With the upgrading of consumption and consumers' pursuit of quality life, the transformation of consumption habits and consumption types has brought new opportunities and challenges to the FMCG industry, and at the same time, industry integration and survival of the fittest will continue. Therefore, for the FMCG industry, to improve product quality, expand marketing channels, pay attention to market changes, and continue to innovate, in order to meet the growing needs of consumers, enhance the core competitiveness of the brand, in order to cope with the changing market environment. The Times are changing, the market environment is also changing, FMCG enterprises should also evaluate the situation and timely change.
On March 20, 2023, after more than three months of closure, the Tmall "orion Orion Flagship Store" opened again. Reopening the flagship store of Holliyou products are not many, only a few pie products are on sale, puffed series, candy series, cookie series products have not yet been put on the shelves, the number of fans of the store is only 200 people.
Orion is a large Korean integrated food company that entered the Chinese market in the 1990s. On December 24, 2022, Orion's Tmall flagship store issued an announcement announcing the closure of the store and removing all products from the store. At that time, Orion responded that the closure of the store was a change of operators. However, under this closed shop information, netizens not only did not feel sad, but they said that "finally closed the shop" and "will not buy any more", and even some netizens said that "Holliyou is no longer a good friend".
Netizens will have such a reaction, the cause is due to a "double standard" storm last year. On March 1, 2022, some netizens broke the news that the Korean brand Holliyou only raised prices in the Chinese and Russian markets, and its representative product "Holliyou Pie" used different raw materials in China and South Korea.
During the suspension of the Tmall flagship store, Holliyou was not idle, and its "ah! Potato ", "waves in waves" and other series have launched new products. In recent years, in addition to the original four business segments of puffers, pies, cookies and candies, Holliyou has added a series of protein nut bar products, and also launched Holliyou "Jeju Lava Spring" high-end mineral water to expand its product category layout in China.
However, the series of new launches does not seem to have caused a big splash in the market. In the view of the industry, Holliyou has been a chronic disease of product aging for many years, and has not kept up with the development of new retail channels such as e-commerce, which will naturally gradually lose some consumers.
On Oct 24, 2023, the Hurun Rich List released by Hurun Research Institute showed that Zhong Shanshan, 69, chairman of Nongfu Spring, became China's richest man for the third time in a row with 450 billion yuan. Tencent Pony Ma Huateng returned to second place with 280 billion yuan, up three places from last year. It entered the top three for the first time with 270 billion yuan.
With a net worth of 390 billion yuan in 2021 and 455 billion yuan in 2022, Zhong became China's richest man for two consecutive years. Specifically, Zhong's wealth over the three years is relatively stable. In the first half of this year, Nongfu Spring, a subsidiary company listed in Hong Kong, had an outstanding performance. Its share price was basically flat compared with the same period last year despite the overall downward impact of the Hong Kong stock market.
Wantai Biology, another A-share listed company, was affected by the overall adjustment of the pharmaceutical sector in the capital market, and the company's market value shrank by more than 40 billion compared with the same period last year. Currently, Zhong's biological division accounts for about 10 percent of the company's total wealth. Zhong becomes the fifth entrepreneur in the 25 years of Hurun's Rich list to have been the richest person more than three times, following the families of Rong Zhijian, Huang Guangyu, Wang Jianlin and Jack Ma.
In July 2023, international confectionery giant Mars signed an agreement to acquire Kevin's Natural Foods, a California-based prepared food company, with plans to operate it as the next independent unit of Mars' Food and Nutrition business.
In recent years, Mars has been the diversification of development as the key to maintain the sustainable competitiveness of the brand, after stabilizing the candy and snacks sector, but also cut into the pet hospital track, together with Buffett to acquire Wrigley chewing gum, into the pet track, the acquisition of royal pet food and so on. Dove, Snickers, Skittles, Yida, Wrigley and other brands that are familiar to the public belong to Mars' products.
According to the data, Kevin's Natural Foods is a brand focused on delicious, healthy and convenient prepared dishes, which was established in 2019. The main products are flavored chicken, beef and pasta dishes, as well as sauces, sauces and other products. In addition to covering the American market, Kevin's Natural Foods has also entered the European market. At the same time, Kevin's Natural Foods has also made efforts to sell online channels through the official website, Amazon and other channels.
For the acquisition of Mars, a person familiar with the matter said that the subsequent market will mainly be in the United States, but it does not rule out the future will also be in China's prepared vegetable market. In fact, this is not the first time that Mars has introduced prepared dishes. Before Kevin's, Mars had Tasty Bite, an Indian prepared dish brand. Tasty Bite is currently described as a natural vegetarian food brand on Mars' official account.
