Source of this article: Time Weekly Author: Li Xinting
The "true and false golden snub-nosed monkey case" has the result of the second instance.
Recently, the trademark infringement case of "Golden Snub-nosed Monkey" v. "Golden Monkey" was recently tried in the second instance at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. The case arose because the "Golden Monkey" milk candy used a trademark and packaging similar to that of the "Golden Monkey". To this end, Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Golden Monkey") sued Shandong Huifuyuan Food Co., Ltd., the producer of "Golden Monkey", in court in 2019, and the verdict of the first and second trials of the case was consistent, that is, the "Golden Monkey" party constituted trademark infringement, but only 30,000 yuan of compensation was required.
The golden snub-nosed monkey has other troubles.
As a popular national confectionery brand, the annual revenue of golden snub-nosed monkey once soared to 1.5 billion yuan, and was once acquired by the well-known American confectionery company Hershey at a high price. However, due to the performance did not meet expectations, the golden snub-nosed monkey was "redeemed" to return to China after a large contraction in value.
Today, the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey still has to face many challenges. Low sugar into a general trend of consumption, milk sugar, chocolate as the main industry of the golden monkey has not kept pace with the times.
"The success of the trademark infringement shows that the brand value of the golden snub-nosed monkey is still there." But in order to achieve better development, the golden snub-nosed monkey should seriously think about the development of the industry and itself. On June 11, Zhang Zheng, a senior brand marketing expert, told the Times Weekly reporter.
On the same day, the Times Weekly reporter called the relevant person in charge of the golden snub-nosed monkey, but as of press time, there was no response.
The "Journey to the West" is not smooth
According to the official website, the Golden Monkey brand was founded by Zhao Qisan, a native of Henan, in 1992, with milk candy and chocolate as the main direction. In 1993, after the golden snub-nosed monkey merged with Shanghai Penglai Food Factory, Shanghai Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Food Co., Ltd. was registered.
Since 2004, when it significantly covered domestic sales channels in the form of distributors, golden snub-nosed monkeys have experienced a period of rapid growth in performance. After 2004, the annual revenue of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey increased by more than 30% for five consecutive years; in 2009, sales increased to nearly 2 billion yuan.
In 2008, the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Group moved to Shanghai Pudong to register and establish Shanghai Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Co., Ltd., after which the company began to plan for an A-share listing.
From 2009 to 2012, Zhao Dongwang, the son of Zhao Qisan, led the launch of high-end positioning products, but the results were minimal, and the company's sales fell rapidly. In 2012, sales of golden snub-nosed monkeys fell to about 1 billion yuan. In this context, founder Zhao Qisan took over the business and stopped the listing plan.
In December 2013, Hershey, The largest chocolate manufacturer in North America, announced the acquisition of an 80% stake in Shanghai Golden Monkey Company. In this acquisition, Hershey's Dutch company paid 3.021 billion yuan in cash and assumed debt of 522 million yuan. In February 2016, Hershey acquired the remaining 20% stake in Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey for another 235.3 million yuan. At this point, Hershey wholly owned the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey.
After the announcement of the acquisition in 2013, Humberto P. Alfonso, then president of Hershey International, said that the reason for the acquisition of golden snub-nosed monkeys was because the main market of golden snub-nosed monkeys was In China, golden snub-nosed monkeys belonged to pure candy and snack food companies, and golden snub-nosed monkeys had distribution channels that Hershey had not yet explored.
After being acquired, the performance of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey did not meet Hershey's expectations.
In 2015 and 2017, Hershey recorded a cumulative impairment of the golden snub-nosed monkey's goodwill of US$386 million due to significantly lower-than-expected sales and profitability of the golden snub-nosed monkey. According to Hershey's financial report, in 2016, Hershey China revenue fell 11.8%, the only region in the world where performance declined; in 2017, China became the most loss-making market in Hershey's international business, with revenue falling 30% in the fourth quarter.
The conflict between business models has hindered the development of the golden snub-nosed monkey after the "journey to the west".
In May 2017, 130 office directors and more than 1,000 dealers of Golden Snub-nosed Monkey issued a joint letter accusing Hershey of defaulting on the commissions, bonuses, share capital, national dealer residual expenses, and unresolved inventory of employees, with arrears of 270 million yuan. Hershey sued the Golden Monkey dealer, demanding that the dealer pay the arrears. The essence of the dispute is that the dealer has a large number of hoards of goods, and both parties hope to avoid the corresponding losses.
After four years of difficult "marriage", Hershey finally sold the golden snub-nosed monkey in a low-key manner.
On July 25, 2018, the general manager of Hershey Greater China released an internal email informing her that Hershey would sell the golden snub-nosed monkey business, and the acquirer was Henan Yuxiang Food Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Henan Yuxiang").
