---
title: "Calling Out FMCG Giants: The Convenient Noodle and Rice Noodle Market You Overlooked Is Generating Hundreds of Millions for Others!"
description: "Product innovation is an eternal theme. Nielsen data shows that new products are a key driver of FMCG sales growth in 2019, contributing 46% to growth. While everyone knows innovation is crucial, the direction is often unclear. However, since 2018, a dark horse category—regional specialty snacks—has emerged, with pre-packaged, ready-to-eat versions becoming a new direction in FMCG innovation. The brand 'Hi Eat Home' (嗨吃家) has risen to prominence by transforming local spicy hot rice noodles (酸辣粉) into a packaged product, leveraging social e-commerce and short-video platforms to lead the category."
author: "袁来"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-12-27"
categories: "Brand Marketing, Dealer Operations, E-commerce & Instant Retail, Industry Trends, Management & Methods"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/T1tluCK3QpMvh04AeRn4-Q"
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citation: "袁来. “Calling Out FMCG Giants: The Convenient Noodle and Rice Noodle Market You Overlooked Is Generating Hundreds of Millions for Others!.” New Distribution, 2019-12-27. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/calling-out-fmcg-giants-the-convenient-noodle-and-rice-noodle-market-you-17d8297f/"
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---

# Calling Out FMCG Giants: The Convenient Noodle and Rice Noodle Market You Overlooked Is Generating Hundreds of Millions for Others!

> Product innovation is an eternal theme. Nielsen data shows that new products are a key driver of FMCG sales growth in 2019, contributing 46% to growth. While everyone knows innovation is crucial, the direction is often unclear. However, since 2018, a dark horse category—regional specialty snacks—has emerged, with pre-packaged, ready-to-eat versions becoming a new direction in FMCG innovation. The brand 'Hi Eat Home' (嗨吃家) has risen to prominence by transforming local spicy hot rice noodles (酸辣粉) into a packaged product, leveraging social e-commerce and short-video platforms to lead the category.

