On March 15, the "March 15" evening party of China Central Television exposed that "the old pickled cabbage bag was pickled in a pit", which aroused great repercussions in the society. That night, the local law enforcement department rushed to the enterprises involved to carry out law enforcement investigation. A number of instant noodle brand enterprises issued a statement that laotan pickled vegetable beef noodles related products were removed from the e-commerce platform.
On March 16, the "pothole pickled cabbage" incident led to a sharp fluctuation in the stock price of the two giants of instant noodles. After the opening of the day, the shares of Master Kong Holdings (00322, HK; yesterday's closing price of HK $14.000) and unified enterprise China (00220, HK; yesterday's closing price of HK $6.950) fell sharply, both of which fell by more than 10%. However, on March 17, as of the closing, Master Kang holdings rose 3.40% and unified holding enterprises rose 5.14%.
Master Kang and uni president have issued statements on the issue of "pickled vegetables in the pit". Master Kang told the reporter of the daily economic news that the four factories of the company have cooperated with the flag inserting vegetable industry. In order to ensure the quality of all pickled vegetable bag suppliers, all relevant products have been taken off the shelves. At the same time, they have cooperated with relevant regulatory authorities in subsequent random inspection, enterprise self inspection and third-party testing.
comprehensively stop pickled vegetables with local method
According to red net time, at 21:00 on March 15, law enforcement officers from Huarong County, Yueyang City arrived at the flag inserting vegetable industry and Jinrui food. The two enterprises have been ordered to stop production for rectification and seal up all products. At the same time, the heads of more than 30 pickle enterprises in the County held a rectification meeting overnight, requiring all enterprises to carry out self inspection and self correction.
With regard to the problem that five enterprises in Huarong County, Yueyang City, such as Chaqi vegetable industry, Jinrui food and Junshan District Yayuan pickle, Haixia pickle and tantanqiao food, have purchased "earth pit" pickles. According to China Central Television News on March 16, Yueyang Municipal government has dispatched a joint law enforcement team to seal up all products locally, control the relevant personnel of the enterprise, and immediately launch retroactive recall measures for exported products, And completely stop farmers' pit pickling behavior.
At present, Yueyang City is conducting a comprehensive investigation on the pickled pickle production enterprises in the city, and carrying out a comprehensive traceability investigation on the pickled pickle products in the market to prevent unqualified products from flowing into the market.
The letter of commitment issued by Jinrui food was published in the "letter to consumers" issued by unified enterprise on March 16: "the raw materials of unified pickled cabbage bag products produced by the company are all from the raw materials pickled in the factory's own epoxy resin curing tank. Under the supervision of unified group, there is no possibility of using any earth pond vegetables into unified pickled cabbage bag." Jinrui food further said that the pit reported on the "March 15" Party of China Central Television was rented by a food company for long-term turnover, and there was no business relationship with the pickled cabbage bag products produced by the company.
In the "letter to consumers" issued by uni president on March 16, uni president said that through the overnight investigation of Jinrui food, a supplier of pickled cabbage bags of uni president, it was confirmed that all the raw vegetables came from self curing and self-use in the factory, and did not use the "earth pit pickled cabbage" reported by the "March 15" Party of China Central Television.
Master Kang issued two statements in succession
On March 16, the reporter of "daily economic news" called unified customer service, and the other party said that relevant personnel would contact the reporter later. The reporter then went to the office of the unified enterprise in Shanghai, but under the control of the Shanghai epidemic, outsiders were temporarily unable to visit the enterprise. The reporter called the unified front desk, and the other party declined the interview request. The reporter learned from the employees who came out of the company that at present, many employees are working at home due to the implementation of community closure in many places in Shanghai. Up to now, no relevant person of unified enterprise has contacted the reporter.
