On July 28, 2022, dairy giant Yili Group hosted an Investor Day under the theme “Create Value, Gather Momentum” for nearly 200 investors at its headquarters in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. At the event, investors held in-depth exchanges with Yili’s management team regarding insights into the future development trends of the global dairy industry.
The investors shared their appreciation for Yili’s new products and latest innovations and visited the Yili Future Intelligence and Health Valley, often referred to as the “Dairy Silicon Valley,” where they saw first-hand the highly intelligent, benchmark production bases for liquid milk and milk powder, featuring the industry’s most advanced production technologies. More than 400 investors also joined the event online.
Delivering a speech at the event, Mr. Pan Gang, Chairman and President of Yili Group, said, “We pool together quality resources worldwide not only to strengthen ourselves as the industry leader but also to share these resources with our partners across the industrial chain to help them further bolster their competitive advantages, thereby achieving value symbiosis.”
Milk sources are the lifeline of dairy producers. During the event, Yili introduced the company’s layout plans and key advantages in terms of milk sources. Having focused on developing milk sources for many years from an early stage, Yili now enjoys the world’s strongest milk source supply. To date, of all the dairy farms located within China’s “golden milk source belt,” 85% are Yili’s suppliers.
Thanks to these high-quality milk sources, Yili’s products have incredibly high levels of market competitiveness. With key products such as AMBPOMIAL Yogurt and Satine pure milk, with annual sales of more than RMB 20 billion, Yili’s liquid milk business securely occupies the top position in the domestic market. Yili’s ice cream business has also successfully maintained its leading position in this segment for 28 consecutive years while continuously strengthening its competitive advantages.
While Yili’s leading milk source advantages and steadily expanding core businesses have kept investors confident about the company’s performance, their expectations have also been kept high due to Yili’s rapidly emerging milk powder business. From January to May 2022, Yili’s infant formula milk powder business expanded by over 20% across all channels, with the maternal and infant channel achieving a growth rate of 30%, exceeding that of all other players in the industry. Retaining its leading position, Yili’s adult formula milk powder business ranks first in terms of its growth momentum among all top adult formula milk powder brands. Yili’s Cute Star Kid’s Formula Milk Powder also recorded a growth rate of 205%.
Despite the headway made by the milk powder business, the growth drivers are of greater concern for investors. The reason why Yili’s products are well-accepted by the market are its achievements in milk powder R&D. Over the past two decades, Yili has dedicated itself to the research of breast milk, publishing 78 papers covering this area, and it has emerged as the Chinese milk powder brand with the most patents on infant formula. With Yili’s acquisition of Ausnutria, this will create even more synergies in the milk powder segment and unlock greater growth potential. The milk powder business has become Yili’s second growth curve.
Yili’s operating revenue in 2021 reached RMB 110.595 billion, up 14.15% year-on-year, making Yili the first Asian dairy company with an operating revenue exceeding RMB 100 billion. With the Yili Future Intelligence and Health Valley having entered into operation and Yili’s second growth curve underpinned by the emerging milk powder business, Yili will make significant headway in further improving its overall operating efficiency. Injecting new momentum into the digital transformation of the global dairy industry, Yili will bring about robust, solid growth that will benefit investors in the long run.