Since last year, a number of small and medium-sized dairy companies in China have launched listing plans, including Wen's Dairy, Red Star Meiling, Knight Dairy and so on. And this wind has not dissipated this year, just recently the Net red dairy brand "adopt a cow" officially launched a sprint to A shares. But what is worrying is that relying too much on marketing to sell goods, no differentiated advantage in products, can the road to the listing of a cow go smoothly?
Adopt a cow sprint IPO
According to the Public Notice Document on the Counseling filing of Adopting a Cow Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Document") disclosed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Adopting a Cow Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Adopting a Cow") has signed a listing counseling agreement with CITIC Securities on September 30 and intends to be listed on A-shares.
It is understood that under normal circumstances, it takes about 3 years for enterprises to plan the restructuring to complete the issuance and listing. It mainly includes restructuring and establishment of joint-stock companies, due diligence and counseling, application document declaration, issuance review, roadshow, inquiry and pricing, issuance and listing. If the foundation of the enterprise in all aspects is good, the time required for issuance and listing can be reduced accordingly.
It was learned from Tianyancha that since July this year, the adoption of a cow has begun to sprint the layout of A shares, until September officially changed to adopt a cow holding group co., LTD. According to the "Document", the counseling time is roughly from September 2021 to April 2022, but it is also possible to adjust according to the actual situation of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Zhejiang Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the counseling object.
In summary, the road to the market of adopting a cow has just begun.
It should be noted that the purpose of raising a cow IPO is not disclosed in the "Document", but some insiders speculate: "The purpose of fundraising is to invest in the construction of production bases, expand production capacity, strengthen the construction of marketing networks, improve channel construction, etc., so as to improve their competitiveness and risk resistance." ”
At the same time, careful investors also found that among the top five shareholders announced the adoption of a cow, in addition to three executives, included two internationally renowned private equity investment institutions KKR and Dehong Capital (DCP). The two institutions are the co-leaders of the Series A financing for adopting a cow in April this year. For this financing, Xu Xiaobo, the founder of Adopt a Cow, once said: It is mainly used to expand the scale of upstream high-quality dairy cattle breeding and the construction of a digital intelligence industry chain.
Public information shows that enterprises want to list in A shares require certain conditions, one of which is financial indicators, which require the net profit of the enterprise in the first three fiscal years to be positive and the cumulative amount is more than RMB30 million, and the total share capital before the issuance is not less than RMB30 million. The proportion of intangible assets to net assets at the end of the current period is not higher than 20% and there is no unmade up loss.
So is the financing of KKR and Tokuhiro Capital (DCP) in April to help adopt a cow to achieve A-share listing qualification? Is the purpose of the financing the purpose of the listing fundraising? Is the adoption of a cow on the market, as speculated, in order to improve its competitiveness and risk resilience? These are the doubts of consumers.
The reshuffle period has arrived, and the listing fundraising is solved
In fact, with the help of consumption upgrading and national policies, the trend of domestic milk powder industry to the head concentration is accelerating, and consumers have put forward higher requirements for products. Therefore, small and medium-sized dairy enterprises must not only deal with the control of milk sources and channels by large dairy enterprises, but also invest a lot of money in brand promotion and product research and development. Among them, it includes "adopting a cow".
Although under the wrapping of Internet traffic, the adoption of a cow has entered the public eye with the concept of milk source and the marketing model of Internet celebrity, bringing visible sales and heat to the brand itself, but from the perspective of milk source strength, product differentiation advantages, online or offline channel discourse power, scientific research and innovation, etc., the internal strength of adopting a cow does not seem to be solid enough, and it also faces high marketing costs.
In the "Document", adopting a cow mentioned that he attaches great importance to the development and marketing of differentiated and high-end products, and based on the refined operation of modern and large-scale dairy farming, he has 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".
However, at present, "A2β casein pure milk" is not rare. In addition to the well-known, internet red brand a2, in the past few years, many dairy companies at home and abroad have launched their own brand A2 milk, such as: Yili Jindian A2β-casein organic pure milk, ternary extreme A2β-casein pure milk, Newland A2 β-casein full-fat pure milk, Kailan Ranch A2Β-casein pure milk.
From the price of the terminal product, the price of adopting a cow A2β-casein pure milk 250ml* 20 boxes is 299 yuan, the unit price is about 14.95 yuan / box; the price of Jindian A2β-casein organic pure milk 250ml * 10 bottles is 109 yuan, the unit price is about 10.9 yuan / bottle; the price of the three-yuan extreme A2β-casein pure milk 200ml * 20 boxes is 169 yuan, and the unit price is about 8.45 yuan / box.
