Xu Fuji, gradually disappearing childhood candy

Source | Bohufn

Author | Lingling

Xu Fuji's history

In 1988, the State Council announced the "Provisions on Encouraging Taiwan Compatriots Investment" in the State Council. It provided very preferential policies. Some Taiwanese businessmen took the lead in testing the water and began to transfer the production base to the mainland.

By 1992, the "Southern Talk" of the chief engineer and the holding of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made more Taiwanese businessmen optimistic about the economic development of the mainland and accelerated investment in the mainland.

Xu Ji Food (Xu Fuji's predecessor) is one of the enlistables.

In 1992, Xu Ji Food went to Dongguan to build a factory to engage in candy OEM processing. In the past two years in the mainland, Xu Ji Food saw the great potential of the mainland market, and founded the Xu Fuji brand in 1994.

From OEM to its own brand, Xu Fuji must find a foothold. At that time, Xu Chengliu, the second old man in the Xu family, meant that at this node of the New Year, the sales of the Spring Festival can almost account for more than 40%of many traditional candy brands throughout the year. However, even so, there is still no candy brand that can correspond to this candy consumption node.

To this end, Xu Fuji was bound to the Spring Festival and launched New Year's sugar, which has opened the market since then.

After positioning New Year's sugar, Xu Fuji did two things, which played a decisive role in improving the market share.

First, a certain price of bulk is used. Xu Fuji found that consumers do not choose candidates for the New Year, and they often have to come together, so they are the most suitable for bulk.

Second, set the counter. A major disadvantage of bulk sugar is that it is difficult to build brand cognition, and it is difficult for consumers to remember the brand. And Xu Fuji's approach is to use a large bucket to fill his own candy and posted on the poster. Since 2000, Xu Fuji has cooperated with large supermarkets such as Wal -Mart and Carrefour to set up brand counters.

By 2007, Xu Fuji had 88 sales branches in China, and more than 1,3500 direct -controlled terminal retail points, becoming one of the largest candy products and sugar companies in China. In 2011, Xu Fuji had 18,000 bulk cabinet resources.

The accurate positioning and market strategies have allowed Xu Fuji to continue to sit on the name of "Candy King" for a long time. In 2012, according to the investigation and evaluation of the National Bureau of Statistics, the "Xu Fu Ji" brand candy for 15 consecutive years was the first place in the national market.

Unfortunately, the sweet story of "King of Candy" has not continued. With the changes in the consumer market, Xu Fuji took off the hat of the "king", and the sweet burden was still coming.

(Picture source network)

"Candy King" remove the hat

In 2014, Xu Fuji's market share fell to third in China.

my country's candy industry has a low threshold and the market is scattered. With the entry of foreign candy companies and the rise of local enterprises, Xu Fuji's head position is not firm.

Data show that Xu Fuji, as the first industry, has a market share of only 3.9%, which is not much different from the second place. At the same time, among the top five candy companies, only Xu Fuji has a local brand, and the other four are foreign capital.

Frequent exposure of food safety accidents is also a general issue.

Before the Spring Festival in 2012, Xu Fuji's ingredients were found in ingredients with mango crisp, sesame scent of Shaqima, and falling peanuts. TBHQ and BHT were clearly prohibited. Although Xu Fuji insisted that he did not operate in violation of regulations, in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, it was still difficult to escape some supermarkets to remove it.

In the second year, Xu Fuji was exposed to food safety in the internal cafeteria. Employee collective food poisoning incidents once again pushed it to public opinion.

Too sloping offline channels has also hindered Xu Fuji's development. With the development of the Internet, online channels have become an important business position of the brand, and Xu Fuji is dead and offline channels. It did not transform the online until 2018, which led to his advantages on the channel gradually disappear.

(Picture source network)

In fact, not only Xu Fuji went downhill, but the entire candy industry was not too good. According to the "China Candy" report released by the market research company, the Chinese candy market share continued to shrink from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, the number of large -scale candy companies lost 38.

Zhu Danpeng, an analyst at Chinese food industry, believes: "It is difficult for the Chinese candy market to return to the era of high growth in the past.

China's candy market is constantly shrinking, which is closely related to the rise of the health of the Chinese people and the rise of sugar -free wind. Many brands have launched the concept of "zero sugar", "zero cane sugar" and "sugar", and launched corresponding products. Obviously, it is not the peers of the candy, but the sugar -free bubble water of the vitality forest.

Candy players do not keep pace with the times, and the corresponding innovation is not good. Open Xu Fuji's Tmall flagship store to find that Shaqima and Crispy Sugar are still the main topics. Although Shaqima has launched some new flavors, this product itself is high -calorie and does not meet consumers’s’s’s. Health needs.

For a long time, Xu Fuji has always adhered to the traditional quantity strategy and implemented more than 400 category candy to occupy the market, but did not carry out strong product innovation.

A food expert mentioned that the candy industry has not been innovative in recent years, which is also the reason why the entire industry has continued to decline.

Like Xu Fuji, most traditional candy companies are facing the problem of insufficient product innovation and excessive dependence on the Spring Festival sales, and have been in the traditional and low -end market for a long time. At the same time, the high -end consumer market has been firmly occupied by foreign brands. Taking chocolate as an example, the relevant data shows that for a long time, five multinational companies including Mart, Ferrero, and Nestlé occupy 80%of the market share. The market space of brands such as Xu Fuji, Sister Ma, Ya Ke, Golden Monkey, etc.

In fact, Xu Fuji also tried to transform, from candy to entering nuts.

The Nut market does have considerable opportunities. Data show that in 2019, the revenue of nuts and stir -up companies above the standard model was 176.64 billion yuan, an increase of 8.7%year -on -year, and the total profit was 10.79 billion yuan, an increase of 7.92%.

However, the competition of the track is equally fierce. Three squirrels, Baicao flavors, and Volon nuts are registered.

Candy has changed from Xu Fuji's previous performance to today's sweet burden. How to jump out of this strange circle may still need some innovative answers.

Reference source:

1. Zhai Caihua: Xu Fuji: The former candy king, it is difficult to return to the peak again

2. IC Laboratory: Candy Giant abandoned by the times: Xu Fuji 30 years of commercial floating history

3. New business to participate: One generation of candy kings did not have a history of losing history: once annual sales of 6 billion, now the same capital abandonment

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