On April 20, the topic of “rat excrement found in Master Kang’s instant noodles” was hot searched.
According to the Beijing business daily, on April 18, a consumer in Baishan, Jilin Province found rat excrement in the instant noodles bought by Master Kang. Consumers said that after opening the packaging bag and eating the broken residue, they found a black mouse excrement on the dough cake.
Mr. Zhang said that the instant noodles were purchased in the supermarket downstairs and there was no damage on the packaging bag. After opening the packaging bag and eating the broken residue, I found a black mouse excrement on it, “it was very disgusting at that time, because I still chewed the instant noodles in my mouth and rinsed my mouth several times”
Mr. Zhang said he immediately contacted the official customer service, customer service said he could pay three or five times the compensation , but if he didn’t accept the compensation scheme, he would wait a few days. “I don’t know if there will be follow-up. I hope the official can give a reasonable explanation and apology.”
On April 20, Master Kang’s customer service said, products can’t contain mouse droppings, but we can’t rule out the possibility of paste residue . Generally, if there are black or yellowish brown foreign matters on the dough cake, it may be that some of the dough cake is charred during the frying process, so there can’t be mouse droppings.
In the microblog hot search entry, Mr. Zhang’s experience does not seem to be an example.
A netizen from Shandong said in the entry that the dried body of a dead fly was found in Master Kang’s instant noodles bought by his girlfriend on April 20. After giving the official feedback to Master Kang, the customer service said it would take 1-2 days to reply. But at present, the netizen’s response has not been confirmed.
After the “pickled vegetables in the pit” incident, Master Kang was suspected to have food safety problems, and many netizens expressed disappointment to Master Kang; Some netizens also doubted the authenticity of the rat shit incident: “I don’t believe there will be mice in the flow shop.” “It’s hard to identify whether it’s in the package or artificial rhythm.”
Just over a month ago, Master Kang’s instant noodles were deeply involved in the storm of “pickled vegetables in the pit”. At this year’s March 15 evening party, China Central Television exposed the food safety incident of laotan pickled cabbage beef noodles, and the stem of “earth pit pickled cabbage” immediately spread all over the network. For a time, Master Kang’s flagship online store and many supermarket convenience stores have taken off the shelves of Master Kang’s laotan pickled cabbage instant noodles.
In the early morning of March 16, Master Kang issued a statement and apologized for the supplier of “earth pit pickled cabbage” the statement mentioned that Hunan Chaqi Vegetable Industry Co., Ltd. is one of the suppliers of pickled vegetables of Master Kang. The company has immediately suspended its supplier qualification, cancelled all cooperation, sealed its pickled cabbage package products, actively cooperated with the regulatory authorities in investigation and testing, and said that the company has never used the pickled cabbage products of several other exposed companiesP align = “center” figure / Master Kang’s official microblog
Affected by this news, on March 16, Master Kang holdings fell rapidly after the opening, with a maximum decline of 15.44%.
On April 13, “Master Kang’s old jar of pickled cabbage instant noodles returned to the supermarket shelf” was on the microblog hot search list, causing hot discussion.
According to chinanews.com, in some supermarkets in Kunming, Yunnan Province, laotan pickled cabbage instant noodles returned to the shelves recently, along with documents such as the administrative proposal issued by the market supervision and Administration Bureau of Songming County. As mentioned in the above-mentioned documents, the inspection found that the suppliers of laotan pickled cabbage bag used by Master Kang laotan pickled cabbage beef noodles are Sichuan chuzhile and Sichuan Tianfu flavor respectively, no products of the enterprises involved were exposed by China Central Television on March 15, and also attached with the quality inspection reports of two pickled cabbage suppliers.
business is not optimistic
Looking back, Master Kang’s instant noodle business itself is hardly optimistic.