On April 14, 2023, the new Yijia of South China Supermarket, which has been selling for a long time, was revived again. It is understood that the newly opened Xinyijia supermarket store is located in Shenzhen Luohu, the new store covers an area of 2000 square meters, in order to stimulate consumer shopping, Xinyijia Luohu new first store all products 20% discount, some special offers, and even launched to forward official tweets to send movie tickets, cash coupons and member recharge to send pick-up cards, helicopter sightseeing tickets and other concessions.
According to the data, Reignwood Investment (China) Co., LTD., a subsidiary of Reignwood Group, invested in Shenzhen Homeland Commercial Management Co., Ltd. in March 2021, holding 70% of the shares, while the latter is the 100% majority shareholder of Xinyijia Supermarket Co., LTD. That is to say, Reignwood Group as early as 2 years ago to acquire the new Yijia this has long withdrawn from the stage of history of the old Shenzhen supermarket.
Xinyijia was founded by Li Binlan in 1995, and the listed supermarket chain Renren Le is an old supermarket in Shenzhen. According to the China Chain Management Association's list of top 100 chain statistics over the years, in the 11 years from 2005 to 2015, the sales scale of Xinyijia climbed from 11 billion yuan in 2005 to 18 billion yuan in 2012, with 116 stores at the most, and the top 100 ranked at 14; Renren was ranked 30th at the time. By 2015, however, it had slipped to 102 stores, with sales of 15 billion yuan.
Since then, because of the impact of e-commerce, the new Yi Jia that failed to adjust its business in time began to decline. In 2016, Xinyijia caused large-scale layoffs and temporary closure of a number of stores due to the rupture of the capital chain. On June 19, 2017, Changsha Intermediate People's Court issued a notice to accept the bankruptcy and liquidation case of Hunan Xinyijia Company, and Xinyijia came to an end.
On February 17, 2023, according to a document from the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM), Microsoft founder and former world's richest man Bill Gates bought about 10.8 million shares of Heineken Beer Holding Company from Mexican beverage retail company FEMSA, accounting for about 3.76% of the latter's total share capital. Based on the share price at the time, the stake was worth about 848.2 million euros (about 6.2 billion yuan), and 6.65 million shares in the deal were bought by individuals, while the rest were bought by the Gates & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Heineken is a Dutch brewing company founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 2015, Heineken brews more than 165 breweries in 70 countries, employing approximately 76,000 people, and brews more than 250 premium, regional and specialty beers. With annual beer production of 221.6 million hectoliters in 2020, Heineken is the largest brewer in Europe and the second largest brewer in the world, behind InBev. In addition, in the field of beer exports, Heineken ranks first in the world.
Bill Gates (Bill Gates), full name William Henry Gates III, was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington, United States, in 1975, Gates and his friend Paul Allen founded Microsoft. In 2000, Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and in 2008, Gates announced that he would donate $58 billion of his personal fortune to charitable foundations. In October 2021, Bill Gates ranked fourth on the 2021 Richest Americans List with a fortune of $134 billion.
On the evening of January 19, 2023, Ye Lecheng, the former head of the Genki Forest marketing Center, was suspected of major corruption and other economic crimes and was detained by the police in accordance with the law. Genki forest decided to fire Ye Licheng, and will fully cooperate with the police follow-up work.
It is understood that Yip served as CoFCO's southwest marketing director. After joining Genki Forest, he served as the head of sales in the southwest region of Genki Forest and managed the sales of all products of Genki Forest in the southwest region; Then, in late 2021, Mr. Yip took charge of the entire Genki sales team.
In addition, according to people familiar with the matter, Yip was previously unknown in the FMCG industry, but after joining the vitality Forest, he made achievements in the southwest region. In 2021, the sales performance of the southwest region led by him was comparable to that of the East and South China regions, and the products also entered the southwest sinking market, and then Yip was promoted to be responsible for national sales.
In fact, the vitality forest has also publicly spoken out on anti-corruption issues before. In November 2022, Genki Forest issued an internal announcement about employees suspected of corruption crimes. "Employees Zhang and Xu are suspected of corruption, and in the process of routine market inspection and internal audit, corruption clues were found, and it was decided to hand them over to the public security organs for handling, and the public security organs have recently filed a criminal case and taken compulsory measures against Zhang and Xu," the announcement said.
On January 28, 2023, at the high-quality Development conference held in Guangdong Province, Xu Min, global executive president, chairman and CEO of Greater China of Procter & Gamble (China) Company, said that it intends to move the international trade supply chain control center from Europe to Guangdong, responsible for the import and export business management services of RCEP, "Belt and Road" related countries and other markets.
China is P&G's second-largest regional market. In recent years, P&G has continued to increase its investment in China, built Asia's largest production base in Guangdong, set up a headquarters management team, and successively invested in Guangdong to set up a digital innovation center, a new intelligent manufacturing center, and an intelligent technology innovation center.
