Introduction: Fully embracing offline channels is the only way forward, and a nine-year-old emerging dairy company has reached a new stage of development. On October 22, 2023, Adopt-a-Cow held its 2023 customer conference at its Kanghong Ranch in Gucheng County, Hebei Province. At the meeting, the group standard for A2 β-casein milk, drafted by Adopt-a-Cow in collaboration with Northeast Agricultural University and under the platform of the China Nutrition and Health Food Association, passed technical review. Meanwhile, following the Shandong manufacturing base, the Hebei manufacturing base adjacent to Kanghong Ranch was completed and put into operation. On the same day, the 400 millionth bottle of A2 β-casein milk rolled off the production line, marking the maturity of this major product and its category, and the upgrade of Adopt-a-Cow's full-industry-chain layout. At the customer conference, Adopt-a-Cow also expressed its determination to embrace offline channels. For the brand's current development stage, leveraging its emerging advantages to move from online to offline and fully embrace offline channels is the only way forward. In this process, Adopt-a-Cow is willing to learn sincerely and cooperate with all partners for mutual win-win outcomes. A new industry standard covering a new category in the dairy sector has just been released, a full dairy industry chain spanning upstream and downstream has become more robust, and a nine-year-old emerging dairy company has reached a new stage of development—as a new consumer brand that has traversed cycles, the outside world has always focused on Adopt-a-Cow's growth story, and today, this story has added its latest footnote. A New Consumer Brand That Has Traversed Cycles With drive and staying power As market waves surge and new and old brands compete, when new consumer brands have entered the second half, Adopt-a-Cow's steady run stands out. As a young dairy company established less than a decade ago, Adopt-a-Cow achieved steady performance growth from 2019 to the first half of 2022. Main business revenue increased from 847 million yuan in 2019 to 2.512 billion yuan in 2021, placing the company in the second tier of the industry. In 2020 and 2021, sales revenue grew by 90.79% and 55.55% year-on-year, respectively, higher than the industry average. In the post-new-consumer era, the boundaries between new and old brands are blurring; amidst the waves, brand competition is underpinned by comprehensive competition in industry, product, technology, and channels. Adopt-a-Cow has laid a solid foundation for brand development through heavy asset investment in the full industry chain. As industry development increasingly tests brand fundamentals, a sound industry chain not only provides high-quality milk sources and stable self-owned capacity but also strengthens brand narratives. For example, Adopt-a-Cow has set up live streaming access to its ranches, allowing users to view real-time footage of several major ranches 24/7, including milking halls and calf barns, enabling consumers to see the cows and intuitively experience the industry. On the product front, Adopt-a-Cow's practices continue to deepen, forming an effective product methodology. The A2 β-casein milk, which has surpassed 400 million bottles, was developed based on first-class milk sources and collected over a thousand user opinions before launch, listening to consumer voices to the greatest extent. After launch, Adopt-a-Cow adjusted details such as packaging and straws based on feedback from relevant groups, making the design more child-friendly and striving to provide a more user-friendly experience. It is this spirit of repeated refinement that has led to the product's success and allowed Adopt-a-Cow's good products to serve nearly 40 million users. Around the dairy industry chain, the technological strength of emerging companies continues to accumulate. At the 14th China Dairy Conference, Adopt-a-Cow was awarded the Modernization Grade Evaluation (5A level), further affirming its processing and intelligent manufacturing capabilities. At the end of last year, in the 2022 list of national high-tech enterprises in Zhejiang Province, Adopt-a-Cow's subsidiary Hangzhou Adopt-a-Cow Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. passed certification and was selected as a national high-tech enterprise. This year, Adopt-a-Cow also established a Dairy Innovation Center with Northeast Agricultural University to build an industry-academia-research innovation ecosystem, further improving the quality and level of industry-academia integration. This young dairy company has achieved rapid technological growth. Supported by the industry, Adopt-a-Cow is also maintaining its online emerging advantages while gradually moving toward larger circulation markets, successfully covering more mainstream and higher-net-worth groups and consumption scenarios. In this process of simultaneous volume and quality improvement, consumer perception of Adopt-a-Cow is transitioning from emerging brand to mature brand. From 2019 to 2021, Adopt-a-Cow's offline channel performance nearly doubled, and in 2022 