On March 28, Master Kong Holdings Co., Ltd. (00322. HK) released the annual results of 2021. The annual report shows that last year, Master Kang achieved an income of 74.082 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.56%; The gross profit was 22.51 billion yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 2.78 percentage points to 30.39%; The ratio of distribution costs to revenue increased by 0.27 percentage points year-on-year to 21.20%. Affected by the year-on-year decline in gross profit margin and the year-on-year rise in distribution costs, the net profit decreased by 6.39% year-on-year to 3.802 billion yuan.
Instant noodle business and beverage business are the main revenue sources of Master Kang. The revenue of beverage business accounts for 60% of the total revenue of the group, which has become an important driving force for the overall business growth of Master Kang.
According to the annual report, the overall revenue of Master Kang’s beverage business in 2021 was 44.802 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.18%. According to Nielsen data, in 2021, the sales volume of China’s beverage industry increased by 8.8% year-on-year and 10.1% year-on-year. The sales volume of Master Kang instant tea (including milk tea) accounted for 43.4%, ranking first in the market
On the other hand, Master Kang’s instant noodle business earned 28.448 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.60% , accounting for 38.40% of the group’s total revenue. The annual report pointed out that during the period, due to the rise of raw material prices and portfolio changes, the gross profit margin of instant noodles decreased by 4.94 percentage points year-on-year to 24.36%; The year-on-year decline in revenue and the year-on-year rise in raw material prices led to a year-on-year decrease of 26.67% in the profit attributable to shareholders of the company in 2021 to 2.004 billion yuan.
In 2020, affected by the outbreak of the epidemic, the net profit of Master Kang increased by 23.01% year-on-year to 4.574 billion yuan. As the epidemic subsided and the price of raw materials rose, the performance of Master Kang returned to stability.
Guotai Junan Securities Co.Ltd(601211) research report points out that as of February 14, 2022, palm oil, polyester chips, sugar and flour have increased by 44.6%, 31.3%, 7.5% and 3.7% year-on-year respectively. It is expected that the adverse impact of changes in raw material prices on Master Kang will last at least until the second half of 2022.
however, this is not the dilemma that Master Kang is facing alone
According to Nielsen data, in 2021, the overall sales volume of the instant noodle industry decreased by 4.0% year-on-year, and the sales volume decreased by 2.7% year-on-year. Another instant noodle giant unified enterprise China Holding Co., Ltd. (00220. HK) is also facing the situation of “increasing income without increasing profit”. Its latest financial report for 2021 shows that the unified revenue last year increased by 10.8% over the same period in 2020, reaching 25.23 billion yuan, a record high; However, due to the rise in the price of Dazhong raw materials and other factors, the net profit was 1.507 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.7%.
The reporter noted that in order to cope with the rising pressure on the cost of raw materials and packaging materials, Master Kang raised the price of large food barrels and medium price bag noodles, which accounted for about 20% of the sales of instant noodles last July. In the first quarter of this year, the retail price of some instant noodles was raised uniformly. The retail price of barrel noodles increased by 12.5% to 4.5 yuan / barrel from 4 yuan / barrel, and the retail price of bag noodles increased by 12% to 2.8 yuan / bag from 2.5 yuan / bag. In February, Master Kang raised the retail price of some instant noodles, which was similar to that of uni president. The price of classic barrel noodles increased by 12.5% to 4.5 yuan / barrel, the price of classic bag noodles increased by 12% to 2.8 yuan / bag, and the price increased products (calculated by sales revenue) accounted for more than 60%.
takeout, self heating food and prefabricated dishes are also grabbing the market space of instant noodles and diverting consumers take self heating food as an example. According to media reports, the market scale of self heating food in China will be about 7.1 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 97.3% in five years.
Therefore, in addition to raising the price, Master Kang and uni president are also trying to expand their convenience food categories and application scenarios. Master Kang disclosed in his annual report that the super high-end product Suda soup restaurant noodle series has been comprehensively arranged in office, family and outdoor consumption scenarios; Uni President launched “jiweiguan” boiled noodles to make up for the shortcomings of the company’s consumer products in the home scene. “In 2022, the instant noodle industry will continue to meet the diversified needs of consumers with multi price belt, multi specification and diversified taste products.” Master Kang said in the annual report.
