---
title: "Can 'Universal Dealers' Save Want Want, Whose Market Value Has Evaporated by 100 Billion?"
description: "How long has it been since you bought Want Want milk or eaten Want Want snow rice crackers? Perhaps you can't even remember. But Cai Yanming, chairman of China Want Want Holdings, knows well—he retained his title as Taiwan's richest person on the 2016 Forbes global rich list. Yet, despite the title, Cai can't smile, as the company's total market value has evaporated by HK$100 billion over the past two years."
author: "李三年"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-11-12"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-universal-dealers-save-want-want-whose-market-value-has-evaporated-b-bd4c038f/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-universal-dealers-save-want-want-whose-market-value-has-evaporated-b-bd4c038f.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/GE44gcyz9cOAiSBKr5_SHw"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%85%A8%E6%B0%91%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86-%E8%83%BD%E6%8B%AF%E6%95%91%E8%92%B8%E5%8F%91%E4%BA%86%E5%8D%83%E4%BA%BF%E5%B8%82%E5%80%BC%E7%9A%84%E6%97%BA%E6%97%BA%E5%90%97-bd4c038f.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-universal-dealers-save-want-want-whose-market-value-has-evaporated-b-bd4c038f/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Can 'Universal Dealers' Save Want Want, Whose Market Value Has Evaporated by 100 Billion?

> How long has it been since you bought Want Want milk or eaten Want Want snow rice crackers? Perhaps you can't even remember. But Cai Yanming, chairman of China Want Want Holdings, knows well—he retained his title as Taiwan's richest person on the 2016 Forbes global rich list. Yet, despite the title, Cai can't smile, as the company's total market value has evaporated by HK$100 billion over the past two years.

How long has it been since you bought Want Want milk or eaten Want Want snow rice crackers? Perhaps you can't even remember. But Cai Yanming, chairman of China Want Want Holdings, knows well—he retained his title as Taiwan's richest person on the 2016 Forbes global rich list. Yet, despite the title, Cai can't smile, as the company's total market value has evaporated by HK$100 billion over the past two years.

**In two years, Want Want's total market value has shrunk by over HK$100 billion**

After listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Want Want's share price once showed a strong upward trend. From 2008 to 2014, its total market value rose from a low of less than HK$30 billion to a peak of about HK$160 billion, making it one of the consumer goods companies with the highest market value on the Hong Kong stock market.

During the same period, Taiwanese companies such as Tingyi and Sun Art Retail also set records in revenue and market value. From 2006 to 2015, Tingyi's revenue grew 4.48 times, with cumulative revenue from mainland China exceeding RMB 440 billion, accounting for 99.15% of total revenue. Sun Art Retail's revenue grew 5.54 times between 2008 and 2015, with mainland revenue close to RMB 560 billion, accounting for 99.71% of total revenue. Around 2013, all three companies had market values exceeding HK$100 billion.

However, after hitting a record high of HK$12.547 on April 17, 2014, Want Want's share price entered a prolonged decline, facing dual pressures of falling performance and shrinking market value. By November this year, in just two years, Want Want's total market value hovered around HK$60 billion, having evaporated over HK$100 billion from its 2014 peak.

In fact, since early 2015, Want Want has repurchased shares 101 times in the secondary market, spending over HK$3 billion in total. Both the number of buybacks and the amount involved rank among the top in the Hong Kong market, but continuous buybacks have not stopped the decline in Want Want's share price.

**Old tactics fail; Taiwanese enterprises hit a 'low point'**

In 2014, as China Want Want headed toward a downturn, many Taiwanese brands such as Tingyi and Sun Art Retail also saw their share prices collectively plummet, with revenue growth slowing or even profits declining. Since then, the total market value of these three companies has fallen by more than HK$300 billion from their peaks.

**Why did these once-hot Taiwanese enterprises run into trouble?** Famous marketing expert Zhu Danpeng believes, "These Taiwanese enterprises have shown signs of resting on their laurels and being like frogs in slowly boiling water. Their brand power, product power, and channel power are gradually weakening, so we see Want Want and Tingyi continuously declining."

When Taiwanese enterprises like Want Want entered the mainland, the mainland's industries were very low-end. Taiwanese enterprises were advanced in products, packaging, and marketing concepts, far ahead of mainland companies. Their strategy for expanding in the mainland market was the 'three axes': distribute channels, advertise heavily, and expand product categories. For example, China Want Want pushed pervasive advertising for its main products like Want Want Senbei, Rice Cracker, and Lomianxian. Many slogans are still catchy today, and the 'Want Want Boy' mascot is deeply ingrained in people's minds.

