As a unique seasoning leader in the Chinese market, Haitian is not without scenery.
At the beginning of 2021, the share price of Haitian Flavor soared, with a market value of more than 700 billion yuan and a price of more than 124.68 yuan per share, making countless shareholders who bet on Haitian rich overnight.
But after the peak, there is an endless fall.
As of April 2024, the price per share of Haitian Flavor has fallen to 37 yuan, and the market value is also hovering around 200 billion.
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It is true that this is already a splash of wealth for ordinary people, but for a behemoth like Haitian, the loss in the past three years is not uncatastrophic.
It is common for the market value of a listed company to fall, and it is also normal for the share price of a seasoning brand to move.
But it is a bit rare for a company to evaporate 500 billion market value in 3 years.
Seasonings are not a conspicuous commodity category in market operations.
However, the Chinese people summarize their lives as "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea", which shows how important seasonings are in the field of people's livelihood.
There is no trivial matter in people's livelihood, even a small bottle of soy sauce can cause an uproar in the market.
Therefore, Haitian can stand so far, and its business strategy is very worthy of learning from many enterprises.
The establishment of Haitian Flavor Industry can be traced back to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
The "Foshan Sauce Garden" in Foshan, Guangdong Province has a history of 300 years.
At that time, China did not have so many bells and whistles, and soy sauce was a rare luxury on the people's table.
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In other words, the ancestors of Haitian Sauce Garden had firmly controlled the seasoning jars in the kitchens of the common people as early as 300 years ago.
In the past 100 years, Haitian Sauce Garden has always been doing its own soy sauce business in obscurity, and before and after the establishment of New China, its soy sauce has been sold to Hong Kong and Macao, and has become famous in the local area.
In 1955, Foshan, Guangdong Province began a wave of "merger of sauce gardens".
As one of the largest, most productive, and most mature sauce gardens, Haitian Sauce Garden has undoubtedly settled as the leader, and the 25 sauce gardens are also under the name of Haitian, which is "Haitian Soy Sauce Factory".
Although Haitian is a unique large enterprise in the local area, due to the scarcity of materials, Haitian's expansion speed has been greatly affected.
It was not until 1994, after decades of tepid development, that Haitian once again carried out drastic reforms and reorganized into a joint-stock company.
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In the following years, Haitian not only sold soy sauce to all parts of the country, but also vigorously developed exports, established overseas offices, and established overseas production bases with an annual output of more than one million.
It is worth mentioning that in the 80s of the last century, Haitian was a state-owned enterprise, and after the second restructuring in 2007, it was directly transformed into a private enterprise.
The modern prototype of Haitian Flavor Industry has been laid.
After 2008, China's trade took advantage of the high-speed rail, and many traditional domestic industries took advantage of the momentum, and Haitian was no exception.
In 2014, Haitian was listed on the A-share market under the name "Haitian Flavor".
There is no regularity in the stock market, and although Haitian is up and down, it can show an overall upward trend.
After 2020, Haitian Flavor Industry shares exploded, and the stock price rose sharply after a small ups and downs, and by the beginning of 2021, it was close to 700 billion!
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Throughout the history of Haitian, it will be found that it is extremely responsive to the market and the environment.
Over the years, they have not encountered crises, Haitian is dormant when it should be low-key, and it is high-profile when it is public, and it is advancing with the pace of the times, which is also the most important reason for its success.
However, times change too fast, and no one can guarantee that they will never fall on their heels.
In other words, it is precisely because Haitian's development is too smooth that it is destined to fall.
Haitian's development can be glimpsed from its stock market.
After the peak of the stock market in 2021, Haitian's share price began to decline at a steady rate, and it is understandable that the prosperity must decline, and the changes of tens of billions of dollars are also under the control of the company.
But just in 2022, something out of control happened.
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Xin Jifei used to be an ordinary snack bar owner, at first his traffic was very average, and the account positioning was not clear, and he was unknown among the vast publishers.
The turning point came in August 2022.
In this video on August 13, Xin Jifei rooted the "additive crisis" in the eyes of the public for the first time.
On that day, he made a deep-fried skewer sauce, and in the process of blending, he did not use natural seasonings, but used a variety of additives to blend it.
The video caused a lot of controversy on the Internet, and Xin Jifei later posted about the blending process of "Sanhua Evaporated Milk", "Science and Technology Starch Sausage", "Instant Bird's Nest" and other foods, which became famous on the Internet.
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The "Hextech" and "Technology and Ruthless Work" that he often talks about have also become the mantras of many netizens ridiculing food safety.
So how does this matter have to do with Haitian?
Just because Haitian Flavor is the largest seasoning company in China today, when it comes to food safety, it always can't get around.
Of course, the most important thing is that Xin Jifei once anonymously told the story of a soy sauce brand engaging in double standards at home and abroad in a video.
However, although it is anonymous, netizens still "shook" Haitian to the front of the stage through clues.
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This is also the famous "Haitian Double Standard Gate" incident in 2022.
It stands to reason that a large enterprise like Haitian has experienced various public relations crises over the years.
But they really haven't seen this crisis.
In October 2022, after only one month of fermentation of public opinion, Haitian Flavor's shares evaporated by nearly 28%.
Now looking at the value line of Haitian Flavor Industry in that month, it is obvious that there is a huge "deep pit".
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Perhaps he had never seen such a battle, and Haitian was obviously a little panicked.