and 2023 it continued to grow rapidly, gradually shedding the label of internet-famous brand, with more consumers seeing Adopt-a-Cow products offline. During the recent National Day Golden Week, Adopt-a-Cow made its debut in the Hong Kong market, with two yogurt products available in over 150 stores in Hong Kong, allowing the emerging brand to be tested by more consumers and a broader market. Full Industry Chain Upgrade Adopt-a-Cow Reaches a New Stage of Development At the conference, a large screen recorded in real time the entire process of the 400 millionth bottle of A2 β-casein milk rolling off the production line. The modern dairy processing plant shown on screen also became a focus of attention for attendees. It is reported that this new milk factory, the Adopt-a-Cow Hebei Manufacturing Base, covers an area of 112 mu, with a total investment of 630 million yuan. The first phase includes four production lines with a daily fresh milk processing capacity of 420 tons. Once fully operational, it will produce 150,000 tons of liquid milk annually and provide over 400 jobs, becoming an important part of Adopt-a-Cow's industrial landscape. Notably, this new factory in Gucheng, Hebei, is adjacent to Adopt-a-Cow's first ranch, Kanghong Ranch. The ranch standing at the starting point of entrepreneurship marks Adopt-a-Cow's original intention to create a good glass of milk from the source, while the newly erected factory indicates that Adopt-a-Cow's full dairy industry chain is moving toward comprehensive upgrade. The dairy industry spans primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, and completing the full industry layout tests a dairy company's perseverance. In terms of milk sources, since its establishment in 2014, the young Adopt-a-Cow has been down-to-earth, starting from cattle raising and the upstream, and has now built eight modern large-scale ranches nationwide, with over 70,000 dairy cows in stock. Its ranches have passed GAP first-level certification, won the national feed competition gold award twice, and have been selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as demonstration farms for dairy standardization and national core breeding bases for dairy cows. Its per-unit milk yield ranks third in the industry, and milking efficiency ranks first in Asia... These honors and data continuously confirm the promise of only raising good cattle for users. In building high-quality capacity, Adopt-a-Cow has also been diligent. In 2020, the Shandong Intelligent Manufacturing Base was completed and put into operation in Pingyi County, and the following year it passed the IFS, SQF, and BRCGS world food safety management system certifications, aligning its safety and quality management with international standards. At the 13th China Dairy Conference, it was rated as an outstanding dairy processing enterprise. After the new factory is put into operation, Adopt-a-Cow's self-owned capacity will be further consolidated and improved. At the same time, the ranch plus factory industrial model allows raw milk from ranches to be processed faster, reducing storage and transfer time, and greatly shortening the process from raw milk to product. Furthermore, born in the mobile internet era, Adopt-a-Cow has also incorporated digital intelligence into its corporate vision, creating a digital intelligence upgrade case that runs through the entire industry chain and is rich in corporate characteristics. The recently operational Adopt-a-Cow Hebei Manufacturing Base is equipped with an intelligent large-scale automated warehouse, greatly improving storage capacity and space utilization efficiency, achieving comprehensive digital and refined warehouse management. From ranches to factories, from warehousing and logistics to consumer services, the industry chain with digital intelligence wings leads the brand to break through and develop. As Adopt-a-Cow founder Xu Xiaobo stated at the conference: Adopt-a-Cow has always held itself to world-class standards, using first-class ranches, first-class factories, and first-class products to serve customers. Now, the full industry chain upgrade marks another vivid step in the emerging dairy company's practice of creating a good glass of milk from scratch. Drafted by an Emerging Dairy Company What Are the Highlights of This Group Standard? A2 β-casein milk is milk processed solely from milk produced by A2-type dairy cows. Compared with ordinary milk, it is more friendly to the human digestive system and may be more conducive to digestion and absorption. From a market perspective, in the post-pandemic era, people are more concerned about personal health. The Dietary Guidelines for Residents (2022) increased the recommended daily intake of milk and dairy products to 300-500 grams. At the same time, a high proportion of Chinese residents are intolerant to dairy products. Healthy industry growth coupled with broad specific demand has created vast market space for A2 β-casein milk. However, as milk products enter a stage of personalized and diversified consumption, this rapidly developing new category urgently needs standardized and normalized guidance. It