laitimes

Digging deep into the value of sheep's milk, Blue River creates a new consumption model for the dairy industry

author:Beijing News

Recently, the 2022 China (Changsha) New Consumption City Summit was held in Changsha, and Chen Litao, Chairman of Blue River Dairy, shared the "Blue River Experience" of enterprises in building brand power in the new consumption era.

Through the strategy of "going out and bringing in", Blue River Dairy has created a new category of sheep milk, relying on the advantages of scarce milk sources, more natural nutrients, easy digestion and absorption, international layout of the whole industry chain, and upgrading the nutritional needs of young consumer groups, etc., to build high competitive barriers and become the nutritional choice for more mothers.

In 2021, Blue River Dairy was selected by Deloitte, a world-renowned accounting firm, as the fastest growing company in New Zealand in the past five years with a growth rate of 1502%. In the 2021 Global Dairy Innovation Awards, Blue River Sheep Milk Powder was shortlisted for the Best Infant Nutrition Milk Powder, and the sheep milk industry also completed the transformation from "pure jade" to "beautiful jade".

Open up a new track of high-end nutrition

"Where the consumer is, the brand is." Blue River Dairy believes that dairy is one of the most competitive areas globally. The industry concentration has been further strengthened, the market saturation and homogeneity are high, and consumers are more picky about product standards, which has given birth to the evolution of milk powder brands to high-end and segmentation. In this process, new categories are constantly emerging, and sheep's milk is one of them.

Digging deep into the value of sheep's milk, Blue River creates a new consumption model for the dairy industry

Blue River milk source.

In recent years, the demand for sheep dairy products in domestic and foreign markets has increased. Sheep milk is a natural small molecule and A2 protein that is easily digested and absorbed by the body, but accounts for only 1% of global milk production. The rarity of milk sources makes it popular in overseas markets, and high-quality dairy products such as sheep cheese have been selling well in Europe, the United States and other regions and countries for a long time.

Seeing the potential of sheep milk, Blue River wholly acquired Blue River Dairy in New Zealand in 2015 and launched the world's first infant formula sheep milk powder, which is also known as the first year of commercialization of global sheep milk.

In order to further integrate the resources of the global sheep milk industry, in October 2016, Blue River Dairy acquired Alimenta Company of Italy, and invested in the purchase of equipment, the introduction of technology, the development of D90 sheep whey powder raw materials, completed the sheep formula milk powder from fresh milk, whey liquid source control, to product production, brand marketing of the whole industry chain operation, greatly improved production efficiency and quality control capabilities, especially in the supply of high-quality D90 sheep desalted whey powder formed a resource advantage.

Among the fastest growing export enterprises

Chen Litao, chairman of Blue River Dairy, believes that under the new pattern of dual-cycle development, brand long-term popularity needs all-round driving such as product power, channel power, digital power, and brand power. As the pioneer of the sheep milk category, Blue River Dairy has insight into the needs of young consumers for nutritional upgrades, and has established resource barriers and leading advantages through forward-looking layout.

As an emerging high-end category, sheep milk powder has grown rapidly. According to the "Sheep Milk Market Development Trend Report" released by Euromonitor International in 2021, China's sheep milk market is growing at a rate of more than 50% and is expected to continue to maintain a rapid growth rate of about 20% per year in the future. High-educated, high-income groups are more willing to pay for high-quality products, and new mothers among them are more likely to choose sheep milk formula for their babies.

According to the results of the aBeacon (data service provider: personal lamp) new mother insight report, post-95 mothers are more inclined to form their own exclusive parenting concept with the help of popular science and health applications, and no longer blindly follow the advice of others. Compared with post-80s mothers, they are more willing to try new things for their babies, and the choice of "threshold" is broader. At the same time, eighty percent of the new generation of parents do not care about price and are more willing to pay for high-quality products.

Driven by the new consumption force, Blue River Dairy has stood on the cusp of the sheep milk industry. The data shows that the sales of sheep milk powder increased by more than 50% in 2019. In 2020, the sales of goat milk powder market is expected to reach 10 billion yuan, of which Lanhe ranks first in China's sheep milk category. In October 2021, Blue River was selected by Deloitte as the fastest growing company in New Zealand in the past five years with a growth rate of 1502%. In the past two years, Tmall 618 and Double 11, Blue River has continuously ranked among the top three in the sales volume of infant goat milk powder category.

Innovation for the whole family's nutritional needs

Despite its presence in the goat milk powder market, Blue River continues to innovate and enrich its sheep milk product matrix.

Blue River International Sheep Milk Nutrition Research Center, together with the Royal Academy of Agricultural Sciences of New Zealand and the University of Cagliari, Italy, has formed a scientific research layout between China and New Zealand and Italy, focusing on the development and research of new nutrition and new formulas, and constantly achieving product iterative upgrading. This complete international industrial chain from milk source mobilization, quality control to R&D and innovation has become a strong support for the rapid development of Blue River.

Digging deep into the value of sheep's milk, Blue River creates a new consumption model for the dairy industry

Blue River International Sheep Milk Research Center.

Studies have confirmed that the β-casein of sheep milk is similar to A2 milk, and the digestive comfort is better. Earlier, Blue River Dairy and the Royal New Zealand Academy of Agricultural Sciences verified the superiority of digestion and absorption of sheep milk through adult clinical experiments of sheep milk. Moreover, based on the research results of amniolytic protein, Blue River Dairy completed large-scale trial production for the first time, and the newly upgraded process can reliably and economically produce amniolyzed protein raw materials on a large scale. Blue River factory also has a very strict New Zealand RMP safety certification, strict testing of product quality, production environment, transportation vehicles, and even workshop air to ensure the high-end quality of Blue River milk powder.

At the 4th CIIE, Blue River Dairy presented its global industrial chain layout achievements for the first time, such as infant products Blue River Sheep Milk Powder, Blue River Spring Sheep, Blue River Muap, and a series of sheep milk powder products of children's and adult nutrition lines. Lanhe revealed to the Beijing News reporter that it will continue to extend the consumer group, cover the nutritional needs of the whole life cycle, innovate and develop organic sheep infant milk powder, sheep lactoferrin milk powder and deep hydrolyzed sheep milk products, sheep milk cheese, etc., to tap the deep value of the category.

Digging deep into the value of sheep's milk, Blue River creates a new consumption model for the dairy industry

Blue River sheep milk powder series products.

In the 2021 World Dairy Innovation Awards, Blue River was shortlisted for the Best Infant Nutrition Dairy Award. Marcelo Pereira de Carvalho, judge of the award, said: "Sheep milk powder is the new blue ocean of the infant milk powder market, and Blue River is a pioneer in the global milk powder market to create the sheep milk powder category. ”

Text/Guo Tie Photo/Photo courtesy of the company

Edited by Zhu Fenglan

Proofreader Zhao Lin

Read on