Lotus monosodium glutamate caught the splashing wealth

Zebra consumption Chen Xiaojing

The old tree has really sprouted.

Lotus MSG, which is already 40 years old, suddenly caught the domestic product craze in 2023 and made itself popular again.

Since its listing in 1998, Lotus MSG has also gone through a lot of disasters. The external market is severe, the internal turmoil is turbulent, and it has changed hands several times, and finally regained its life through reorganization.

In 2023, Lotus Health, the parent company of Lotus MSG, is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to the parent company of 120 million yuan to 150 million yuan, driven by the main business of MSG. The "King of MSG" seems to have seen the glory of his year.

200% increase in performance

Lotus Health can finally raise its eyebrows.

On January 10, the company disclosed a gratifying 2023 annual performance forecast: in that year, the company is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to the parent company of 120 million yuan to 150 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 159.92% to 224.91%, and a non-net profit of 115 million yuan to 135 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 84.40% to 116.47%.

The company concluded that the reasons for the growth of performance are the implementation of the brand revival strategy, the optimization of the marketing network, the strengthening of marketing and sales work, and the joint promotion of product sales to maintain a high growth rate.

Stimulated by this good news, Lotus Health (600186. SH) shares have reversed a multi-day losing streak. Yesterday, it rose at the opening, and once rose more than 5% in the intraday, closing at 5.56 yuan / share throughout the day, up 3.48%, and the market value regained 10 billion.

Lotus Health started with MSG, and now, MSG is still the absolute main source of revenue for the company.

According to the data, in the first three quarters of 2023, the company's amino acid condiments such as monosodium glutamate achieved revenue of 1.223 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.12%, the revenue of compound condiments such as chicken essence was 195 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.55%, and the revenue of flour and flour products was 76 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 48.19%. From January to September, the company achieved a cumulative operating income of 1.614 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.77%.

On the channel side, the company's product sales still mainly rely on offline, through more than 2,700 dealers and tens of thousands of merchants, the products are sold to more than 70 countries and regions in the country and the world.

At present, Lotus Health is also making efforts to sell its monosodium glutamate and other condiments through its own online channels through live streaming. In the first three quarters of 2023, the company's self-operated online channels achieved revenue of 42.6601 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 282.00%, much higher than the offline revenue growth level in the same period.

After September last year, Lotus MSG quickly became popular with the help of a series of online incidents, and it is expected that the online revenue level will further increase throughout the year.

became popular at the age of 40

Lotus Health, formerly known as Lotus MSG, is an old MSG brand with a history of 40 years. Looking back 20 years, Lotus MSG was almost a household name, and it was the finishing touch of Chinese housewives' cooking.

According to the data, from the establishment of the company's predecessor Zhoukou MSG Factory in 1983 to 15 years later in 1997, the annual output of Lotus MSG increased from 400 tons to 120,000 tons, and the annual output value increased from 9.45 million yuan to 2.23 billion yuan. The company's single monosodium glutamate product ranks first in the world, with a domestic market share of more than 40%, and is worthy of the name of "monosodium glutamate king".

In 1998, Lotus MSG landed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange and became the "first stock of MSG in China".

However, I don't know when the rumors about "delicate cancer" began to spread, and compound seasonings such as chicken essence quickly replaced MSG's position in Chinese kitchens, and Lotus MSG was lonely.

In 2002, the high growth of Lotus MSG for many years ended, and the net profit plummeted by 86.71% that year, and the following year it suffered a direct loss of 145 million yuan.

In the following ten years, although Lotus MSG has been supported by MSG products, it has always been difficult to regain its original glory.

Until 2023, a splashing wealth will come, and Lotus MSG will seize the opportunity to become popular again with the help of domestic product craze. Not only in the short term, it attracted a large number of users to place orders in the live broadcast room, but more importantly, the company eliminated the public's misunderstanding of MSG and achieved "rehabilitation" for the brand.

Especially after the Huaxizi 79 yuan eyebrow pencil incident, Lotus MSG launched a package of 79 yuan to buy 5 and a half catties of MSG overnight, which directly sent the brand to the hot search again.

The company's official live broadcast room, which used to have only single-digit users, suddenly poured in tens of thousands, and the anchor was so excited that he burst into tears on the spot.

At present, the number of fans of the official flagship store of Lotus Douyin has exceeded 700,000, and the sales volume of the old packaging 100g Lotus MSG combination has exceeded 1.6 million orders.

In-situ cross-border

The sinking of Lotus monosodium glutamate cannot be blamed entirely on external factors. The internal turmoil has made the company's adversity in the market even worse. During this period, the company changed hands several times, which exacerbated the turmoil.

Due to the debt dispute between Lotus Group and Henan Nongkai, in 2009, Lotus Group compensated 54 million shares of the listed company to Henan Nongkai, and lost control of Lotus monosodium glutamate.

In 2014, Lotus MSG ushered in a new owner. "Capital player" Xia Jiantong and his Ruikang department ran into the market and obtained control of the listed company.

Xia Jiantong has many halos such as "Harvard Doctor", "Genius Boy" and "Capital Predator" on his head, and the investors of Lotus MSG once had high hopes for him.

At that time, Xia Jiantong did draw a beautiful cake for Lotus MSG. In 2016, the company was renamed "Lotus Health", and the company's LOGO was changed from a budding flower bone to a blooming seven-petal color lotus, so as to express the company's future entry into seven major business sectors such as smart agriculture, innovative finance, and health.

The genius Xia Jiantong failed to save Lotus's health, but instead let the company sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of performance. Due to losses for two consecutive years, the company was put on delisting risk alert in 2019.

Xia Jiantong was arrested on suspicion of breach of trust and damaging the interests of listed companies, and the collapse of the "Ruikang Department", which had created the myth of winning 3 listed companies in 3 years, was a later story.

In 2019, Lotus Health implemented reorganization, and Li Houwen, a private AMC boss, led his "Guohou Department" curve into the ownership and became the new owner of the company.

While stabilizing the main business of traditional condiments, Li Houwen vigorously promoted the business transformation of Lotus Health.

In March last year, the company planned to acquire no less than 20% of the equity of Hangzhou Golden Antelope, the main operating entity of Zihai Pot, with a transaction consideration of 300 million yuan to 600 million yuan. However, six months later, the investment was terminated because the parties could not reach a consensus on the acquisition.

If investing in Zihai Pot is also related to the main business of condiments, then Lotus Health's sudden involvement in the artificial intelligence computing power leasing business is purely a jump on the spot. There is a large gap in qualifications, experience, talents, equipment and even funds.

In June last year, after Lotus Health invested in the establishment of a subsidiary, Lotus Science and Technology, it continued to release wind to the outside world, pushing the company's stock price all the way up. To this end, the company was issued a warning letter by the regulator and administrative supervision measures were taken.

The company originally planned to invest 693 million yuan to purchase servers needed for the layout of computing power business. As of the end of 2023, the actual payment for goods and the delivery of equipment are still very small.