Children's cheese sticks Low-cost "showdown" when the "showdown" is in progress

Source: China Consumer Daily

Reporter Meng Gang/Wen

Major enterprises have laid out the children's cheese market, the reporter recently visited and found that the competition in the children's cheese stick market is becoming more and more fierce, low-cost promotion has become a means for brands to compete for consumers, and "buy one get one free" has become the norm. Although the sales of children's cheese sticks are very hot, the overall demand is not enough, at the same time, the brand of children's cheese stick products in the design, packaging and selling points of the homogenization is serious, manufacturers can only compete in the price.

"Buy one get one free" becomes the norm

Recently, the "China Consumer Daily" reporter visited a number of supermarkets in Beijing, and saw that the discounted children's cheese stick brands on the shelves have become more and more numerous, in addition to brands such as Bagelford, Miaoke Lando, Miaofei, Guangming, Yili, Aishi Chenxi, etc., there are also brands such as Ji Shi Ding, Lezhi Beef, Dr. Cheese, and Herun. On the e-commerce platform, in addition to the above brands, there are also brands such as Friesland, Panda Dairy, and JuneYao Health.

On August 22, the reporter came to the low-temperature dairy product area of the Chaoyang North Road store of Beijing Auchan Supermarket. The exhibition cabinet area here is very large, and there are many brands of children's cheese sticks in the exhibition cabinet, including Bagel fu, Miaoke Lando, Second Fly, Little Bright, Yili and other brands are discounted, and the brand discount is different, and the overall discount ranges from 50% to 90%. Many brand original products have a large discount, no more than 20 yuan 5 or 6 packs of small packaged products are "buy one get one free", such as Guangming, Yili, etc., and miaoke lando, which previously adhered to the price stability strategy, also joined the price war, and its original and mixed fruit flavor products are "buy one get one free".

Subsequently, the reporter came to the Dingfuzhuang store of Beijing Jingkelong Supermarket. The reporter saw that although the cheese display cabinet area is much smaller than the exhibition cabinet of Auchan Chaoyang North Road store, the children's cheese stick brand displayed is basically the same, and the preferential activities are roughly the same. The supermarket sales staff told reporters: "Many brands have been implementing the 'buy one get one free' policy for a long time, but some consumers do not value discounts, especially children, and only choose their favorite cartoon characters to package products."

Online, the reporter also saw many brands of children's cheese sticks in the promotion. For example, on an e-commerce platform, The Bagelford Cheese Children's Cheese Stick is "20% off and 3 pieces are 30% off", and Miaoke Lando's original small packaged products are "99 minus 25". Compared with offline, the discount on the line is smaller, and the reporter did not find that there is a "buy one get one free" activity.

Song Liang, head of the expert group of the China Agricultural Reclamation Dairy Alliance, said in an interview with the "China Consumer Daily" reporter: "The phenomenon of discounting children's cheese sticks began at the end of last year, and because the market entry threshold is relatively low and the profits are relatively high, many enterprises are going to do cheese sticks, which makes the growth of cheese stick consumption far less rapid than the growth of supply, resulting in a situation of oversupply and leading to large-scale competition in the same industry." However, Song Liang believes that the current price war does not have much positive effect on the promotion of cheese stick consumption, on the contrary, because of the price war, it may also shrink the total sales capacity of the entire market.

Product homogenization is severe

Behind the price war is the increasingly competitive children's cheese stick market. According to the data of Tianyancha, at present, there are more than 1,100 enterprises in China with business scope including "cheese, cheese and cheese". In May 2021, China's imported cheese volume reached 82,700 tons, an increase of 66.4% year-on-year. In this regard, Luo Zhigang, general manager of Beijing Yinhe Road Economic and Trade Co., Ltd., believes that this is related to the explosive growth of children's cheese stick sales this year. An important raw material for cheese sticks is cream cheese, which has a lot to do with the drive of several leading enterprises.

At the 2021 China Cheese Development Summit Forum, Chai Xiao, chairman of Miaoke Lando, publicly stated that the price war in the cheese industry has begun from 2020 and has shown a normalized trend, but the price war at this stage has a limited impact on the market pattern of children's cheese sticks. However, since May this year, Bac GF has joined a new round of price war, adopting promotional tactics closely related to Miaoke Lando, the market competition has further intensified, and the children's cheese stick category has entered the "decisive battle" stage.

