The kas are "stuck" in the cold chain

Image source @ Visual China

| DoNews, author | Avanti, editor | Li Kexin

Recently, Kashi yogurt, known as low-temperature yogurt "Hermes", has been on the cusp of the storm because the yogurt yeast exceeded the standard by 60 times.

According to the sampling information released by the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, the "one-hour after meal" Bifidobacterium C-I flavored fermented milk produced by Kashi Yogurt (Suzhou) limited to the company and sold by the Yongxinfang store of Unified Supermarket (Shanghai) Convenience Co., Ltd. has a yeast detection value of 6000 CFU/g, which has exceeded the national standard value (≤100CFU/g).

Although the emergency response of Kashi yogurt said that "the sample of the relevant batch of products meets the national standard." Yeast exceeding the standard should be caused by the product's storage temperature after leaving the factory is not up to standard", but obviously, consumers do not buy this statement.

Online reviews have turned to the question of the "wrong version of the goods" of Kashi: "The price of luxury goods is high, and it can be said that the brand premium, but the kashi yogurt is not cheap, I thought of a penny for a penny, I did not expect that there was this problem, it is very difficult to accept." ”

In fact, in terms of yeast exceeding the standard, Kashi is not the first time. According to the 16th food sampling information announcement of 2015 issued by the Guangdong Provincial Food and Drug Administration in November 2015, the salt count of Kashi fresh buttermilk (corn kernels) produced by Luxue Biological Engineering (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (in May 2021, Luxue Biological renamed Kashi Dairy (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.) Bao'an Branch was detected to exceed the standard.

According to the "Explanation of The Detected Yeast Count Exceeding the Standard" given by Kashi in response to this matter at that time, the production of the batch of Kashi fresh buttermilk (corn fruit) production line was unconditionally stopped, and the various links of the production line and the corn fruit supplier were thoroughly investigated and analyzed.

It is worth noting that the Incident of Kashi Yogurt Yeast Exceeding the Standard has also rarely attracted the voice of the central media, and the people's financial evaluation is even more "Yeast exceeding the standard 60 times, where is the "card" of Kashi yogurt", saying, "Quality is the touchstone of the brand, the pass of the enterprise, based on this, the marketing slogan of 'high taste, high quality, high standard' has practical significance." ”

Obviously, for The Cars in the low-temperature yogurt track, it is becoming a dark horse because it is well versed in the needs of consumers for health, and since it has enjoyed the dividends of the rise of new consumer groups, it is more necessary to check the quality of the brand's loyal users.

01, low-temperature yogurt "Hermès" frequently overturned

Since the product characteristics of 2-6 °C refrigeration and preservation need to be met by the low-temperature yogurt track, Wang Weijia, as the founder of Kashi, has long included the cold chain and the "last kilometer" distribution to the terminal consumer into the enterprise development agenda.

Even as early as 2015 in the dialogue with the media, Wang Weijia also took the initiative to mention that unlike many yogurt companies that take cooperation with third-party logistics, Kashi chose to spend a huge amount of money to build a full cold chain.

"During the transportation process, each vehicle is equipped with a temperature-controlled black box and GPS positioning, which realizes the real-time monitoring and recording of the temperature of the whole carriage, the tracking of the vehicle driving route and the driver's working status, and ensures the freshness of the product." At that time, Wang Weijia also further showed the "muscle" of the Kashi cold chain to the media.

Also in this dialogue, in addition to the importance of cold chain construction, Wang Weijia also mentioned some thoughts on retail terminals, especially the delivery of the last mile of e-commerce channels.

"If the product in the hands of the consumer is broken or spoiled after the online order is completed, it is harmful to the brand." Wang Weijia said that at the same time, Wang Weijia also said that how to solve the logistics of the last kilometer in the city is a problem of whether it can do a good job in e-commerce logistics.

As for how to solve the logistics of the last kilometer in the city, Wang Weijia gave a statement at the time, "The initial idea is to use the third-party distribution company of the last kilometer, and we will choose a third party from them that is in line with our concept and is more in line with the characteristics of our products to cooperate. ”

Although the founder has a clear understanding of the significance of the cold chain and logistics, the yeast exceeding the standard incident, combined with the response given by The Kashi afterwards, that is, "the yeast exceeding the standard should be caused by the storage temperature of the product after leaving the factory is not up to standard", or it also shows that in the cold chain, the kashi still needs to be improved.

In addition to the cold chain and logistics, on the sales terminal, Kashi has also been lost.

As early as 2015, Sanxiang Metropolis Daily reported that Kashi yogurt was distributed at the sales terminal and at room temperature.

