dieline(dieline awards)

Introduction

Recently, many brands in food and beverage industry have published their 2016 financial results. It can be seen that the developments of several traditional giants are declining or slowing down in different degrees in global or Chinese markets, and even some firms have experienced that for four years in succession. Most of them blame "the slow-down economy and insufficient consumption demand" or "the challenging macroeconomic environment" for this downward tendency. While in view of global and Chinese markets, there are some new brands with surging growth rate despite of the existing obstacles. And more importantly, they are grabbing the market share against those big ones. Confronted with this contrast, there are a lot of questions: What is the fundamental problem, the downward market or the giants themselves? And how can the emerging brands make it in this hard time?

Based on the data of global F&B industry, this article would analyze the overall market situation, point out the essential reasons for giants' declination, and reveal the secrets of new food brands and emerging brands' growth. It also aims at seeking out a right direction and motivation for the F&B industry.

Outline:

The declination of F&B giants

The consumption demand is weakened, yes or no?

In recession, who is grabbing market shares?

Innovation—the way of building to last

The declination of F&B giants

According to the Nestle figures, its sales in 2016 were 89.5 billion Swiss francs. And excluding price factors, its growth in real terms only was 2.4%, which was well below the 5% goal. Compared with 2015, the sales of Nestle in greater China fell by 7.4% in 2016.

However, the situation of Coca-Cola was even worse. In 2016, its annual sales were down by 5.49% compared with that of the last year. And Coca-Cola’s global sales have been decreased for four years constantly.

It seems that other giants didn’t have strong performance, neither. The overal income of Mondelez International had dropped by 12%. Although it may be influenced by JDE-split, it was MDLZ’s continuous declination in the past 13 quarters. In addition, neither General Mills nor Mars have a good financial number, and Hershey’s performance was even worse in China’s market.

Chinese traditional giants’ performances are more worrying. Since 2014, Master Kong’s overall profitability began to drop constantly, with its first three quarters’ profits going down by 32% sharply in 2016. What’s more, Uni-President, Want Want China and Wahaha Group all encountered frustrations in 2014 and then began to experience declination till today.

As for the reasons, the most common answers showed in firms’ financial statements is “the slow-down economy and insufficient consumption demand”

2. The consumption demand is weakened, yes or no?

It’s undisputed that the global economy is still weak, and even the economic growth in emerging markets is slowing down. China’s economic growth rate declined to 6.7% in 2016 from 10.6% in 2013.

Of course F&B industry is also implicated. Euromonitor’ data showed that the growth in the global F&B industry fell to the 10-year lowest point, only at 1.1%. Kantar's data also showed that "In 2016, annual sales growth in Chinese fast moving consumer goods market was 2.9%, a 10-year low which was below the growth of 3.5% in 2015.

However, although the growth of global and Chinese market is slowing down, it still grows constantly rather than decline. Nielsen in the analysis of “2017 Consumption Trend in China” noted that “consumer spending makes a great contribution to GDP growth, up to 71%, which indicated the strong consuming willingness.” That shows China’s consumption demand not only is not weakened, but is on the rise overall. Euromonitor’s data also shows that some categories are growing fast.

With consumption upgrading, consumers pursue F&B products with higher-quality and healthier concepts. Thus in this seemingly recession period, there are still some category growing rapidly.

Snacks: trillion-dollar markets

It can be said that the snack market is surging in recent years, which runs counter to the overall F&B industry growth curve.

In the United States, with the influences of personalization, speeded-up life pace, and decrease of the number of dining units, Snackification is on the rapid rise. In China, the improvement of living standards and urbanization and so on also create a huge room for snacks to grow.

Flavored snacks, nuts, and assorted dry fruit snacks are three categories which contribute most to the growth of the snack industry (sweet candy and ice cream, however, are declining). Innova Market Insights data showed that the new fruit snacks' global market share was of more than doubled, from nearly 8% to nearly 18% today. Fruit snacks' growth ranks only second to flavored snacks and nuts/seeds.

