Yili H1FY2025 Financial Performance Summary: Revenue, Trends & Growth
- Yili reported 3.4% year-on-year revenue growth to RMB61.9bn in H1FY2025.
- Liquid milk sales fell 2.1%, but milk powder and ice cream grew 14.3% and 12.4%, respectively.
- New launches include Chewy Lemon milk-juice hybrid and Ambrosial pop yoghurt with peach, oat & probiotics.
- Adult milk powder market share hit 26.1%, driven by premium and functional products like goat and camel milk.
- Yili is expanding through e-commerce, renovated supermarkets, and lifestyle channels like tourism and sports.
The China-based dairy giant, which is often named among the largest dairy companies in Asia, recently announced its H1FY2025 financial results, reporting 3.4% year-on-year growth in revenue to RMB61.9bn (US$) and 7.1% gross profit growth to RMB22.1bn (US$).
The dual positive results for both revenue and profits are somewhat rare in this year’s economic environment, where many companies have generally posted negative H1 performances in either area, e.g. Carlsberg Malaysia’s -3.0% drop in profits and Yili competitor Mengniu’s -6.9% drop in revenue.
A closer look at the breakdown of Yili’s core business segments revealed that the company suffered from challenges in liquid milk sales which dropped by -2.1%, similar to challenges faced by Mengniu – but Yili’s performance in milk powder and ice cream sales which grew 14.3% and 12.4% respectively helped it to stay in the green overall.
“Yili has managed to maintain top market share in almost all of the product categories we are in, including liquid milk, infant formula, adult milk powder and ice cream,” Yili Board Secretary Qiu Xiangmin told the floor during the firm’s most recent investors meeting.
“We believe that the [next big avenue of growth] lies in actively seizing opportunities within new emerging channels and we are doing this with renovated supermarkets, e-commerce platforms, convenience stores, snack stores, membership stores, as well as modern consumption scenarios such as catering, cultural tourism, outdoor activities, and sports.”
Liquid milk has generally been a weak selling point for the dairy sector this year, and given that this makes up some 58.9% of Yili’s revenue, the company is moving to accelerate innovation within this category.
“For ambient milk products, we are focused on cross-category innovations such as our new Chewy Lemon product under the Youngfun brand, which has pioneered a new sub-category combining milk and juice,” he added.
“Similarly the well-known Ambrosial brand has rolled out a unique peach, oat & probiotic ‘pop yoghurt’ product after overcoming many technical challenges to both achieve a popping texture and make this ambient.”
Yili’s milk powders have led growth for the company this year via a range of infant, maternal and adult products, and the company has emphasised its premium positioning as a key factor.
“Premium products such as milk powder need to meet both functionality and health needs for consumers, and this requires a lot of innovation as well – for instance, we had a collaboration with Tongrentang traditional Chinese medicine clinic to develop functional adult milk powders based on the ‘food is medicine’ concept under the Xinhuo brand,” he said.
“Other areas of growth in the milk powder business are what we call ‘rare milk products’, which are products made from goat milk or camel milk – based on these innovations, Yili’s market share of adult milk powder in China has grown to 26.1% overall this year.”
Ice cream for both local and foreign growth
The company has applied a similar concept to growing its ice cream business, and has achieved success both on the local and overseas fronts.
“Yili’s ice cream revenue grew 12.4% overall in H1FY2025, and this was even greater in the overseas business at 14% growth,” the firm stated.
“Innovation is very important to standing out in this category, and we do this by following consumer trends closely and creating items like Chocliz yum which combines glutinous rice and dairy to meet needs for novelty; as well as the Raw Milk Mung Bean ice cream in collaboration with Sam’s Club which appeals to those wanting a healthier option.”
Cheese: The next frontier
Yili has long mentioned that it is looking to its cheese business as a next major avenue of growth.
“So far this year we have seen continuous increase in our market share for cheese and cream, reaching 15.2%,” Yili stated.
“We are continuing along this line with the launch of various new products, including native A2β casein cheese sticks, crispy cheese snacks, high calcium cheese slices and more, in order to cover all possible consumption scenarios for consumers of different age groups.”