"The salesman of the community delivery yogurt told me that the kars yogurt that my daughter drank the most had always been delivered at room temperature, and there was no refrigerated distribution, which could lead to necrosis of the active bacteria in the yogurt, and the storage warehouse conditions of the distributor were not up to standard..." Quoting the report of the Sanxiang Metropolis Daily at the time, a Ms. Shi who lived in Jinbinling, Changsha, broke the news to the Sanxiang Metropolis Daily that the Kashi yogurt was distributed at room temperature in the distribution.

According to the report of Sanxiang Metropolis Daily at the time, Hu Haitao, the general manager of The Hunan District of Kashi Yogurt, did not deny the existence of very few de-chilling products in an interview with reporters, in addition, Hu Haitao also mentioned that "the company also found some distributors to distribute at room temperature, and there were individual sellers who drove goods privately out of interest." ”

At the same time, Hu Haitao also mentioned to Sanxiang Metropolis Daily that for this situation, Kashi Company conducted a major inspection of the entire Hunan market on March 15 of that year, and revoked the agency qualifications of nearly 100 dealers... and so on, and pointed out that Kas will build a traceability system.

Perhaps, in the sales terminal is facing more than one kashi family, at least in the report of the Sanxiang Metropolis Daily at that time, it can be seen that during the reporter's on-site interview with the beverage wholesale area of the Gaoqiao Great Market, it was found that as many as dozens of low-temperature refrigerated yogurts of various brands were randomly placed in front of the store, but the temperature at noon on the same day was 28 degrees Celsius, which was much higher than the temperature requirements for low-temperature yogurt preservation.

But a fact that cannot be ignored is that since it advertises high-end low-temperature yogurt and enjoys dividends, brands should also control the quality of consumers from many aspects.

Ma Li, a senior co-partner at Beijing Deheheng Law Firm, pointed out that from the information disclosed by the media, Kashi yogurt has been detected many times to exceed yeast standards, which reflects that there is a problem with the food compliance system of Kashi yogurt.

"Food compliance management is not a face project that can be achieved overnight, but a systematic project that requires continuous improvement and continuous improvement." Mary said.

02, trapped in the cold chain of low-temperature yogurt

To some extent, the rise of high-end low-temperature yogurt is closely related to the demand for yogurt quality and health of new consumer groups.

Compared with ambient yogurt, in the fermentation process, low-temperature yogurt is no longer heat-treated and sterilized after pasteurization of raw milk and fermentation by adding fermentation bacteria, which means that beneficial bacteria to the human body can be retained, and ambient yogurt, usually after the completion of raw milk sterilization, after adding fermentation bacteria, will be heat treatment sterilization, and after the fermentation is completed, heat treatment and sterilization will be carried out again, and under such a process, in addition to all the fungi that are easy to cause yogurt to deteriorate, probiotics will be eliminated.

Different processes also give room temperature yogurt and low temperature yogurt their own advantages and disadvantages, usually, due to heat treatment, room temperature yogurt can be sold and stored at room temperature, while low temperature yogurt can only be stored at low temperature, at the same time, the two also have obvious differences in shelf life, room temperature yogurt shelf life is longer, generally about 6 months, and low temperature yogurt has a short shelf life, about 20 days.

In addition, the requirements for transportation and storage conditions are also different, room temperature yogurt as long as the room temperature transport storage can be, low temperature yogurt needs low temperature transport storage.

It is precisely the retention of probiotics in the low-temperature yogurt process that is very consistent with the pursuit of health and quality by new consumer groups, based on which low-temperature yogurt has ushered in rapid development.

The retention of probiotics based on differentiated sterilization methods also puts forward more stringent requirements for the logistics and cold chain of low-temperature yogurt, which means that low-temperature yogurt companies need to pay more costs in the cold chain and logistics.

A more obvious example is the Change yogurt that was once popular in the fitness circle, in 2018, the three main products of Change yogurt are priced at about 15 yuan, through discounts or promotions, the price is generally maintained at about 12 yuan, the price is not low in 2018, but even if a higher price is taken, Change yogurt can only maintain a small profit.

The reason behind the cold chain system is that the cost of the cold chain system is high, Change yogurt has revealed in an interview with the media, "the cost before leaving the warehouse is about 40% of the selling price, and most of the heads after leaving the warehouse are spent on cold chain transportation, and when they come out of the production line, they have to enter the cold storage, and the whole process has been refrigerated." ”

Due to the choice of third-party SF delivery, the relevant person in charge of the Change yogurt marketing department at that time even admitted that the company's net profit may not be enough to pay SF.

Based on factors such as the high cost of the third-party cold chain and the brand's inability to fully control the transportation of the cold chain, low-temperature yogurt brands have begun to build their own cold chains, but it is clear that building their own cold chains is not an easy task.