Snack market in 2016, according to the Packaging Strategies, reached at a $87 billion (it should refer to the situation in North America), and snack consumption accounted for 51% of the North America food consumption, of which the ratio was only 40% in 2015.

The scale of China's snacks market is also amazing. Its retailing sales in China’s were 401.4 billion yuan in 2010, which can go up to 822.4 billion yuan in 2016 and is expected to reach at 1.2984 trillion yuan in 2020.

Alternative Beverage: whose sales would be tripled in the next three years

Main alternative beverage

(Via Plant-based water sales predicted to double by 2020 | Beverage Daily)

Alternative drinks should be the highlight of the beverage industry growth.

Again, due to consumers’ pursue of healthier products which could replace traditional drinks containing high energy and sugar, alternative beverages are becoming more and more popular, and it gives priority to plants water and NFC juice currently. Reported by Zenith Global, Global alternative beverage sales surged by 21% in 2016, at $2.7 billion (Euromonitor forecasts for 2.2 billion dollars), and its overall market is expected to be doubled in 2020, whereas the same data five years ago was only $533 million.

"Coconut water" is obviously the outstanding one, which accounts for 96% of the whole plant water market currently. Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been already aware of this trend, and Coca-Cola acquired Zico, a coconut water brands; Pepsi also has its plan-- ONE and Kero Coco, these two coconut water brands have been acquired by it successively. The brands above plus Vita Coco are dominating the global alternative beverage market.

Domestically, we have also seen lots of coconut water entering the market, initiated by Vita Coco, which was introduced to China in 2014 by Reignwood Group and arouse a tropical storm. The fashion of coconut water is putting a lot of pressure on Coconut Palm, a traditional coconut water giant in China.

NFC juice also has a huge potential for growth. According to Tetra Pak’s 100% Juice Index Report 2016 (Insights and Opportunities in 100% Juice a Global View), “There is an unprecedented vitality in the 100% pure fruit juice market. Functional 100% pure fruit juice products and new products with vegetables as an ingredient have seen 31% and 43% CAGR respectively between 2012 and 2015. And consumers say that they are willing to pay a premium for juices that they associate with healthy choices.”

In today’s world in which the NFC concept prevails, let’s pay attention to the opinions given by the man who operates NFC juices firstly in China.

Functional F&B: from monopoly to competition

Note: in this paper, the functional F&B refers to health-care foods, dietary supplements, energy drinks and other functional foods.

There is a close relationship between the rise of health food and functional food and the improvement of consumers’ income and self-health consciousness.

Orbis Research shows the global health food market is worth $183.8 billion in 2015, and is expected to reach at $295 billion in 2020.

According to Strategy, there would be a 100 billion yuan market size added to Chinese health food market in the next five years; the sales of functional food will exceed one trillion yuan (see figure below).

China's health food and functional food market scale

(via upgrade consumption under new billions of Chinese health food market scale, to the industry reshuffle and change, written by Sun Chao, a partner of PwC Strategy & )

Among them, energy drinks have always been a concern. According to Sports and Energy Drinks Market—Global Annual Review-2016 given by Mintel International Group, the sales of energy drinks continued to grow. The market of global energy drinks had increased by 10% in 2015. And the fastest consumption growth of energy drinks happened in China, at an amazing annual growth 25%, which is almost quadruple of consumption growth in America. The rising consumer demand for energy drinks, especially the strong interest in natural energy drink, stimulated the innovation in the global industry. The quantity of energy drinks had a 29% growth from 2010 to 2015.

In the field of energy drinks, Red Bull used to be the superpower globally. In recent years, however, there are some competitive challengers rising sharply both in global market and Chinese market. Functional beverage market has entered a competition era, which is helpful to promote market.

Yogurt and dairy alternative beverages: a grander prospect

In the context of the overall decline in dairy alternative beverages, the rapid growth of Yogurt and dairy products is also noticeable. The global dairy market is on the downward trend, according to Euromonitor, the sales of global dairy dropped by 9% in retail market in 2015, and this trend also continued into 2016. And there are some introductions of yogurt and dairy alternatives.

