Brand New: Big brand names including Yili, Nestle, Unilever and more feature in our round-up
‘Richer and sweeter’: Yili reveals growth strategy to conquer SEA dairy market following Indonesian factory launch
Chinese dairy giant Yili has revealed its growth strategy for the South East Asian dairy market, claiming that products need to have a richer and sweeter taste profile to entice consumers.
Yili has achieved phenomenal success in China with both its traditional (fresh milk, milk powders) and modernised (yoghurt drinks, new age ice creams) dairy products, and the dairy heavyweight is now looking to replicate that success in the South East Asian region.
Apart from its recently-launched ice cream plant in Indonesia, the firm also purchased Thailand’s largest domestic ice cream manufacturer Chomthana for US$80.56mn, together establishing what Yili calls its ‘dual centres’ in South East Asia.
“These dual centres are meant for us to expand directly into the region and enhance our capabilities to serve and respond to local markets – the two plants will develop and produce localised and differentiated products to cater to the needs of local consumers, e.g. Cremo brand ice cream in Thailand and Joyday brand ice cream in Indonesia which is Yili’s first international ice cream brand,” Yili Assistant President Dr Yun Zhanyou told FoodNavigator-Asia.
Collaborating with competitors: Nestle, Coca-Cola and Unilever among major brands uniting to boost recycling in Malaysia
Major brands such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, F&N and Unilever are joining forces to drive the sustainability agenda in Malaysia, via a new alliance that will tackle plastic food and beverage packaging concerns.
The Malaysian Recycling Alliance Berhad (MAREA) wants to reach a minimum recycling rate of 25% of packaging volumes by 2025.
MAREA is Malaysia’s first-ever Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) association, and is chaired by Nestle Malaysia CEO Juan Aranols. The association was established in January 2021, but only just recently saw its formal launch on January 21 2022.
The alliance’s members comprise of 10 well-known FMCG brands in Malaysia - Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Dutch Lady Milk Industries, Etika Group of Companies, F&N Malaysia, Mondelēz International (Malaysia), Nestlé Malaysia, Spritzer, Tetra Pak Malaysia and Unilever Malaysia.
Korean chart toppers: Korea Ginseng Corp retains number one sales spot, Yakult drops out of top five
Korea Ginseng Corp (KGC) continues to top the country’s health functional foods sales chart, while Korea Yakult has been pushed out of the top five, according to new data.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) recently published the Food and Drug Statistical Yearbook for 2021, which detailed the country’s health functional foods and general foods sales in year 2020.
Sales of health functional foods within the country had hit KRW$3.1 trillion (US$2.6bn) in 2020. The country also exported KRW$226bn (US$188m) worth of health functional foods.
Korea Ginseng Corp, which took the top spot for health functional food sales, had grown from strength to strength, as sales was up eight per cent to KRW$530bn (US$ 440m).
Targeting non-vegans: UAE’s Freakin’ Healthy expands into ready-to-eat category with clean label vegan cheese spread
UAE-based snack company Freakin’ Healthy is further expanding its better-for-you product range with the launch of a new plant-based cheese spread.
Established in 2018, the firm is best known for its clean label, vegan and healthy chocolate bars, superfood bars and protein balls, after which it launched a vegan meal subscription service in 2020.
The release of the cheese spread, which comes in four flavours, marks its decision to expand the customer base and product portfolio under the ready-to-eat category.
“Our objective is to introduce more people to clean plant-based foods because a lot of consumers still don't understand the difference between clean plant-based and junk plant-based foods. The perception now is that if they go vegan or plant-based, it's automatically healthier, which is wrong because these products can actually be worse,” according to Roy Koyess, founder and CEO of Freakin’ Healthy.
Change is in the wind: Nestle Australia highlights plant-based portfolio and 100% renewable energy switch
Nestle Australia has highlighted its switch to 100% renewable energy for all operations as well as its rapidly broadening plant-based product portfolio as key initiatives that will help the firm to reach its 2050 net zero emissions goal.
The firm recently converted all its operations – across all of its six Australian factories, two distribution centres, three corporate offices, 20 retail boutiques, and laboratory – to function using only renewable energy, and decided that it will be solely focusing on wind energy for this.
“We have made our first renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) with CWP Renewables, which is for 10 years – CWP Renewables’ Crudine Ridge and Sapphire wind farms in NSW will generate enough electricity to cover the electricity used across Nestle’s sites each year,” Nestle Oceania Director of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Margaret Stuart told FoodNavigator-Asia.