Self-built cold chain needs to cover milk source transportation, warehousing and final distribution to the sales end and other links, which also means that the financial pressure and management difficulty of enterprises are improved, a more obvious example is that as a new force of low-temperature yogurt Jane Love Yogurt in the A round and B round of financing totaling 1.2 billion yuan, have mentioned that financing funds will be invested in the supply chain.

According to senior sources in the industry, due to the high cost of the whole self-built cold chain, it is difficult for a dairy company in China to truly build a national cold chain, and high-end low-temperature yogurt seems to be hot, in fact, the cold chain is a major challenge facing the entire industry.

In addition to funds, the self-built cold chain also tests the brand's management ability for all employees in the cold chain system, such as whether the sales personnel in the wholesale market and the low-temperature yogurt sales personnel in the store are placed in the freezer to maintain the appropriate temperature for management in accordance with product requirements.

In the view of Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, although low-temperature yogurt puts forward higher requirements for supply chain construction, storage and transportation, research and development technology, etc., the integrity of the whole industrial chain has also formed the core barrier to dairy competition.

03, low-temperature yogurt is also anxious

In addition to the cold chain and logistics constraints, the scarcity of high-quality milk sources is also plaguing the new forces of low-temperature yogurt in China.

High-quality milk stems from the importance of low-temperature yogurt, perhaps from one of the previous Jane Love capitalists, Dehong Capital Chairman Liu Haifeng can see some clues, Liu Haifeng once pointed out that low-temperature yogurt compared to room temperature milk, the milk source requirements are more stringent, has higher nutritional value, and is fresher.

In addition, from brands such as Kashi, Jane Eyre, and LeChun, after financing, they will mention that funds are used in the supply chain, which can also be seen the importance of milk sources.

However, in stark contrast to the importance of milk sources, the new forces are weak in milk sources, according to a practitioner, in the new yogurt forces, only 30% of the self-owned industrial chain.

In the case that high-quality milk sources are only in the hands of a few brands, and the low-temperature yogurt market size has maintained a compound growth rate of nearly 30% in the past 3 years, the new forces of low-temperature yogurt have begun to intensify the competition for milk sources.

For example, Park Cheng Dairy, the parent company of Jane Love Yogurt, announced in early September last year that it became a strategic shareholder of AustAsia, with a shareholding ratio of 5%, also in September, Beihai Ranch also announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with Australia and Asia, with a shareholding ratio of 2.5%, and following Jane Eyre and Beihai Ranch, also last year, New Hope's dairy company New Dairy also strategically invested in Australia and Asia, accounting for 5% of the shares, which shows that as a new brand of low-temperature yogurt, the competition for high-quality milk sources. This also reflects the anxiety of new brands from the side.

Compared with the new forces of low-temperature yogurt, the traditional dairy industry is too "Buddhist" in terms of the expansion of the low-temperature yogurt market or in the competition for high-quality milk sources, such as Yili, Mengniu, and Guangming, although they have launched high-end low-temperature yogurt products, but they are more like a shallow taste of the low yogurt track, behind this contrast, the most core factor is that a large number of high-quality milk sources have long been recruited by dairy giants, and these resources are far from being reached by new brands.

According to public data, as early as 2019, 40% of the domestic milk sources were in the hands of two leading enterprises, such as Mengniu's acquisition of China Shengmu, which is the largest supplier of organic raw milk in China; Yili has high-quality pasture resources such as Zhongdi Animal Husbandry, Youran Animal Husbandry, and Fonterra China Ranch.

Following the "scramble" for milk sources, low-temperature yogurts have fallen into the anxiety of declining sales.

According to public data, the sales growth rate of low-temperature dairy products in 2021 was -6.1%, or affected by this, the new forces have turned their attention to the liquid milk track.

Previously, Jane Ai launched the fresh milk product "naked fresh milk", and Kashi also announced the launch of fresh milk in the public account, and said that fresh milk was produced from Dutch purebred Holstein cows, and the milk source came from Shaanxi "GAP First-class Ranch" Huashan Ranch and so on.

Perhaps the positioning of high-end yogurt Kashi and Jane Ai into the low-temperature fresh milk market may introduce certain variables to the industry, but a fact that cannot be ignored is that it will also usher in a more violent impact from dairy giants such as Yili and Mengniu.

Resources:

"Low temperature milk sent at room temperature, Changsha yogurt changed flavor? Source: Sanxiang Metropolis Daily

"People's Financial Review: Yeast exceeds the standard by 60 times, where is the "card" of Kashi yogurt" Source: People's Daily News

"Kashi will push high-end yogurt new products, the head of the Virgo personality into its quality label" Source: Rednet

"China Yogurt War" Source: Shang Cain Society