"Now going to the supermarket to buy toothpaste is stressful, in the supermarket around, found that Shuke and Yunnan Baiyao are so expensive, can afford to buy only China." Wang Xiaomei (pseudonym), a Beijing resident, said that toothpaste is really getting more and more expensive now, "Before a few dollars can be bought, now it is 20 or 30." ”
With everyone's emphasis on oral care, oral care products such as electric toothbrushes and toothbrushes have emerged, and toothpaste has also been draped in functional coats such as "whitening" and "swelling and pain relief", and the price has been sold higher and higher.
Small toothpaste began to make big business, and some companies have emerged in the capital market. Recently, Shuke's parent company, Vimax Industrial (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Vimax), submitted a prospectus for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in China.
Vichy was founded in 2014, but the name is somewhat unfamiliar to the public, and the last time it appeared in the public eye may have been last year when it was publicly defended by the "Fairy Tale King". The founders behind the company are not out of the circle, and in the resumes of the three founders, Wang Ziquan and Cao Ruian have both served in Blue Moon, which may be a relatively familiar experience for the public.
However, Vimax's toothpaste brand, Shuke, has a high degree of national recognition, and toothpaste products are contributing more than 50% of the benefits to Vimax.
The company completed the A round of financing in the year of its establishment, completed the A+ round of financing in April 2016, completed a capital increase in June of the same year, completed the B round of financing in October of the same year, and has since undergone several equity transfers. After years of development, Vimax finally knocked on the door of the IPO. There are voices in the market that "Vimax is expected to become the first stock of Hong Kong domestic toothpaste".
Figure/ic
In the first nine months of last year, the revenue exceeded 1.2 billion, and the contribution of toothpaste exceeded 50%.
Vichy is an oral care products provider that develops and markets a diverse portfolio of oral care products across four major oral care product categories, namely Adult Basic Oral Care, Children's Basic Oral Care, Electric Oral Care and Specialty Oral Care.
China's oral care market is relatively concentrated, and the five major oral care companies account for a total of 33.9% of the market share according to the retail sales of all oral care products in 2020.
According to Frost & Sullivan, Vichy ranks fourth in the Chinese oral care market with a market share of 5.3% in terms of retail sales of all oral care products in 2020. In addition, Vimax is the largest provider of children's oral care products in China, with a market share of 20.4% (in terms of retail sales in 2020); the highest market share among Chinese whitening toothpaste brands, that is, 11.3% (in terms of retail sales in 2020); and a market share of 4.3% (in terms of retail sales in 2020) ranks fourth in the Chinese electric oral care market.
In the first nine months of 2019, 2020 and 2021, Vimax's revenue was about 1.662 billion yuan, 1.616 billion yuan and 1.23 billion yuan, respectively; in the same period, its profit for the period was about 0.5 billion yuan, 2.113 billion yuan and -494 million yuan, respectively. It is reported that the reason for the loss of Viviens during the period was that the book value change of 574 million yuan was included in the current period.
Vimax's most well-known brands are Shuke and Shuke Baby. According to Frost & Sullivan's survey, the Shuke Baby brand is the most well-known brand in China's children's oral care products market and the most satisfactory brand for consumers.
For Vimax, Scotel's brand power means that companies can "have solid customer loyalty and thus obtain a higher repurchase rate." ”
According to the prospectus, most of Vichy's revenue comes from toothpaste products, and the annual revenue during the reporting period accounted for more than 50% of the total revenue.
In 2019, 2020 and the first nine months of 2021, 55.7%, 58.4% and 58.8% of Vichy's revenue came from toothpaste products (including adult and children's toothpaste).
As of September 30, 2021, Vimax's omni-channel sales and distribution network includes both online and offline channels. Among them, online channels include 32 self-operated online stores and 48 online distributors on Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo and other mainstream e-commerce platforms, as well as other emerging online channels such as Douyin; offline channels include 32 large customers and a network of 602 offline dealers covering a full range of retail formats such as hypermarkets, supermarket chains, personal care stores, mother and baby stores, convenience stores, grocery stores and gas stations.
Competing for the 100 billion oral care market, vivienne product gross profit margin of more than 60%
How big is the "cake" of China's oral care market?
