---
title: "Orion Loses Favor: Who Stole the Sweetness of Childhood?"
description: "For Orion, 2025 is a critical year. At the 112th National Sugar and Wine Fair in March, the company launched 11 new products, the most in its exhibition history. After a 7.7% revenue growth in China in 2024, Orion faces challenges in regaining its peak performance from 2016 amid changing market dynamics and health trends."
author: "谢小丹"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2025-04-25"
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# Orion Loses Favor: Who Stole the Sweetness of Childhood?

> For Orion, 2025 is a critical year. At the 112th National Sugar and Wine Fair in March, the company launched 11 new products, the most in its exhibition history. After a 7.7% revenue growth in China in 2024, Orion faces challenges in regaining its peak performance from 2016 amid changing market dynamics and health trends.

**Source** | Entrepreneurial Frontier
# For Orion, 2025 is a critical year.
At the 112th National Sugar and Wine Fair in March this year, Orion brought 11 new products at once, claiming to be the most in its exhibition history.
At the end of last year, the Korean food giant announced several executive appointments. In the Chinese market, Lee Sung-soo, CEO of Orion China subsidiary, was promoted to Vice President, Jeon Woo-young was promoted to Head of R&D, and Jung Dong-won was promoted to Head of Sales.
Among them, Lee Sung-soo had just been promoted to CEO of Orion China in January 2024. It was under his leadership that Orion turned the tide in 2024.
**According to Orion's latest performance data, 2024 China market revenue reached KRW 1,270.1 billion (approximately RMB 6.865 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.7%.**
Figure / 2020-2024 Orion China Market Revenue; Orion Official Website
This achievement means Orion has temporarily halted the risk of performance decline in 2023. However, Orion is still far from its 2016 peak, and how to return to its former glory remains an unresolved challenge.
**Revenue Growth Challenges**
When it comes to Orion, consumers may first think of the slogan "Orion, Good Friends," or the Choco Pie, a blockbuster product that has been around for 50 years.
Looking back, in the Chinese market at that time, Choco Pie was a phenomenal blockbuster. It not only helped Orion enter China in the 1990s and quickly carve out a place in the snack market, but also created an opportunity for Daliyuan, which, by offering a cheaper alternative to Orion's egg yolk pie, also established a foothold in the snack market.
In the FMCG field, a blockbuster product is key to a brand's enduring presence. After entering China, Orion expanded its product line to include puffed snacks, candies, biscuits, nut bars, and other categories. It not only has Choco Pie but also Q-Ti Cake, Mogu Li, Ya! Potato, and Shuyuan, among other blockbuster products.
According to data from MaxWin, a big data company in the FMCG industry, in traditional offline retail with hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores as the core, in March 2025, Orion's potato chip/fries category accounted for 44.9% of sales, pies 27.51%, biscuits 15.07%, and gummies 7.01%. These four categories accounted for 95% of Orion's sales.
Figure / MaxWin
**In the 30 years since entering China, Orion has experienced the fastest growth period of the Chinese snack market.** In December 2018, the "Snack Industry Development Report under Consumption Upgrade" released by the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce showed that from 2006 to 2016, the total output value of China's snack industry increased from RMB 424.036 billion to RMB 2,215.64 billion, a growth rate of 422.51%, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.98%.
Orion's sales in China naturally rose steadily. Since 2010, China has surpassed South Korea to become Orion Group's largest global market, once accounting for more than 50%.
**In 2016, Orion China achieved revenue of RMB 7.718 billion.**
Figure / Orion 2016 Q4 Financial Report
However, from 2017 to the present, this snack giant has experienced multiple setbacks, with significantly slower growth and never again reaching the 2016 revenue level. Financial data shows that in 2017, Orion's revenue in China fell by 30% to only RMB 5.155 billion.
Figure / Orion 2017 Q4 Financial Report
After 2018, Orion gradually turned the situation around and performance began to recover. But in the following years, performance seemed to ride a roller coaster, fluctuating sharply. Especially in 2023, Orion suffered a Waterloo, with revenue in the Chinese market at KRW 1,179 billion (approximately RMB 5.87 billion), a year-on-year decline of 7.5%. Affected by poor performance in the Chinese market, Orion's total revenue in 2023 only increased by 1.4% year-on-year.
**Under pressure, Orion entered 2024. According to the latest disclosed 2024 performance, Orion's revenue in the Chinese market increased by 7.7% year-on-year, halting the decline. Can this growth trend continue?**
**"Good Friends" Collapse**
The reason for the significant performance fluctuations is that Orion is facing multiple challenges in the Chinese market.
Orion's sales peak in China in 2016 was closely linked to the influence of Korean Wave culture in China.
At that time, Orion chose several Korean stars as product endorsers. Lee Min-ho endorsed "Q-Ti," Jun Ji-hyun endorsed "Shuyuan," and Lee Kwang-soo and Kim Jong-kook, members of the popular variety show "Running Man," endorsed "Ya! Potato."
However, due to the THAAD incident in 2017, Orion experienced a prolonged "boycott wave" in China, significantly impacting product sales.
Subsequently, in 2022, Orion angered Chinese consumers again.
**That year, Orion was accused of treating different markets differently, not only raising prices for products sold in China and other markets but also using "double standards" in ingredients. The same product used cocoa powder in overseas markets but cocoa butter substitute in the Chinese market.**
To respond to the controversy, Orion's official Weibo issued a response stating that domestic Orion only adjusted prices for some pie products in September 2021, while other products such as puffed snacks, biscuits, and candies remained unchanged. Additionally, different countries are affected differently by rising raw material and labor costs, so price adjustment cycles also vary.