However, as the market matured, many old tactics failed. Advantages in business models cannot be maintained long-term. Once one or even several factors undergo qualitative changes, Taiwanese enterprises like Want Want may fall from the clouds to the bottom.

**Ultimately, the problem lies in the products themselves**

Xu Xiongjun, a food and beverage strategy expert, said that behind a brand is a category, and every category has a life cycle. In recent years, China's demographic dividend has disappeared, and existing consumer markets have become saturated. Snack foods such as biscuits, instant noodles, and jelly have entered a decline phase, and companies producing these products will also see performance declines.

Xu Xiongjun believes that the performance decline of FMCG companies like Want Want and Tingyi is due to the decline of the sub-categories they operate in. "Now people pay more attention to healthy living and food safety. Many unhealthy foods like carbonated drinks and fried foods have saturated markets and are declining. Brands like Want Want and Tingyi are facing a midlife crisis."

Take Tingyi as an example: its long-standing 'Braised Beef Noodles' remains its flagship product. In beverages, apart from taking over PepsiCo's China operations a few years ago and conducting large-scale channel integration, there has been no major breakthrough. After 2013, Tingyi's revenue and profits continued to decline, with net profit in the first half of this year plunging by over 60%.

In contrast, Uni-President has continued to innovate in recent years, with young products like Xiaoming Tongxue and Hai Zhi Yan serving as benchmarks. But for Taiwanese enterprises, how to maintain innovation in the future remains a major challenge.

**Want Want makes a move! Can developing 'universal dealers' save the market?**

Recently, Want Want, suffering from the 'pain of evaporating 100 billion in market value,' is vigorously promoting an 'individual dealership' business model to open up new markets. It remains to be seen whether this channel innovation can change the market situation.

**What exactly is the 'individual regional dealership' model?**

In the past two years, with the continuous evolution of the food industry, changes in people's purchasing habits, and intensifying market competition, traditional distributors face significant capital and cost pressures. In this context, the 'individual dealer' form, distinct from traditional distributors, has gradually emerged. So, how does Want Want's 'individual regional dealership' differ from the traditional agency model?

**It is understood that individual regional dealership allows agents to sell within their own region through their social circles (relatives, colleagues, friends, classmates, etc.), using person-to-person, door-to-door sales models, as well as ground promotions in communities or campuses, or online tools (WeChat, Weibo, etc.). Individual agents mainly sell to households, schools, and workplaces in their responsible areas.**

If you are a first-level agent in your region, you can continue to develop second-level product agents in communities, campuses, and other areas.

**Specially launching 8 family-pack products for 'individual regional dealership'**

Unlike products handled by traditional distributors, Want Want Group has specially launched the following family-pack products tailored to the nature of individual agents.

**1. Want Want Small Steamed Bun**
Specification: 16g*25, retail price: 25 yuan per bag.

**2. Want Want Fish Stick**
Specification: 30g*4, retail price: 10 yuan per pack.

**3. Want Want Annual Ring Cake**
Specification: 280g, retail price: 38 yuan per box.

In its semi-annual report this year, Want Want mentioned that in the second half of the year, it would launch new products such as annual ring cake in the snack food category, leveraging the Want Want brand advantage to expand consumer groups. It also plans to launch new products in some blank markets using the Heipi brand and the group's remaining production capacity.

**4. Want Want Vitamin C Gummies**
Specification: 200g, retail price: 30 yuan per bottle.

**5. Want Want Qiao Xing Biscuit**
Specification: 21g*10, retail price: 10 yuan per pack. Flavors include milk and chocolate.

**6. Want Want Milk Candy**
Specification: 160g, retail price: 10 yuan per pack.

**7. Want Want Tiao Dou**
Specification: 23g*12, retail price: 20 yuan per pack. Varieties include peas, seaweed peanuts, and aftertaste broad beans.

**8. Want Want Hou Shao Seaweed**
Specification: 235g, retail price: 15 yuan per pack.

It is understood that since the model was launched in July this year, it has already entered communities and campuses to recruit agents. Currently, the first batch of pilot cities mainly includes: Shenzhen, Shanghai, Changsha, Hainan, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Nanning, Wuhan, Suzhou, and other upper-tier cities.

**For Want Want, which is suffering from the 'pain of evaporating 100 billion in market value,' whether the new 'universal dealer' channel model and the specially launched 8 family-pack products will be effective, and to what extent, remains unknown.**

**Comprehensive report by Food Economy, text by Li Sannian. References: Daily Economic News, Food Board, etc.**


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671