****Product innovation has always been an eternal theme.** Whether brand owners, distributors, retailers, or consumers, everyone hopes for more and better innovative products.
According to the latest Nielsen data, **new products are one of the main drivers of FMCG sales growth in 2019. Over 20,000 new products are launched in China each year, contributing 46% to FMCG growth.**
Although every company knows they need to innovate, how exactly should they approach it? Where is the direction for product innovation? Consumers are always changing, and while we know that '**healthier, more nutritious, and safer**' is the direction and trend, where is the specific foothold? There often seems to be no handle to grasp.
However, since 2018, a dark horse category—regional specialty snacks—has appeared in the public eye. **The pre-packaging and ready-to-eat transformation of regional specialty snacks is now becoming a new direction for product innovation in the FMCG field.**
According to the '2019 Taobao Foodie Big Data Report,' Guangxi Luosifen (river snail rice noodles) sold 28.4 million units in a year, Northeast grilled cold noodles sold 20.68 million units, fire chicken noodles sold 13 million orders, and Wuhan hot dry noodles sold 4.78 million units...
**According to CBNDate consumption big data, in 2018, the number of online consumers of specialty hot and sour rice noodles reached 10 million, with a growth rate of 113%.** Searching for hot and sour rice noodle products on e-commerce platforms reveals nearly 40 related brands, with the highest-selling single product reaching 38,000 units per month, approximately 220,000 boxes, showing the market's popularity.
Among them, a startup brand called 'Hi Eat Home' (嗨吃家) has come into the public eye. Recently, New Distribution met with the two founders of 'Hi Eat Home,' Zhang Shunxin and Zhao Jiru. They were previously entrepreneurs in the social e-commerce field, and in 2017, they 'accidentally' crossed over into the FMCG sector, turning regional specialty snacks like hot and sour rice noodles into FMCG products, quickly gaining fame. How exactly did they do it?
△Zhang Shunxin (left), Zhao Jiru (right)
**-01-********The First Batch of 3,000 Boxes Was for Driving Traffic to Facial Mask Products**
Zhang Shunxin and Zhao Jiru are both foodies who often visited a local restaurant specializing in hot and sour rice noodles. At the time, while managing their WeChat business (micro-commerce), they had a sudden idea: 'This hot and sour rice noodle is so delicious; other young consumers would surely like it too. Why not use it to drive traffic to our facial masks and increase engagement with our followers?'
With this idea, they approached the restaurant owner to discuss agency cooperation, but were rejected. With no other choice, they had to find another way.
Zhang Shunxin's family runs a supermarket, so she bought all the hot and sour rice noodle products available on the market, intending to find a brand with good quality to represent through taste tests. But after testing, Zhang Shunxin was furious: 'They were extremely unpalatable.'
At that moment, they thought, 'Can good hot and sour rice noodles only be found in small restaurants? Is the quality of pre-packaged hot and sour rice noodles limited to this?' They refused to accept this and went to Chongqing to find factories and raw materials.
Zhang Shunxin recalled that the original **purpose of making this product was to help attract followers for their WeChat business facial mask products.** Therefore, they didn't consider the cost of the hot and sour rice noodles much, since compared to hot and sour rice noodles, the profit from facial masks was more substantial.
In early 2017, they produced the first batch of hot and sour rice noodles, initially 3,000 boxes. Zhang Shunxin thought that if they didn't sell, they could give them away; with so many agent partners in the WeChat business circle, they wouldn't have trouble giving them away. Little did they know, once the product launched, it became popular in various 'groups' within the WeChat business community. From the initial facial mask circle to the green juice weight-loss circle, they all became distribution channels, and reorder rates were high.
This scenario gave Zhang Shunxin and Zhao Jiru great confidence. At the end of 2017, they made a major decision: **give up cosmetics (they had already negotiated with a Thai factory to produce facial masks) and focus solely on hot and sour rice noodles.**
Soon, relying on their connections in the WeChat business circle, this product became a bestseller. Next, they expanded to open flagship stores on JD.com and Tmall, and promoted on short-video and live-streaming platforms represented by Kuaishou. According to Zhang Shunxin, the search volume for 'Hi Eat Home' on Tmall and JD.com now exceeds that of 'hot and sour rice noodles,' and it has long held the top position in the category on e-commerce platforms.
In the second half of 2018, when Kuaishou opened its 'little yellow cart' selling feature, Hi Eat Home officially cooperated with Kuaishou in 2019, and the brand exploded comprehensively!
**-02-****Besides Catching the Trend, What Else Did Hi Eat Home Do Right?**
At this point, some might attribute Hi Eat Home's success to catching the trend of live-streaming sales and short videos, but in Zhao Jiru's view, **the trend is only part of it; the more critical factor is the product,** especially since their approach to product development is fundamentally different from traditional FMCG companies.
In the hot and sour rice noodle field, Hi Eat Home is not the first, but it can lead the category because the core is the product. Zhao Jiru gave an example: **Traditional FMCG companies might first consider the market, then pricing, and which price band to target, but Hi Eat Home never does this when developing products.**
Regarding product development, Hi Eat Home has its own logic: **The founders test first, then internal office staff conduct small-scale tests, and then it is given free to internet celebrities and streamers for tasting. Only when these 'eating show' influencers and KOLs approve does Hi Eat Home decide to launch it to the market, and based on that, determine the price.**
In addition to hot and sour rice noodles, Hi Eat Home has also launched clams in vermicelli, spicy soup, tomato hot pot noodles, and more. Zhang Shunxin told New Distribution that Hi Eat Home's future direction is 'making restaurant food convenient,' hoping to continuously bring consumers more convenient deliciousness and richer culinary experiences.
In terms of product line expansion planning, Hi Eat Home has no strict profit or price standards. Sometimes, when launching a new product, Hi Eat Home might directly give away tens of thousands of boxes for consumer and opinion leader experiences.
Throughout 2019, Hi Eat Home gradually built a full industry chain system, self-building and cooperating to open three factories. In terms of sales channels, it focused on both online and offline, covering Tmall, JD.com, Taobao, Meiri Yitao, Meiri Youxian, Global Grabber, etc., basically full network coverage, while also deepening cooperation with Kuaishou. Offline, it partnered with Walmart and RT-Mart, and entered 7-Eleven convenience stores in various regions, 5,000 Suning Xiaodian stores, and other chain supermarkets.
In just two years, Hi Eat Home has grown from a studio into a large-scale food production and sales company, even becoming synonymous with the hot and sour rice noodle category.
**-03-********Seeking Market Increment, Not Grabbing Existing Share**
As is well known, the FMCG market is already a red ocean. In a red ocean of existing share, if you take more, others get less. Rather than facing existing share and competing with rivals, it's better to create incremental market.
What is an incremental market? **It means tapping into new consumer demands or creating new consumption scenarios.** Admittedly, Hi Eat Home is not the first company in the hot and sour rice noodle category, but it can lead the category because the core lies in the upgrade of the product and the upgrade of communication methods.
The product upgrade is self-evident: without Zhang Shunxin's testing of existing products, she wouldn't have been determined to create her own.
In terms of communication upgrades, whether in the WeChat business circle or on short-video and live-streaming platforms, the users behind Hi Eat Home are young consumers of the new era. These consumers are not the target users of other brands, or other brands only have local markets with consumption habits. By leveraging new connection platforms, Hi Eat Home became the first hot and sour rice noodle brand that new consumers recognized. Coupled with good quality, it conquered the hot and sour rice noodle category in one fell swoop.
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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 袁来
- Published: 2019-12-27
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/calling-out-fmcg-giants-the-convenient-noodle-and-rice-noodle-market-you-17d8297f/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/T1tluCK3QpMvh04AeRn4-Q

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