Through comparison, it is not difficult to see that the adoption of a cow is not high in terms of products or price advantages.
In addition, the adoption of a cow said in an interview with the media: "The company's specific financial data is not convenient to disclose for the time being, and the company's online sales account for about 70% at present. "It also means that adopting a cow faces high traffic costs." Because you know, the current competition in e-commerce has been very fierce, the early online traffic dividend is dissipating, the scissors difference between online and offline customer acquisition costs is gradually closing, and the cost of online customer acquisition will even exceed offline stores.
However, in order to increase brand influence, adopt a cow has seized the channel dividend of the Internet era, and has rapidly risen through brand recommendation through cooperation with many KOLs and stars such as Wei Ya, Luo Yonghao, Wang Han, Dad Evaluation, Parents Camp, Ten Point Reading, and content interaction with brands such as Wu Xiaobo Channel, Xicha, Master Kang, Dunhuang IP, Drunken Goose Lady and other brands. However, as the new marketing channels begin to normalize, the offline channels are weak, and the adoption of a cow with insufficient product strength and brand power will also be submerged in the rolling forward market torrent?
High-quality milk sources are locked in, and the two-stage differentiation is becoming more and more serious
In the brand story of adopting a cow, it is to instill the idea of "dairy cows are raised well, milk will be better", and said that the adoption of a cow has specially introduced Holstein cows with Australian ancestry, eating imported, self-grown, award-winning high-quality grass, drinking 380 meters of deep well water, a day food cost of nearly 80 yuan, each cow is also equipped with smart collars, real-time monitoring of cow health, and so on a series of operations down, adopt a cow declared" Its farm protein (3.3g/100g), microorganisms (<20,000 CFU/ml), somatic cells (<20,000/ml) are far superior to the EU and Japanese standards."
However, in the eyes of the industry, the adoption of a cow is no different from the common dairy products on the market, whether from the milk source or from the formula and production links. And its proud Australian imported Holstein cows and their feeding methods, superior to the EU and Japanese standards of raw milk quality, in China has long become the "standard".
For example, the protein content of Junlebao Farm raw milk is as high as 3.5g/100g, microorganisms are less than 10,000/ml, somatic cells are less than 55,000/ml and other core indicators; the average protein content of Yili fresh milk is 3.28g/100g, the microorganism (total number of colonies) is 17,700 cfu/ml, and the somatic cells are 195,200/ml.
In addition, the adoption of a cow once told the media: "At present, all the products of adopting a cow use its own milk source. However, it appeared in the financial report of "Mutong Technology", the first dairy listed company in Shanxi, and became the company's largest customer in 2020 with an annual sales ratio of 18% and a sales amount of 45 million.
In this regard, adopting a cow said: "At the beginning of this year, the cooperation with Mutong Technology has ended, and most of the company's milk sources come from its own pasture, and some of it comes from the industry's well-known partner farms, but the company is also continuously increasing the proportion of its own milk sources." ”
Underneath this, it is also disguised to admit that "adoption" is only a concept. At the same time, the adoption of a cow has always been proud of the pursuit of milk sources is not self-defeating, how to ensure that the dairy cow breeds of different pastures are Australian origin Holstein cattle, eat imported high-quality pasture, real-time monitoring to each cow's health information?
Speaking of milk sources, in recent years, the number of domestic dairy cattle breeding has been declining, the number of dairy cattle has fallen from 8.4 million in 2014 to 6.1 million in 2019, and the tight supply of raw milk and the rise in feed costs have prompted dairy companies to accelerate the pace of upstream layout.
Up to now, the listed large-scale breeding milk source enterprises have been divided up by downstream dairy enterprises, modern animal husbandry and China Shengmu have been under the income of Mengniu, Saikexing and Zhongdi Dairy have become the pockets of Yili shares, the original ecological animal husbandry has been taken down by Feihe Dairy, and Huishan Dairy has been acquired by Yuexiu Group.
With the high-quality milk source base being locked one after another, it is not difficult to imagine that the two-level differentiation of the milk powder industry will be more serious in the future, on the one hand, the cost and difficulty of small and medium-sized dairy enterprises to obtain raw milk will increase, on the other hand, as the competition pattern of the ambient milk market has become stable, low-temperature fresh milk has more advantages, and the head dairy enterprises with milk sources will have a better layout.
Although in the early stage of development, it is understandable to adopt a cow with high marketing investment to obtain higher exposure, realize traffic realization, and quickly occupy the market, but in the later stage, if it is not able to highlight its own differentiated advantages, even if it is listed, it will be beaten back to its original form sooner or later.
Reference: "Adopt a cow" financing to plug the loss gap? - Fu Sanxing