Yogurt

Comparison between milk and yogurt in Chinese market

(Via One Research Agency Said China’s New Rich Prefer Yogurt/ Q daily)

According to Euromonitor, China’s yogurt market experienced a rapid growth. From 2015 to 2016, the sales of yogurt increased by 25.6%, the highest growth in the past 7 years. At the same time, in 2016, the sales of yogurt have been basically caught up with milk’s. The yogurt market size in 2016 was about 100 billion, and in 2020 it will reach at 190 billion.

Retailing sales performance of all sorts of dairy products in different regions globally

(Via what’s New in Dairy in 2016: Dairy’s Resurrection as a Healthy Snack/ Euromonitor. Note: The absence of dairy alternative beverages in Asia is caused by the missing of data.)

But the situation in Europe and America is different from what in the emerging markets. In Europe and America, the growth of yogurt is slowing down and even dropping in America. But it cannot be ignored that the sales of “Greek yogurt” in America in 2016 remained double-digit growth, which increased from 391 million dollars in 2010 to 3.7 billion dollars in 2015. To some extent, the sales of Greek Yogurt may account for more than 50% shares of yogurt market in 2016, and maybe in 2017, it would drive the overall growth of yogurt market in the North America.

Dairy alternative beverages

Although there are different definitions for dairy alternative beverages and vegetable protein beverages respectively, now these two basically refer to soymilk, almonds milk, oat milk, and coconut milk, etc., so generally people regard these two as the same kind of product by default. However, from the literal, milk alternative beverages can also include other dairy products such as goat milk and camel milk and so on. Thus, dairy alternative beverages have a wider meaning.

Almond Milk made by Califia Farms

(Via Califia Farms — The Dieline - Branding & Packaging Design | thedieline)

According to BCC Research, global milk alternative beverage market is expected to increase from 5.8 billion dollars in 2014 to 10.9 billion dollars in 2019, at a compound annual growth rate of 13.3%. And 50.4% of global market has been dominated by the Asia-Pacific market. In addition, according to Technavio, almonds milk is the product with the highest growth, and in the near future, its CAGR would reach at 15%.

Mo Xiaoyan, the marketing manager in Dupont, said:” In the past ten years, the sales and CAGRof vegetable protein beverages in China are 24.4% and 21.3% respectively. And in 2015, its annual growth of sales would go up to 28%, and in 2019, its market size would reach at around 159.4 billion yuan in China.”

On the one hand, it is downward giants, but on the other hand, it is the rising data. Who is leading the market growth on earth?

3. In recession, who is grabbing market shares?

The sharp growth of subdivision categories also creates the conditions for the emergence of the next food giant, and vice versa. With the slowing-down trend of the food industry, these emerging stars always attracts people’s attention. And they are also the brands which are grabbing the market shares against traditional giants crazily.

The emerging new brands

Snack: Three Squirrels

Snack market, no matter in the world or in China, has tremendous potentials. And in China, there are a lot of stars rising constantly, especially Three Squirrels, BESTORE, Be& Cheery and Lyfen, these brands develop fast and almost dominate the market. They have different operation patterns, but most grow up with the halos that “on line” or “the new retail”. But they also share some common characters—high quality products, innovations in products, packaging, and UE (user experience), which show a new style of traditional snack industry. And among these emerging brands, it is Three Squirrels that has the shortest growing time but fastest growth.

On January 11, 2017, Three Squirrel announced that its annual sales in 2016 exceeded 5.5 billion yuan, and its net profit reached at 263 million yuan. Most importantly, it is just 5 years old, and its growth rate is doubled almost every year.

“Internet”, “e-commerce”, “young” and “word-of-mouth marketing”, all of them are this successful brands’ labels. The founder and CEO of Three Squirrels, Zhang Liaoyuan, said that,” The reason why Three Squirrels succeed is that it takes advantage of the development of the Internet perfectly.”

Three Squirrels’ growth has a close relationship with the age when consumers’ shopping mode is changed by the rising “e-commerce”. Looking back, it’s no doubt that Mr. Zhang’s judgment of the current situation described in Three Squirrels which is written by Shu Niannian is absolutely precise.