From the superficial information, Henan Yuxiang has nothing to do with Zhao Qisan. However, after combing through the current management of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, it can be found that the current general manager of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey is Cui Wenzhong, who is the general manager of the Central Plains Region when Zhao Qisan is still dominating the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey.
In the view of Li Jun, deputy secretary-general of the Leisure Food Directors Alliance of the China Non-staple Food Circulation Association, the golden snub-nosed monkey is still dominated by Zhao Qisan in essence, and Hershey's acquisition of golden snub-nosed monkey only obtained the brand's hardware resources, but failed to integrate with the corporate culture of the golden snub-nosed monkey, "Hershey cannot accept old employees, which indirectly leads to a cliff-like decline in the later sales of the golden snub-nosed monkey." On June 11, Li Jun told the Times Weekly reporter.
The position of the industry declined
According to Kantar China Consumer Index, in 2013, before it was acquired, Golden Monkey was one of the leading players in China's chocolate and confectionery market, trailing only Ma Dajie Foods and Xu Fuji, who was acquired by Nestlé.
But in the past 8 years, the golden snub-nosed monkey's industry leadership has ceased to be what it used to be.
At present, foreign brands firmly occupy a dominant position in China's confectionery market. According to guanyan tianxia's "2020 China Confectionery Market Analysis Report", the top five brands in terms of market share are Mars, Nestle, Alps and Mondelëz International, with the above brands accounting for 22%, 8%, 7% and 7% respectively, and the proportion of other brands is less than 5%.
Among the top ten confectionery brand enterprises in China in 2020, Xu Fuji and Ma Dajie ranked fourth and tenth respectively, and the golden snub-nosed monkey was not on the list.
Since being repurchased by Henan Yuxiang, the golden snub-nosed monkey has not disclosed its revenue to the outside world. In 2018, the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey said that it would strive to achieve annual sales of 2.5 billion yuan in 2019-2021.
However, from some of the order data disclosed in recent years, sales do not seem to have increased.
On August 16, 2018, at the first dealer meeting after being acquired by Henan Yuxiang, the total order volume of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey on the same day reached 178 million yuan. According to media reports, the order volume decreased compared with the total order volume of 220 million yuan in 2017.
In the first quarter of 2020, at the first online sugar and wine conference, the total order volume of the Golden Snub-nosed Monkey was nearly 150 million yuan, and the total order volume continued to decline.
"Sugar Reduction" Vent Challenge
The confectionery industry, where the golden snub-nosed monkey is located, is also undergoing change.
Sugar reduction is becoming the mainstream consumer trend at present, and the development of the traditional confectionery industry has declined as a whole.
According to the "2020-2025 China Confectionery Small Food Industry Market Research and Investment Strategy Consulting Report" of Huajing Industry Research Institute, China's per capita candy consumption has dropped from 1.41 kg in 2014 to 1.28 kg in 2019. Domestic candy production since 2016 reached a high of 3.519 million tons, began to show negative growth, in 2017 decreased by 205,000 tons year-on-year, 2018 output of 2.883 million tons, january to October 2020, the cumulative output of domestic candy is only 2.307 million tons.
Under the trend of sugar reduction, the main business of the golden snub-nosed monkey seems "out of date".
According to the official website of the golden snub-nosed monkey, the golden snub-nosed monkey currently has three brands of golden snub-nosed monkey, steamed monkey and Youshi, which mainly produce milk candy, fruit candy, chocolate, soy products and baking products, and more than 200 varieties of products. Among them, the company will milk sugar, merisu as the core category, dried tofu, baking products are the main category.
Li Jun said that at present, the better performing products in the golden monkey market are mainly golden monkey double kink milk candy, dried monkey bean, you's bread and golden monkey myritin, and the pillar business is still traditional confectionery products. This limits its revenue growth space to some extent.
In Zhang Zheng's view, what the golden snub-nosed monkey needs to solve is the problem faced by the entire confectionery industry. "Today's consumers advocate healthy eating, and well-known confectionery companies, including the Golden Monkey, must actively innovate to survive." Zhang Zheng said.
Li Jun believes that changing the sales form of candy may become a breakthrough for traditional candy companies. "Nowadays, the frequency of traditional candy consumption has been significantly reduced, and the concept of low-sugar consumption has led to a partial decline in the traditional candy market. But in fact, sales of high-end fudge, functional candy, 0 sucrose tablet candy and other categories are still rising. Li Jun analyzed.
Gao Haiping, an analyst in the food industry of Gao Gang Consulting, pointed out that candy companies have certain advantages in the transformation to baked goods, "The baking track is very long, and it is currently in an upward period, if the golden monkey can increase the size of baked food, launch a series of Chinese and Western baked goods, it is still worth looking forward to." On June 11, Gao Haiping told the Times Weekly reporter.