At 13:00 on March 16, the reporter saw in a supermarket in Shanghai that in the shelf area of instant noodles, the products of laotan pickled cabbage noodles that were originally on sale had not been sold. A clerk told the reporter that laotan pickled cabbage noodles was "off the shelf and not allowed to be sold". At 16:00 p.m., the clerk of the convenience store saw that the relevant market people of uni president announced in the circle of friends that "there is no problem with uni president instant noodles", and then he put uni president's old jar of pickled vegetable beef noodles on the shelves again. A customer present said that now they can't tell which brand of instant noodles is the problem.
Master Kang, Wugu fish meal and other enterprises have recognized that the flag inserting vegetable industry is indeed the supplier of pickled vegetable products of the company. The official wechat of Wugu fish meal said that the company had taken the relevant pickled vegetable raw materials off the shelf, stopped using and sealed them, waiting for further inspection by relevant departments.
On March 16, Master Kang issued two consecutive statements to disclose the progress of the investigation. "This incident is a mistake of our management. We will carry out active rectification under the guidance and supervision of relevant government departments." Master Kang apologized that the company had set up a special team for the first time to take the strictest measures and cooperate with the government regulatory authorities in the investigation and testing of relevant enterprises and products. According to the investigation results of kangmen's factory and Jiangmen's factory, we have actively cooperated with the supervision department of kangmen to recover all the products, and provided the latest investigation results to the relevant suppliers of kangmen's factory and Jiangmen's factory.
In this regard, Tianfeng Securities Co.Ltd(601162) food and beverage industry chief analyst Liu Chang told the daily economic news: "After the problem of pickled cabbage is exposed, it will still have a little impact on relevant enterprises in the short term, because it is their core single product, and some products have been recalled off the shelf. However, pickled cabbage, as a traditional Chinese cuisine, cannot disappear like this. It is expected that after the product standards and specifications, different types of product forms and pickled cabbage products will appear."
enterprise sales short-term or influential
Looking back on the competition between the two giants of the instant noodle track, we have created the myth that many small pieces counter attack large pieces. In 2008, Tongyi, which was strongly suppressed by Master Kang's braised beef noodles, decided to launch laotan pickled vegetable beef noodles.
According to media news, in terms of "pickled cabbage" taste, in 2013, the sales volume of the whole pickled cabbage instant noodles market reached 10 billion yuan. At that time, the market share of uni president and Master Kang was 56% and 44% respectively. In 2014, Master Kang even said that even at the expense of gross profit, it would surpass uni president.
At present, laotan pickled vegetable beef noodles is still one of Master Kang's core products. In the newly disclosed 2020 annual report, Master Kang only mentioned laotan pickled vegetable beef noodles, which was not mentioned in the 2021 semi annual report. Master Kang said: "Master Kang's braised beef noodles, as a leader in the market, has promoted sales growth. In addition, IP cooperation such as laotan pickled vegetable beef noodles and" Kung Fu Panda "has been deepened to attract young consumers."
Food industry analyst Zhu danpeng told reporters that laotan pickled cabbage flavor products account for a high proportion in the instant noodle market, which means billions of yuan of sales for individual enterprises. The occurrence of the event will have an adverse impact on the sales and consumer confidence of the whole industry.
In terms of revenue in the first half of 2021, among the two core businesses of Master Kang, the revenue of instant noodles decreased by 14.67% year-on-year and the revenue of drinks increased by 26.45% year-on-year. The company said that the gross profit margin of instant noodle business decreased by 6.46 percentage points year-on-year, mainly due to the rise of raw material prices and portfolio changes.
According to the financial report data, in 2021, uni president's China instant noodle business achieved a revenue of 9.007 billion yuan, of which the compound growth rate of revenue of tangdaren brand has maintained double-digit growth in the past five years. In its annual report, unified enterprise China still emphasized its position as the founder of laotan pickled vegetables category, but did not disclose the performance of this category.
Zhu danpeng said that the taste of sauerkraut in laotan ranks in the forefront of the taste of instant noodles and may account for more than 20% of the market share. Therefore, the disorder of sauerkraut may have a great impact on the sales of instant noodle enterprises in the short term. In addition, pickled cabbage taste is also a popular taste in the catering industry, and the subsequent impact is difficult to estimate.