He made a long term research on Shazigz, Qiaqia, and LiYiFen, and he found that these brands appeared one by one almost every ten years.

In the 1980s, at the early stage of the reform and open policy, few people dare to do business in the street, but a bold man named Nian Guanjiu made his melon seeds business successfully and popularly.

In the 1990s, supermarkets began to appear in China. Cha Cheer put its products into smaller packages, and then put them on the shelves in supermarkets. That make consumers don’t worry about arbitrariness of bulk snack, and bring convenience to them.

After 2000, there was a new operating mode, chain-store operation. Lyfen started to run chain business offline. This provides consumers with more convenient shopping pattern and professional service.

These new brands and firms refreshed and overturned the food industry’s sales mode constantly, however, in Mr. Zhang’s view, the Internet era has come, and the rising online shopping would change people’s lifestyle absolutely.

The marketing modes of Three Squirrels are always heatedly discussed. But Zhang Liaoyuan put it in this way, “Even if the score of marketing mode is 150, the products must be perfect!” As for its product experience, most consumers who once bought its products have a similar feeling that compared with ordinary products of the same kind, what made by Three Squirrels has a higher quality, and its packaging always takes the young’s fancy. For example, many details, such as nuts-opener attached in macadamia nut bags, and the wet tissues, always surprise consumers. And due to this, Three Squirrels harvest an increasing number of fans and a good word-of-mouth.

The growth momentum, the overall investment in supply chain and research and development, and the strategy deploying offline business make us see the possibility that it may become a tens of billions enterprise, or even a global corporation with hundreds of billions value.

Alternative beverage: Vita Coco

The most popular alternative beverage must be “Vita Coco”, and since 2006, it created a new wave.

Let’s see the data first:

In 2006, Vita Coco surged sharply and became the NO.1 in Tetra Park coconut water market in the North America.

In 2009, Vita Coco with more than 60% market shares was far ahead of the rest brands in this industry.

In 2014, Vita Coco cooperated with Reignwood Group and stepped into Chinese Market. In addition, its sales reached at one hundred million yuan in 2015.

In 2016, Vita Coco’s global sales can go up to 1 billion (according to Bloomberg), which almost accounts for 50% of market share.

The China manager of Sambu Group, Hu Weibin, who is also called “coconut uncle”, once gave some reasons for coconut water’s boom in the North America in FBIF group chat:

Why does coconut water become so popular in the U.S.? In fact, Brazilians have poured coconut water into Tetra Park packages in 1994, so in the late 1990s, there were cans of coconut water made in Southeast Asia in America.

But why was it not popular until 2008? The reason is that the coconut water in three-piece cans, ring-pull cans or glass bottles used to be the specialties sold in Asian Markets, and it tastes like sugarcane water or water chestnut water rather than coconut water. What’s more, their ingredients are insanitary.

Until the coconut water in Tetra Park appeared in market, America’s mainstream consumers noticed the coconut water, a kind of product meeting their needs. Firstly, ingredients are sanitary. Secondly, green packaging.

What's more, in the early stage of marketing, coconut water appeared in mainstream masses' eyes in the image of natural sports beverage. It always be sold in yoga clubs or gyms with selling points that natural moisture, electrolyte replacement and low calories etc..

And this image-building stage had last at least three years in America. Besides, Vita Coco invited all kinds of famous person to be spokesmen or shareholders. With so many efforts, coconut water became the trendy drink with stars' halo. So the elements that natural sports beverage and trendy drink contributed most to coconut water’s boom.

In conclusion, there are some reasons for Vita Coco' success: healthy, green and convenient packaging and star marketing.

Functional drinks: Monster

Monster Energy is a kind of energy drink made by Hansen's Natural, which is one of the few who can rival Red Bull.

