodles may become a trend

  Faced with the continuous increase in the price of instant noodle raw materials, how should companies respond?

  "Should introduce more high-end products, the bargaining power of products will be higher, and the probability of fighting rising costs will be higher." Zhu Danpeng said that high-end instant noodles will be the future direction of development.

  The trend of industry development also confirms this point.

Relevant data show that in 2020, the average selling price of instant noodles in my country will increase to 2.38 yuan per serving. Under the dual promotion of industrial restructuring and consumption upgrades, the average selling price of instant noodles in my country will maintain a growth trend.

  In recent years, Master Kong and Uni-President have made efforts in the high-end market, respectively launching the "Master Soup" and "Tang Daren" series of products.

In 2018, Master Kong also launched the ultra-high-end noodle "Express Soda Noodle Shop", which focuses on modern channels such as e-commerce and convenience stores and special channels such as long-distance passenger terminals. The price of a single box is about 25 yuan.

  From the data of the semi-annual report, high-end products have a more obvious impact on performance. In 2020, Master Kong's high-priced bag noodles revenue was 13.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.12%, and the growth rate was much higher than that of medium-priced bag noodles.

  Future growth of the beverage industry can be expected

  Compared to the sluggish instant noodle market, the beverage market is thriving.

  The unified semi-annual report shows that the beverage business revenue in the first half of the year was 7.86 billion yuan, an increase of 25% over the same period last year.

The income of Master Kong's beverages has also increased significantly.

During the reporting period, the company’s beverage business’s overall revenue was 22.276 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.45%, accounting for 62.93% of the group’s total revenue.

  In Zhu Danpeng's view, "the reduction of food and the increase of beverages" is becoming a trend.

At present, the growth of the food industry has reached a certain peak, and the volume of the beverage industry exceeds one trillion, so there is more room for development in the future.

  West China Metropolis Daily-Cover News Reporter Xiong Yingying