According to Frost & Sullivan, retail sales in China's oral care market increased from 49.6 billion yuan in 2016 to 88.4 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.5%. In the future, with the increase in the penetration rate of diversified oral care products and the upgrading of consumption, the retail sales of China's oral care market are expected to reach 152.2 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.5% from 2020.
In the face of the temptation of "cake" and fierce market competition, what preparations has Vimax made?
As of September 30, 2021, Vimax's R&D team includes 25 employees with a proven track record of launching new products or product upgrades. In the first nine months of 2019, 2020 and 2021, Vimax's R&D expenditure was about 34.6 million yuan, 0.354 billion yuan and 0.194 billion yuan, respectively.
As of the latest practicable date, Vimax has 61 new and upgraded products under development.
According to the data, the increase in per capita disposable income has increased the purchasing power of consumers and promoted consumption upgrading, thus effectively promoting the development of China's oral care market. Therefore, in recent years, the penetration rate of oral care products has increased steadily. In addition to basic oral care products, consumers are willing to purchase professional and electric oral care products with higher prices and frequency.
As a result, Vimax is also working on electric oral care products.
Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the revenue of Vimax electric oral care products fell by 11.5% year-on-year in the first nine months of last year. However, Vimax said that despite the decline in sales of electric oral care products, the average selling price of such products is increasing, with an average selling price of 42.3 yuan as of the end of September 2021, compared with 36.4 yuan in the same period in 2020, mainly due to the increased revenue contribution of several high-margin sonic electric toothbrush products.
Behind the emergence of high-priced products such as electric toothbrushes and the increasingly expensive toothpaste, what is the gross profit margin of Vimax products?
According to the prospectus, in the first nine months of 2019, 2020 and 2021, vivienne's gross profit margin was 53.8%, 58.1% and 62.8%, respectively.
In 2019, 2020 and the first nine months of 2021, Vimax's five major customers generated 28.8%, 29.3% and 24.3% of its revenue, respectively, and its largest customers accounted for 10.3%, 9.7% and 7.5% of its total revenue, respectively.
He was once publicly defended by the "Fairy Tale King" for preemptively registering trademarks, and has now been authorized
The last time Vimez entered the public eye, she was publicly defended by the "Fairy Tale King" because of the preemptive registration of trademarks.
Vichy has two core brands, Saky, which was founded in 2006 and SakyKids.
The Beijing News shell financial reporter noted that in 2018, Wei Meizi was publicly defended by the "fairy tale king" Zheng Yuanjie.
Zheng Yuanjie said on his Weibo that "Shuk" is his original well-known literary role in 1982, "On December 4, 2018, I went to the State Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to submit the application for invalidation of the No. 17195498 'Shuk' trademark of Vimax 'Shuke Toothpaste' for infringement of my intellectual property rights in bad faith and the application for invalidation of the 9303795 trademark 'Shuke' that used harmonic sounds and called exactly the same infringement. ”
In September 2019, the State Intellectual Property Office declared Vimax's registered "Shuk" toothpaste trademark invalid, and in October of the same year, Vichy filed a lawsuit against the State Intellectual Property Office to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court.
Three years later, in September 2021, Vimax filed a petition with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court to withdraw the lawsuit, and the State Intellectual Property Office's ruling on the invalidity of Vimax's "Shuk" toothpaste trademark came into effect.
On January 6, 2022, Zheng Yuanjie posted on Weibo that the number of 672 infringing trademarks had decreased by one.
Zheng Yuanjie said that he authorized Vichy to use the name and image of "Shuk Beta" to promote the sale of domestic children's oral care products, and worked together to maintain the oral health of Chinese children.
Zheng Yuanjie believes that the previous withdrawal of Vichy's lawsuit and the relevant apologies to him prove the company's sincerity in respecting intellectual property rights.
On February 10, 2022, Zheng Yuanjie forwarded the news that Vimax plans to go public in Hong Kong, with the text "Respect intellectual property rights, enterprises can develop healthily." ”
Beijing News shell financial reporter Yan Xia Editor Chen Li Proofreader Lu Qian