Xu Min also said that in order to continuously optimize and improve its business in China, P&G will continue to increase investment in digitalization, accelerate the launch of popular products, and lead the consumption upgrade; Secondly, P&G will enhance brand power, omni-channel operation capability and supply chain level, strengthen brand building, expand sales channels, and accelerate the construction of live e-commerce projects. In addition, P&G will vigorously promote green and low-carbon development, aiming to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from operations and supply chains by 2040.
In fact, the supply chain focus on China's enterprises, not a P&G, from 2022, many international chemical giants have invested in China, including the world's largest chemical company BASF, which is equivalent to P&G's size. In September 2022, BASF invested 10 billion euros to establish a new production site in Zhanjiang, which is the largest investment plan in BASF's 158-year corporate history.
On January 30, 2023, consumer goods giant Unilever announced the appointment of Hein Schumacher as chief executive officer. After a one-month transition period, Hein Schumacher will officially start as CEO of Unilever on July 1, 2023.
Hein Schumacher has worked for Heinz for more than 10 years in the US, Europe and Asia, where he was based in China and led the transformation of Heinz Group in the Asia Pacific region.
Nils Andersen, Chairman of Unilever, said: "Hein is a dynamic, values-driven business leader with a strong background of experience and an outstanding delivery track record in the global consumer goods industry. He brings superior strategic capabilities, proven operational efficiency, and extensive experience in both developed and developing markets."
Hein Schumacher said: "I am delighted to be appointed head of Unilever. It is a business with an impressive global presence, a strong portfolio of brands, a talented team and a reputation as a sustainable leader. During my time on the board, I have become increasingly confident in Unilever's fundamentals and clear growth potential. I will be very focused on working with the Unilever team to enhance the performance of the business and serve the billions of people around the world who use its products every day."
In general, "enterprises change managers, not in business adjustment, is on the way to business adjustment." Unilever's change of leadership also sends a signal that in the next few years, Unilever should reform or adjust its business framework.
On August 15, 2023, Kraft Heinz announced that Miguel Patricio, the company's chief executive officer, will step down next year and will be replaced by Carlos Abrams-Rivera, president of North America, effective January 1, 2024. Prior to this announcement, Abrams-Rivera will continue to oversee the region as President of North America and will also serve as President of the Company, effective as of the date of this announcement.
According to the data, Abrams-Rivera is already a "veteran" of the food and beverage industry. He previously worked at Kraft, where he managed several kitchen food brands, and later led Mondelez's Latin American chewing gum and confectionery division and Campbell Soup's snack business. In February 2020, he returned to Kraft Heinz as head of the U.S. region in the midst of the pandemic, successfully reversing the dramatic drop in demand caused by the pandemic.
Patricio said in a statement: "He (Abrams-Rivera) managed to withstand the tremendous pressure of the pandemic during his tenure as President of North America and achieved strong results. His ability and experience in different markets are a good match for our ambition to grow, and his strategy and innovative thinking are the ideal person to continue to drive Kraft Heinz in the next phase. I am proud to hand over the leadership to him, and I am confident that Kraft Heinz will do even better in the years to come."
Taken together, Kraft Heinz's performance in recent years has not been optimistic. According to its financial report information from 2016 to 2022, the change in total income is not large, but the change in net profit is larger, respectively, 3.596 billion yuan, 10.94 billion yuan, -10.19 billion yuan, 1.935 billion yuan, 356 million yuan, 1.012 billion yuan and 2.363 billion yuan.
It is worth noting that in 2020, Kraft Heinz moved its Asian headquarters to Guangzhou, China, strengthening its strategic position in the Chinese market. At present, Kraft Heinz in the Chinese market mainly has baby food, western condiments and Chinese condiments three circuit layout, with Heinz, Weissoda, Guanghe, Meiwei Yuan and other brands.
In January 2023, the Coca-Cola Company updated the lineup information of the executive team on the official website of the headquarters, among which the president of Coca-Cola Greater China and Mongolia changed a new person - Gilles Leclerc, which is understood to be the first time that Coca-Cola has changed the head of Greater China since 2020. The new President has been in office since January 1, 2023.
It is reported that before becoming the president of Coca-Cola Greater China and Mongolia, Giluk was the global president of Coca-Cola's McDonald's division. During his time with McDonald's, Gilluck led the global team that effectively drove the growth of the Coca-Cola business in more than 100 markets and nearly 38,000 McDonald's restaurants.
"He is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the business unit, driving the execution of core programs in key markets and driving both top and bottom line growth for the Coca-Cola System and McDonald's Corporation." Prior to that, he served as global vice president of Coca-Cola's McDonald's division, the company said.
In addition to food and beverage services, this senior FMCG veteran also has extremely rich 2B business experience in the retail channel. Gilluck joined Coca-Cola in 1998 and has held key positions in markets such as France, China, Singapore and the United States. He has led global account teams for key clients such as Carrefour, Metro, and French retailer Systeme U.