It's not that they didn't have clarifications, but they just had a long clarification draft, which really missed the point.
From the standards of additives in various countries to some people with ulterior motives, from their own conscientious industry to some people causing confrontation between Haitian and consumers, from refuting rumors that they do not have double standards, to netizens should believe in "Made in China".
In fact, what everyone wants to know most is whether Haitian has added "technology and hard work" to its products, and if so, does it have any impact on the human body?
After the clarification on the 4th, Haitian issued a statement and an announcement on the 5th and 10th respectively.
And the announcement on the 10th wrote this line:
"Up to now, the company's operation has not undergone major changes, please invest rationally. ”
And this sentence is the main purpose of Haitian's three consecutive letters.
Shopping malls are like battlefields, and the boss of any industry is the ultimate goal of the subordinate brand.
As the saying goes, if you don't have a heart to be the boss, then you are doomed to not be able to go on.
The food industry, especially the condiment companies, don't know how many are staring at the sea and the sky, hoping that this leader who occupies the big cake can fall big.
No, I am looking forward to it, and I am coming.
There is only one reason why companies are making announcements that make consumers invest cautiously, and that is because of the distrust of their stock markets, which has had a drastic and even shaky impact on their foundations.
For example, not long ago, the annual performance forecast of an electrical appliance.
On the Internet, Xin Jifei is not a big man, not to mention that he directly canceled more than 8 million short video accounts later.
But it is undeniable that he really single-handedly leveraged the big stone of food safety.
For a long time, people almost reached the point of nitpicking about the ingredient list on the packaging bag, which made the major brands complain, and finally as time passed, the matter gradually cooled down.
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Ordinary people are not sensitive to this matter, but Haitian has survived a "catastrophe" in a solid manner.
In its 2022 annual report, Haitian Flavor did not shy away from saying that it "encountered an unprecedented 'public opinion' impact in 2022, which had a great impact on us." ”
At that year's shareholders' meeting, the word "zero addition" appeared twice unprecedentedly.
As you can imagine, they must not have imagined that one day they would reset their business goals for the ingredient list of their products.
During this period when Haitian was taking care of itself, many companies of the same type have seized the opportunity and rushed up, such as Qianhe Flavor Industry.
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Qianhe and Haitian are absolutely the same type of industry.
Main products: soy sauce, oil consumption, light soy sauce, aged vinegar, etc., and Haitian is an absolute competitive industry.
At the beginning of the uproar about Xin Jifei's exposure, Qianhe had already captured the minds of some consumers with the big "0" on his bottle.
After the matter is over, Qianhe will put its own characteristics of "zero addition" on the promotional pages of various sales channels.
It's just that after this battle, although Haitian survived successfully, he still suffered a lot of vitality.
This condiment king seems to be a little exhausted, and Haitian's current situation can really be called a wolf in front and a tiger in the back.
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Haitian has been able to occupy a leading position for so many years, mainly due to the success of its diversified path.
And these seasoning companies in the market today are too shackled by simplification.
For example, Thirteen Fragrance Group, there are many products, but in addition to Thirteen Fragrance, the sales of other products only account for 10% of the total.
Another example is Lao Gan Ma, the total product series has reached more than 20 kinds, but when everyone mentions Lao Gan Ma, they generally talk about oil chili peppers from tempeh.
In addition, everyone can only think of monosodium glutamate, and the first impression of Totole is chicken essence.
When it comes to Haitian, people are not limited to a certain seasoning, but identify with the brand as a whole.
This is enough to show that Haitian's diversification has been successful.
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After that, Haitian went public, financed, developed new products, and promoted them in a timely manner, and every step was very big and dangerous.
But it is precisely because of this courage that they can stand out in the cruel competitive environment in time.
It's a pity that the times are changing too fast, and the risk of taking great strides forward today is much greater than it was more than ten years ago.
Pang Kang, the boss of Haitian, also said that in recent years, major brands in the condiment industry have tried to enter the track, and brands that have already expanded their business categories have also broadened their business categories, and the competition in the industry has intensified, and the pressure is in front of them.
After 10 years of listing, the stock has brought Haitian Flavor Industry a wealth that is difficult for ordinary companies to achieve, and at the same time, the turbulent equity has also made it never have a day of peace of mind.
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On October 16, 2023, the market value of Haitian Flavor fell below 200 billion for the first time, which is the first time since 2018.
In order to maintain the trust of the outside world, Haitian has been active in the stock market.
Observing its recent dynamics, it can be found that except for a few new patents, the stock market is positive, most of the time it is neutral and bearish.
Such a behemoth, it is impossible to fall, and the market value of 500 billion yuan evaporated in 3 years cannot shake Haitian's cash flow in the final analysis.
What's more, even if Haitian does not rely on those illusory financial means, it is enough to gain a foothold in the seasoning market with sky-high R&D expenses and excellent business methods.
The capital of the enterprise lies in the product, Haitian is not short of products, they should really think about the future, the road ahead is no longer smooth, what is missing.
-END-
Resources:
36Kr Finance: "How Haitian Soy Sauce Fell to the Altar"
Chief Marketing Officer: "Haitian Soy Sauce, the more you say it, the more wrong it is"
Tiger Sniff APP: "Haitian fell by 35.8 billion, and the troubles are not just "double standard turmoil"
Author: Again, and double
Editor: Ichiyigi