is understood that this group standard is the first public standard focusing on this category in China, initiated by Northeast Agricultural University in collaboration with Adopt-a-Cow and other dairy companies, under the platform of the China Nutrition and Health Food Association. The standard provides detailed regulations on the definition, indicator requirements, testing methods, and product grading of A2 β-casein milk. In terms of milk sources, selecting purebred A2-type dairy cows through genetic testing and raising them in separate groups with scientific feeding is the foundation for producing high-quality A2 β-casein milk. The group standard for A2 β-casein milk clearly stipulates its milk source: dairy cows with homozygous A2 β-casein genes are called A2-type dairy cows. In terms of production and processing, the standard states that ultra-high-temperature sterilized milk or pasteurized milk processed solely from milk produced by A2-type dairy cows is called A2 β-casein milk, and requires thorough cleaning of the processing area before and after processing to avoid cross-contamination, effectively ensuring the pure quality of A2 β-casein milk. Additionally, the group standard sets higher requirements for the nutritional quality of A2 β-casein milk, clearly stipulating that the protein content in this type of milk must be equal to or higher than 3.2g/100g, higher than the national standard for general pure milk. It is understood that during the drafting of the A2 β-casein milk group standard, Adopt-a-Cow, as the lead drafting unit and an early player in this category, provided substantial data support for processes such as dairy cow gene screening, milk protein testing, and product manufacturing. Adopt-a-Cow's first A2 β-casein milk product was launched in 2020, and the product matrix has now expanded to five products. According to this year's market data research by Frost & Sullivan, Adopt-a-Cow's A2 β-casein milk product sales have reached first place. Behind the market breakthrough, the company's continuous strengthening of milk source construction is a prerequisite for creating high-quality products. In the first half of this year, Adopt-a-Cow's A2 organic exclusive ranch, Mingzhu Ranch, was inaugurated in Zhongben Town, Anda City, Heilongjiang Province, further expanding high-quality milk sources. Senior industry analyst Song Liang stated that under the influence of the group standard, the quality of products in related categories will continue to improve, and the proposal of the group standard also lays a solid foundation for future standard upgrades. Food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng pointed out that the birth of the group standard adds standardized, professional, and brand-oriented design to the entire category, helping the category develop healthily, benignly, and orderly. At this conference, alongside the A2 β-casein milk group standard, Adopt-a-Cow's 400 millionth bottle of A2 β-casein milk was also unveiled. Starting from the most upstream milk source and innovating products closest to consumer needs, Adopt-a-Cow has achieved the development of a new category from 0 to 1 and then to 400 million, once again proving the important market position of emerging dairy companies in this category. As a young face in the dairy industry, Adopt-a-Cow has previously applied its industry and product experience to the formulation of industry standards. In 2021, the group standard Farm Animal Welfare Requirements - Dairy Cattle, jointly compiled by the Chinese Veterinary Society and the China Quality Certification Center, was officially published, and Adopt-a-Cow was an important drafting unit. When Adopt-a-Cow invested in ranches upstream in the industry chain, it started from cow comfort and attached importance to the cow experience in all aspects. During the standard-setting process, Adopt-a-Cow actively provided its experience in scientifically raising animals, reducing pain and stress responses in cows, providing suitable growth environments and nutrition, and improving the quality of life and health of cows. In 2022, after the standard was published, Adopt-a-Cow's subsidiary Heilongjiang Kangbei Animal Husbandry also received the Farm Animal Welfare Product Certification Certificate. Emerging companies actively participate in standards, apply standards, and lead standards. Facts have proven that the combined force of industrial rooting, category deepening, and industry-academia integration injects continuous healthy development momentum into Adopt-a-Cow. How to achieve resilient growth in the industry's major cycle? In an era of brand surplus, how to win consumer favor with products and services? How to run with characteristics in the omnichannel journey from online to offline? This conference gave the outside world a deeper understanding of Adopt-a-Cow's stubbornness and perseverance, efforts and determination, drive and staying power, and also raised more expectations for the future of this young brand. Flowing water does not compete for precedence; it competes in endlessness. Around the ever-advancing Adopt-a-Cow, new answers are emerging.