China’s biggest snack food retailer Shanghai Laiyifen bets on quality imported products to revive flagging sales
- Shanghai-listed Laiyifen says sales of products that are sourced overseas will increase by 30 per cent annually going forward
- Company’s shares have taken a hit as investors dump consumer stocks
Shanghai Laiyifen, the publicly traded snack food retailer with the most number of shops in China, aims to increase sales of overseas sourced products by 30 per cent in the next few years, as it taps increasing demand from a growing middle class.
Laiyifen, which mean “get one share” in Chinese, makes and sells cheap and popular traditional Chinese snacks from melon seeds and peanuts to ducks’ stomach and dried beef.
The imported products up for grabs in its physical and online stores will be more premium, ranging from Australia’s milk and Italian spa water to South Korean cheese codfish sausages.
Revenues from sales of overseas products ranging from food to beverages will probably reach 300 million yuan (US$43.2 million) this year and the proportion is likely to account for about 10 per cent of the company’s annual sales, said Yu Ruifen, founder and president of Laiyifen, at the ongoing China International Import Expo, in Shanghai on Thursday.
Laiyifen, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and owns 2,700 shops on the mainland, also signed a contract with the Australian company Freedom Foods Group to buy dairy products worth 100 million yuan.
“We will procure healthy and nutritious products the Chinese people like from all over the world,” said Yu at the signing ceremony.