In the article that A Common Secret among the Best Sale Snacks Who passed through the Economic Cycle, the vice president of Frees Fund, Huang Hai described Monster as “the most eye-catching firm in American food industry from 2000 to now". There is a sentence describing Monster's growth:" The share price of Monster Beverage increased from 1.36 dollars in 2004 to 160.78 dollars in 2016 which has a 117-fold increase. And in American beverage market, as a new brand in 21th C, Monster Energy's market share (39%) is only second to Red Bull’s (43%)."

Although its growth in America is slowing down, according to Monster Energy's financial statement in 2016, it roared in global market. In 2016, the global sales of Monster Energy were 3 billion, which increased by 12% than 2015; and its gross profit rate went up to 63.7%.

In the beginning, Monster was just an unknown firm. And then it was acquired by an unknown South African businessman. The beginning of success, however, always starts with strategic transformation. Hansen's Natural, an ordinary enterprise producing juice and soda water, began to realize that selling sugar water was already behind the trend, and it was destined to fail if they don't change. Thus, in 1997, Hansen's Natural decided to turn to energy beverage market and then they launched the product called "Hansen Energy Drinks". But unfortunately, the first try failed. After five-year hard time, Hansen's Natural finally realized that they must refresh consumers' ideas about the old brand and they made mind to give up "Hansen", the name of the company. In this way, the story of "Monster Energy" began.

And what led "Monster Energy" towards the top of energy drink market step by step is a series of strategies following. And there are several factors which make contribution to its success:

First, the far-sighted and enterprising transformation: It explored the field which was undervalued by the mass in 1997. Through making trail and error ahead, it adjusted the strategies.

Second, the extremely powerful name and impressive brand imagine.

Third, sponsoring the coolest sport, and emphasizing "the release of wild". And this is more consistent with American culture so that it wins numerous young loyal fans.

Fourth, Coca-Cola holds 16.7% shares of Monster Beverage and that enables Monster to use Coca-Cola's globally solid distribution networks. Thus it can take on the world and achieve purchasing convenience quickly.

Chobani

In 2016, Chobani launched its new product Drink Chobani

(Via In 2016, Chobani Launched its New Product Drink Chobani）

Chobani sweeps the world since its launch in 2007 and this continue to now, and it accounted for 50% shares of Greek yogurt market in America in 2016. Under the background of slowing-down yogurt market in America, Greek yogurt which is represented by Chobani still maintains a double-digit annual growth.

Chobani sweeps the world since its launch in 2007 and this continue to now, and it accounted for 50% shares of Greek yogurt market in America in 2016. Under the background of slowing-down yogurt market in America, Greek yogurt which is represented by Chobani still maintains a double-digit annual growth.

The sales of Greek yogurt (in dollar terms) soared up to 3.7 billion in 2015 from 391 million in 2010. In North America, it grabs the yogurt market crazily against traditional giants, Danone and General Mills.

Also, consumers' consumption habits contribute to Chobani's success. Nowadays, more and more consumers pursue healthier and higher quality products. And Chobani orients itself precisely as high-quality, high-end and health yogurt which makes up the huge blanket in the yogurt market.

Its founder, Hamdi Ulukaya from Turkey, is as persistent as Jobs who is extremely fastidious about products. And he is strict with every detail in a rigorous attitude. Due to this, he overturned the yogurt market completely. So what are the changes?

First, explore the best product.

Second, pursue perfect packaging.

Third, choose a way which is different from traditional Greek yogurt's, and targeting at the mass market.

Fourth, the skillful marketing method is used to take advantages of the word-of-mouth marketing.

Fifth, fully master the supply chain to lower costs and build barriers

Every careful step and series of measure combinations both contribute to Chobani’s success, and make it become one of the most successful food companies in North America in recent

And these successfully emerging companies and their reasons for achievements predict the deep reform in food industry and consumers.

The overwhelming trend

Different emerging companies represent different categories, but almost all of them are indicating the similar market trends: upgrading consumption, high-end quality, healthier, younger, and e-commerce. And the trace of these trends also can be saw in subdivision categories of giants. Actually some of the declining giants also operate the fast-growing categories or business which are on the trend, including Nestle’s Health and Science business, Coca-Cola’s high-end yogurt in North America and Mondelez International’s e-commerce business etc..

