Champion across six dairy sectors, Yili gathered with its global partners to celebrate an extraordinary year

Beijing, Dec. 22, 2020 (Antara/Xinhua-AsiaNet) - The Yili Top Partners Conference 2021 was held in grand style from 8 to 12 December, 2020 in Sanya, Hainan. During the conference, Yili's global business partners shared their outstanding performances for 2020 as well as their visions for 2021.

The year 2020 witnessed Yili's lead in as many as six dairy sectors. According to Nielsen and Kantar market analyses, Yili's liquid milk (raw milk) business unit continued to top the industry; its ice cream business unit took the number one position for the 28th consecutive year in terms of output and sales; milk powder business unit Xinhuo, yogurt business unit Changqing, and healthy drinks business unit Fairly Spry100% all maintained their number one positions within their respective product category; and Yili's cheese business unit drastically improved its performance.

Reflecting the outstanding performance of each business unit and despite a general downward trend, Yili grew steadily in the first three quarters and generated RMB 73.77 billion in revenue.

In the context of a grim economic downturn in 2020, Yili worked closely with its partners and endeavored to identify new opportunities for further business expansion and new growth points, which resulted in commendable achievements.

While the overall market displayed a downward trend, Yili's liquid milk (raw milk) business unit achieved increases in both its market share and sales revenue. It maintained the largest market share for seven consecutive years and guaranteed the highest brand penetration rate for the sixth year in a row.

Yili's ice cream business unit, which has launched over 1000 product categories, led the industry in terms of output and sales. Chocliz continued to be the best-known ice cream brand in China and seized the largest market share and guaranteed the highest market penetration rate. In addition, Gemice stood out among numerous high-end ice cream brands in China.

Jinlingguan, Yili's milk powder business unit, became one of the top brands in the sector and enjoyed a much faster growth rate than the industry average. The Seine Mouiller series, which sits under the Jinlingguan brand, even doubled its year-on-year growth. The business unit maintained its largest share in the milk powder market for adult and senior consumers, continuing to enhancing brand awareness.

By accelerating innovation, Yili's yogurt business unit maintained its greatest brand strength in the low-temperature yogurt sector for the fifth consecutive year with its Changqing products. With leading innovation, the Meiyitian series created a new benchmark in the industry and seized the largest market share.

Yili's cheese business unit, harnessing on its accurate insights and positive innovations, greatly improved its performance in 2020, maintaining an industry-leading growth in child and adult cheese product sales.

Yili's healthy drinks business unit continued to lead the market and maintained its leading brand power for the fourth consecutive year with its Changyi products. Yiran Milk Minerals enriched its product categories and inikin achieved new growth points in its new businesses.

All Yili business units built strong growth momentum, which laid a solid foundation for the rapid improvement of Yili's overall performance. Yili's core performance indicators continued to lead the Asian dairy industry, and translated into improved brand power. Yili climbed to the top five position in the Rabobank 2020 Global Dairy Report, ranked number one in the Asian dairy industry for the seventh consecutive year, topped the "Top 10 Most Valuable Dairy Brands" list published by Brand Finance, and ranked first in the BrandZ "Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands" list for the eighth consecutive year.

Over the years, Yili has always adhered to the principle of mutual benefits and gains. Simultaneously, it has actively promoted deeper cooperation throughout the global health industry chain for the creation of a health industry ecosystem.

As of 31 October 2020, Yili had invested RMB 63.612 billion in financing 6,987 upstream and downstream partners in the industry chain. Over the next five years, Yili will invest another RMB 30 billion to support upstream players in the dairy industry and promote the development of the entire industry chain, thus empowering the global dairy industry.

Today, Yili's partners come from 33 countries across five continents and form the core forces in the construction of a "global health ecosystem". Consistently putting quality first, Yili will continue to work with its partners at home and abroad to seek further innovations in the categories such as liquid milk (raw milk), milk powder, ice cream, yogurt and cheese to provide consumers with better products and services.