In terms of gross profit margin, according to the data of Miaokelan, its cheese business revenue in 2020 was 2.07 billion yuan, of which the revenue of the ready-to-eat series (children's cheese stick) reached 1.47 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin was 53.2%

The reporter found that under the high gross profit margin, whether the ingredients of the children's cheese stick, especially the cheese content, have enough "gold content" has been questioned. At present, many products, including Myokolando, Myofei and Yili, have added additional tricalcium phosphate to the cheese.

Song Liang told reporters: "Tricalcium phosphate is added to the reconstituted cheese and plays two roles: one is the role of emulsified salt, that is, the original cheese is emulsified; The second is to strengthen calcium, that is, it can increase the content of calcium and at the same time can play a role in reducing costs. However, the current addition to cheese sticks is generally around 5%. ”

The reporter also found that the taste of children's cheese sticks of various brands is also more consistent, and the difference is not large, in addition to the original taste, it is generally a variety of fruit flavors that children like more. Considering the taste problem, many children's cheese stick ingredients are added to the ingredient list of white sugar, edible flavors and food additives, etc., which have a long shelf life when stored at low temperatures, generally up to 9 months. Natural cheese sticks, which are more nutritious and suitable for children, are rarely seen in the market. The reporter also found that there were scattered sales of related products in the above supermarkets. The sales staff told reporters that the shelf life of natural cheese sticks is relatively short, but the nutritional value is high.

Wang Dingmian, former executive director of the China Dairy Association and president of the Guangzhou Dairy Association, said in an interview with the "China Consumer Daily" reporter that the homogenization of children's cheese sticks is more serious, most of them are remade cheese, the nutritional value is not prominent, most of the products are based on about 20% of the cheese, and then add milk powder, sugar, carrageenan and other ingredients.

Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the food industry, told reporters: "As the competition in the entire market becomes more intense, promotion will become normalized. Because China's current children's cheese market is still in the early stage of industry development, consumer awareness is not enough, sales rely more on promotional publicity, advertising, etc. to enhance the exposure of the brand. The normalization of promotion can cultivate consumers' consumption habits. ”

Innovation should win the future

The nutritional value of cheese is very high, the consumption of domestic cheese-related products is also just emerging, because the taste of cheese can not be fully accepted by the Chinese people, how to cultivate the domestic new generation of cheese consumption habits through innovation, it is particularly important.

It is understood that in the face of endless children's cheese products, many brands are currently trying to capture the hearts of consumers by enriching the taste and launching new products. For example, recently many brands, including Yili, Guangming, Sanyuan and so on, have launched the latest children's cheese sticks and other products, many of which claim to be "organic", "sugar-free", "low sodium" and other concepts, and some brands have also launched children's cheese products that can be smoked.

But this is not enough in the eyes of industry insiders. Wang Dingmian told reporters that most of the children's cheese products on the market are cheese sticks, and other product types are not rich, in terms of nutritional value, it is still recommended that children eat natural cheese, but limited to the taste of the current market suitable products are less. In addition, the current differentiation of children's cheese stick products is mainly reflected in the packaging and fun, but most brands use popular cartoon character image packaging, cartoon characters are relatively fixed, it is inevitable that people will feel "aesthetic fatigue". Combining the above aspects, how to innovate is a problem that enterprises must think about.

Song Liang pointed out that the competition in the children's cheese stick market is becoming increasingly fierce, and how to be recognized by consumers is the key to the competition of enterprises. Cheese processing enterprises should innovate and develop new processes and new technologies for cheese production, and constantly enrich the category of children's cheese. It is recommended that enterprises strengthen innovation, one is to launch room temperature cheese products, and the other is to strengthen the functionality of children's cheese, such as adding taurine, lactoferrin, probiotics and other ingredients. "For children's cheese, in addition to adding functional products, it is more important to improve the taste and product packaging, innovate and have new products, rather than just simple cheese sticks." Song Liang said.