This overwhelming trend also reveals one of the reasons for traditional giants’ decline: emerging market and traditional channels, which are the pride of their growth in the past, become their burdens of growth now.

Keep pace with the changes is the only way out. These trends include comprehensive innovation and upgrade (products+ packaging+ marketing), and the revolution of channels.

Behind these keywords, such as upgrading consumption, high-end quality, healthier, younger, and e-commerce, there may be a bigger secret that the millennial generation has become the main consumers. They receive a good education, pursue personality, pay more attention on quality of the consumption and know more about the Internet, more importantly, they have a sustainable income and are strengthening the middle class.

The different consumption concepts and lifestyles which the new generation shows are the feature deserving most attention in this trend, because it is telling the most fundamental reason for giants’ decline. Now, do you still believe that “the slow-down economy and insufficient consumption demand” is the answer?

The suggestion following may be helpful for food companies’ sustainable growth.

4. Innovation—the way of building to last

Innovation，innovation and innovation

What represented by Chobani, Monster, Vita Coco and Three Squirrels are not only the upgrade of consumption, but also the successful companies which insist innovation in different segments. Making a conclusion of their great achievement, besides the far-sighted founders and business strategies, there are also some common factors deserving learning:

“All-around innovation”

Innovation should not be restricted to products themselves, but also should cover packaging, brand image, marketing and even the comprehensive upgrade of manufactures and supply chains.

For enterprises, the more important ability should be the sustainable innovation ability. Any kind of technology, mode, and the pro acquired in some aspects can be out, and that forces them to acquire more advantages in more aspects. It is also the reason why giants cannot always rest easy lying on the achievements of the past.

“Innovation” is the hot word in recent years, but what should be at the forefront of innovation is “science and technology”.

Science and technology drive innovation to realize dreams

Research and development is the Foundation of an industry, but science and technology is the foundation of research and development. The birth and growth of a category, without exception, need breakthrough and large-scale applications of science and technology. The advance of technology makes innovation and imagine break through the boundaries of tradition. From a business perspective, the breakthrough of technology and large-scale application is the key point of seizing the high ground in markets.

Science and technology: overturn and create industry

In history, aseptic processing and packaging technology played a subversive role in the reform of the food industry, and even it created a new industry.

It is UHT (Ultra Heat Treated) that was praised as the most important fruit in food science for the past 50 years (1989) by American Institute of Food Technology. And Tetra Pak is the pioneer in this field. And thanks to Tetra Pak’s technology, the milk produced in Inner Mongolia can be transported to every corner of the country continuously. And benefited by the advance of technology and the support from Tetra Pak, Yili Group and Mengniu Dairy emerged fast and grew as the leading dairy companies in China.

If dairy revolution is the past of Tetra Pak, then the revolution of alternative beverage is its great development which is ongoing.

The similar technology is applied in the manufacture of coconut water. The color, taste, and quality of Coconut water change easily and quickly once it is opened, so for a long run, coconut water is just popular in tropics. But Tetra Pak’s comprehensive technology support covering process, filling and packaging makes things change. The Tetra Pak technology not only retains the largest extent of original flavor of coconut water, but also extends its shelf life vastly. Tetra Prisma Aseptic, a packaging combined with lots of science and technology which is suitable for use on the road, helped coconut water marched into American market, and became popular among the whole world.

Giving a glance at main coconut water brands in market today, Vita Coco, Zico, Malee Coco, ONE and Kero Coco, it seems that all of them are packaged in Tetra Prisma Aseptic. So Tetra Pak contributes a lot to the emergence of coconut water.

Besides UHT, freeze-drying method and decaf technology and so on change the food industry all the time.

And now, the utilization of the Internet, the Internet of things, medical science and biology in food manufacture are accelerating the development of the food industry.

The integration among food, nutrition, health care and Internet

The integration of food and health care might be the most significant one and have a far-reaching influence.

