On October 15, the Zhejiang Securities Regulatory Bureau released the news that the net red dairy brand adopted a cow and signed a listing counseling agreement with CITIC Securities. According to the counseling plan, the counseling period is expected to be from September this year to April next year, and then the prospectus will be submitted at a later date.
According to public information, Zhejiang Adopted a Cow Dairy Co., Ltd. was established in 2014, and the company's products mainly include pure milk, kefir, cheese sticks and milk powder, as well as foreign sales of fresh milk. Prior to the listing counseling, adopting a cow completed a total of 3 rounds of financing, the most recent of which was the A round of financing in July this year, jointly led by KKR and Dehong Capital.
It is worth noting that the sales performance of adopting a cow is eye-catching, and it has set a good sales performance on the Tmall platform, even after Mengniu and Yili, and the relevant person in charge of the company said that the annual sales of adopting a cow have reached the order of 2 billion yuan.
Sales volume is after Mengniu and Yili
It is understood that the adoption of a cow was founded by Xu Xiaobo, a former real estate developer, and Xu Xiaobo's entrepreneurial inspiration came from his own personal experience. In 2012, he bought 8 cans of milk powder for his son in Hong Kong, and when he passed through customs, he was questioned for 4 hours. After that, Xu Xiaobo began to think, "Why can't Chinese raise a good cow, and can't make the milk that Chinese believes in to give to Chinese babies?" ”
Therefore, Xu Xiaobo began to plan the cause of raising cattle and producing milk. In 2014, Xu Xiaobo spent 460 million yuan to establish the first pasture in the ancient city of Hebei Province, supporting the planting of 60,000 mu of grassland, and in 2016, he and financial writer Wu Xiaobo jointly created a new dairy brand "Adopt a Cow". According to Wu Xiaobo's idea at the time, they "must do this" and be the "catfish" of the industry to stimulate and activate the seemingly traditional industry of dairy products.
At present, the products of adopting a cow mainly include pure milk, kefir, cheese sticks and milk powder of the "Adopt a Cow" brand, as well as fresh milk for external sales. Among them, adopting a cow also launched the "A2β casein pure milk" product based on the "A2 type cow" and the "Juanshan cow pure milk" product based on the precious "Juanshan cow". According to data provided by the adoption of a cow, its first modern ranch yielded an average of 13 tonnes of cows in 2019, exceeding the average yield level in countries such as the United States and Israel. Up to now, adopting a cow has a total of 7 modern pastures and 1 processing plant.
According to the reporter's observation, since last year, the adoption of a cow advertisement has been all over the elevator rooms of major buildings, the advertising song is adapted from the familiar "little star", around the children, cows, milk source production, the end of the film also shouted out a loud advertising slogan "cows choose to adopt a cow".
In terms of sales methods, adopting a cow is mainly sold online. From the perspective of revenue structure, the revenue of the online channel of adopting a cow accounts for about 70%, and it is laid out in the offline new retail channel of Hema Fresh. It is reported that during the "Double Eleven" period in 2020, the sales volume of the Tmall flagship store of the "Adopt a Cow" brand exceeded 100 million, and the sales volume ranked first in the brand flagship store of the dairy industry; during the "618" period in 2021, the adoption of a cow ranked only in the dairy sales ranking of the Tmall platform after the two major brands of Yili and Mengniu, and the sales ranking of the brand flagship store ranked first in the industry. According to co-founder Sun Shijun, the annual sales of adopting a cow have reached the order of 2 billion yuan.
Can you really "adopt" a cow?
From the perspective of equity structure, as of the filing date of the counseling filing, Xu Xiaobo, the founder of adopting a cow, directly held 45.61% of the company's shares, and indirectly held 0.28% and 0.04% of the shares through the employee shareholding platform Ningbo Flying Bull and Ningbo Calf, respectively, and the final beneficial shareholding ratio was 45.93%. Xu Xiaobo is the company's legal representative, chairman and general manager.
It is worth mentioning that in July this year, the adoption of a cow disclosed the completion of the A round of financing, which was jointly led by KKR and Dehong Capital, followed by Haibang Fenghua and Guanghe Investment, and Mumian Capital served as the financial adviser for the transaction. The funds raised will be used to build a modern pasture and intelligent production plant for "adopting a cow", introducing high-quality australian dairy cows, and further integrating the company's digital intelligence platform. Previously, Tianyancha Professional Edition showed that the company also experienced 2 rounds of financing, in 2017 and 2018.
This "debut" only 5 years of Internet celebrity brand, has also been questioned a lot. One is that the "adoption model" launched in 2020 to adopt a cow makes some consumers imagine that they get milk sources or products from designated cows. But in fact, the company's senior management has introduced at the relevant press conference, its adoption model has 3 kinds: the first is "cloud adoption", that is, online cultivation games; the second is "joint adoption", that is, "adopting a cow" and Wu Xiaobo channel, Dunhuang IP, etc. launched a joint card, consumers can buy milk cards, regularly enjoy services such as product delivery and parenting guides; the third is real-name adoption, that is, becoming a real cattle partner, consumers can book milk one year in advance at the exclusive ranch. The highest level of members can also name the cow, get photos of the cow and growth data, etc.
The second is that "adopting a cow" has always emphasized the construction of its own milk source, claiming that the products use its own milk source. However, Mutong Technology, which is engaged in the production, processing and sales of fresh milk and dairy products, disclosed in the 2020 annual report half a month ago that Hangzhou's "adopting a cow" was the company's largest customer last year, with an annual purchase amount of 45.3989 million yuan. In this regard, the relevant person in charge of "adopting a cow" responded: The company has ended its cooperation with Mutong Technology at the beginning of this year. At present, most of the company's milk sources come from its own farms, and some of them come from the farms of well-known partners in the industry, but the company is also increasing the proportion of its own milk sources.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, said that under the situation of high-intensity competition, it is very difficult to "adopt a cow" relying on the existing comprehensive strength to further divide the market.
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