Yakult's sales this year have fallen short of expectations and want to focus on online sales channels

The emergence of the epidemic has impacted the sales of lactic acid bacteria beverage market. On November 12, the first financial reporter learned from Guangzhou Yakult Dairy Co., Ltd. that Yakult's market sales this year were less than the company's expectations, and the average number of bottles sold per day this year was about 3 million bottles, slightly lower than last year.

Yakult's parent company is the Japanese lactic acid bacteria beverage giant Yakult, the latter currently operates two lactic acid bacteria beverage brands in China, in addition to Yakult, the other is Yakult, but the two sell the same active lactic acid bacteria beverage, the difference is that the sales market is different, the former radiates the South China market, the latter radiates the East China market, of which, Yakult's sales market is mainly focused on Guangdong Province and Hainan Province.

Umehara Jixing, managing director of Guangzhou Yiliduo Dairy Co., Ltd., told the first financial reporter that due to the impact of epidemic prevention and control, the company's sales stagnated in February this year, and then sales slowly recovered, and after September ushered in recovery.

And Yakult's sales performance, and the company's sales channels have a certain relationship, the company's lactic acid bacteria beverages need to be refrigerated at low temperatures such as 2 degrees to 10 degrees, so the main use of home distribution and supermarket distribution of two channels, in the family distribution channels, the company mainly relies on "Miss Yakult" free delivery model. When the epidemic appeared, the delivery model of "Miss Yakult" was undoubtedly hindered.

In the face of this situation, since the beginning of this year, Yakult has opened an online sales channel, however, to open an online sales channel, it is also necessary to consider the storage and transportation conditions of lactic acid bacteria beverages. According to the first financial reporter, The e-commerce platforms that Yakult currently cooperates with are Jingdong, Daily Excellent Fresh, Dingdong Grocery Shopping, Qian Aunt, Handsome Aunt, Original Life, etc., mainly based on fresh e-commerce.

"Compared with offline physical stores such as supermarkets, the sales of online beverages have increased, so we have opened an online sales channel. In addition, with the development of physical and online sales integration stores such as beverage stores and Aunt Qian, the new sales model has shown a growth trend, and we will also lay out relevant online and offline integration channels in the future. Umehara Kiyuki said.

Song Liang, a senior analyst of dairy products, told the first financial reporter that behind the performance of Yakult being less than expected, in addition to the decline in consumer purchasing power caused by the epidemic factor, it is also related to the homogenization competition of the entire lactic acid bacteria beverage market.

In fact, since Yakult entered the Chinese market for sale, many brands have also entered the field of lactic acid bacteria beverages, including national dairy companies such as Yili and Mengniu, as well as regional dairy companies such as Yantang Dairy and JuneYao Health, the industry competition can be described as fierce, and Yakult's lactic acid bacteria beverage market share in China is inevitably also eroded. According to the data provided by Guangzhou Yakult Dairy Co., Ltd., in 2019, the sales volume of Yakult lactic acid bacteria beverages in China was an average of 7.61 million bottles per day, an average daily increase of 84,000 bottles compared with 2018, but the growth rate was slowing down, and in 2018, it was an average daily increase of 543,000 bottles.

It is worth mentioning that Yakult is introducing its cosmetics business to the Chinese market. Since July 21 this year, Yakult has opened a flagship store on Tmall International, selling brands such as "Lekeduo". Guangzhou Yakult Dairy Co., Ltd. said that the cosmetics China business is mainly carried out by the parent company Yakult through the agency company.