With the precise medicine hot, on the one hand, ordinary functional food is developed as Medical Food which is used to prevent specific diseases or play a role as an adjuvant therapy. For example, Nestle Health Science established in 2011 researches and develops medical food aiming at curing or improving aging, neurological diseases, infant diseases, obesity, postoperative rehabilitation, gastrointestinal diseases and metabolic relating diseases. On the other hand, customizing personal nutrition solution by analyzing personal representation and big data of gene is on the rise. For example, Mosaic Nutrition (of primary class) customizes vitamin, Habit (of middle-end class) customizes diet plans and iCarbonX (of high-end class) etc..

What’s more, in 2016, Nestle spent 130 million dollars in acquisition of Phagenesis, a medical device company. And it also announced the cooperation with Samsung Group in South Korea, which means that they would explore the potential of nutritional science and digital sensor technology and develop a new digital health care platform to provide consumers a more personalized nutrition lifestyle and health tips.

It is gratifying for Nestle that the proportion of Health Science business is increasing year by year, and the sales of this part in 2005 reached at 4 billion Swiss francs, accounting for more than 4% of Nestle’s total revenue.

More in-depth technical researches and cross-border integrations will be the major trend of food industry research, and overturn the food industry faster and completely in the future. This speed may be as fast as e-commerce which sweeping the globe, caught off guard and unpredictable. For food companies, there is no doubt that if they want to occupy the commanding heights in the future, they must have the most advanced technology.

How to build to last—the value and mission of the company

In the introduction of Build to Last 2— Why can’t A Company Last Forever, which is written by Jiang Ruxiang, noted: “What really persuades me is Collins’ emphasis on “value” and “mission”. Many great companies were established with a higher goal than making money. For example, the founder of a medicine giant Merck& Co, Georg II Merck, always want to save lives……”

Any word which seems favorable for consumers, such as health, nutrition, nature, joy and simple, should not be regarded as the hype conceptions. By contrast, they should be the real mission of all food companies.

Health food and functional food are becoming more and more popular among consumers; the rise of natural food and beverage is the result of people's boredom with junk food; snacks are more and more popular so that the snackification is not strange. It cannot be denied that food companies play an increasing important role in people's diet, nutrition and health and even their mood. So for food companies, they face both opportunities and challenges.

From a business perspective, the way to seek next best sales is nothing but to dig, explore and satisfy the needs which are really good for consumers.

If all food companies regard providing consumers higher-quality and healthier products continually as their missions and bring consumers more joy, why are they afraid of changes?

References

There are 109 messages and news articles and the news related to 27 mainstream enterprises' annual reports, which are referenced in the writing process. Since the article is too long, some references cannot be displayed. The information above may be helpful for insiders who are interested in researching the current trend of food industry, and you can obtain them by contacting the author.

This article is written by FBIF originally, and if you want to repost it, you can contact with Mote Chan directly.

Author: Mote Chan(WeChat: motechan)

Thanks to Bella，Wilbur, Vicky

FBIF2017

Food & Beverage Innovation Forum 2017 (FBIF2017) ito be held in Shanghai from April 19th to 21st, 2017. The theme of FBIF2017 is “Global Innovation, Powering Future!”. Topics include Trends, R&D, Marketing and Packaging. 1500+ will attend. Speakers include: Zhang Jianqiu, Executive President, Yili Group; Stephen Maher, President, Mondelez China; Zhou Li, Secretary of the Board，Ph.D, Nongfu Spring; Yan Weibin, Chairman, Ausnutria; Craig Slavtcheff, Global VP, R&D, Campbell Soup; Zhang Liaoyuan, Founder , Three Squirrels; Jet Jing, VP, Alibaba Group; Martin Suter, Head of eCommerce, China at AB InBev.

WeChat Group

Follow "FBIF食品饮料创新"(Please search WeChat ID: FoodInnovation); reply number "1" to join Functional Foods , Dairy, Beverage, Snacks, R&D, Packaging, Marketing WeChat groups (Group members include seniors from Nestle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, AB-InBev, Yili, Mengniu, Master Kong and Nongfu Spring etc.)