**Furthermore, regarding the "double standard" in ingredients, Orion stated that the main ingredients of Choco Pie are consistent globally, and the controversy was caused by inaccurate translation of overseas product ingredient lists by translation software.**
Figure / China News Service
However, the statement was issued only in the form of a memorandum and was not stamped with an official seal, drawing criticism from many Chinese consumers. Orion had to delete the original statement and issue a formal response with a stamped statement.
Figure / China News Service
These incidents significantly damaged Orion's image in the minds of Chinese consumers.
Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting, believes that Orion's performance fluctuations are mainly due to changes in the market environment. Overall, snack food sales have grown slowly in recent years, and Orion faces more and more competitors. Changes in Sino-Korean relations have also affected Orion's sales in the Chinese market.
**Forced Transformation Under Health Trend**
So far, Orion's Choco Pie has passed its 50th birthday, and other blockbuster products have been around for nearly 20 years. Ya! Potato was the first product to enter the puffed snack market in 2006, Haoduoyu was born in 2005, Mogu Li in 2004, and Q-Ti even earlier in 2002.
These evergreen trees in the snack industry have established Orion's current position in the snack market. In supermarkets such as Jiayueyue and Wumart in Beijing, Orion products occupy prominent shelf positions.
**Data obtained by Interface News · Entrepreneurial Frontier from MaxWin shows that in the pie category, Orion's market share exceeds 59%, ranking first. In the potato chip/fries category, its market share is over 18.2%, ranking second.**
Since childhood, Orion Choco Pie has been Wang Li's (pseudonym) snack "white moonlight." What attracts her most is the chocolate flavor combined with the unique texture of marshmallow. Later, even when more pie products appeared on the market, Orion remained Wang Li's favorite. Whenever she craves sweets, she thinks of Orion.
However, now she buys Orion Choco Pie less and less often.
"Choco Pie doesn't taste as good as before," she says. The sweetness of Choco Pie is monotonous, and there are more baked goods on the market with richer textures and fresher production dates to choose from.
Several other consumers have recently expressed to Interface News · Entrepreneurial Frontier that Orion is too sweet.
This is also Orion's current hidden concern. The snack market is undergoing a health trend, and affected by this, Orion's multiple categories are facing market contraction or sluggish growth.
Euromonitor International data shows that the size of China's candy and snack market declined by 11.1% and 8.7% year-on-year in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
The biscuit category also lacks growth momentum. Since 2015, the year-on-year growth rate of China's biscuit market has fallen to single digits, and in 2022 it declined by 1.01% year-on-year.
The growth rate of China's potato chip market has been slowing since 2010, with a year-on-year growth rate of only 1.8% in 2020 and a decline of 0.9% in 2022. Removing the "junk food" label has become the general direction for the potato chip category. Reducing oil and saturated fat are also ways to make potato chips healthier.
**Baked goods are upgrading from long-shelf-life products to short- and medium-shelf-life products. Daliyuan, which once built its business by offering a cheaper alternative to Orion's egg yolk pie, entered a growth bottleneck early and began to focus on the short-shelf-life market.**
Facing the new market trend, Orion first proposed the "Snack Nutrition+" strategy in 2020, which essentially integrates nutritious ingredients such as nuts and pork floss into product design. So far, it has launched series such as "Nut+", "Pork Floss+", and "Juice+".
Zhang Xiaoyan, Orion's Director of Public Affairs, also stated in November 2024 that over the past five years, Orion has adopted the "Snack Nutrition+" strategy and is actively promoting the development of products with reduced sodium, fat, and sugar, as well as healthy ingredient products.
Expanding healthy snack categories such as oat biscuits has also been written into Orion's 2025 plan.
Figure / Orion 2024 Q4 Financial Report
However, Orion's image in consumers' minds is deeply rooted, and whether these new products can change consumer perception remains unknown.
**Midlife Crisis**
The successful conclusion of 2024 performance has allowed Orion to breathe a sigh of relief from the crisis of the past few years.
**Especially in the fourth quarter of 2024, Orion's sales suddenly surged, with revenue increasing by 20.1% year-on-year. The company stated in its financial report that the fourth quarter focused on holiday sales and completed the transformation of its sales model.**
Figure / Orion Official Weibo
Promoting the reform of the sales system was a key focus of Orion's work in 2024. To sell efficiently in the Chinese market, the company transformed from a sales system that directly supplied products to sales outlets to an indirect sales system that supplies products to local sales agents.
Some analysts say that through distributor channels, the company can not only cover large shopping malls and department stores but also expand to local small retail stores, further broadening its sales network.
Xu Xiongjun said that large food and beverage companies rely heavily on distributors to enter local sales channels; otherwise, the terminals they can reach are very limited.
For Orion, this move is also to better embrace channel changes in the snack market. Orion stated in its financial report that in 2025, it will further strengthen modern sales channels such as snack discount stores.
Zhang Xiaoyan also recently stated that it will continue to promote omni-channel integration, multi-scenario layout, and focus on strengthening high-quality channels such as convenience stores, warehouse-style hypermarkets, and content e-commerce, jointly creating "out-of-the-circle" hit products and opening new breakthroughs for business growth.
Snack bulk retail stores have become the latest channel dividend. According to New Distribution data, from 2017 to 2023, the number of snack bulk retail stores in China increased from 1,250 to 22,000-25,000, with a compound annual growth rate of about 108%.
Since 2023, Orion has further increased its efforts in the snack bulk retail channel, launching bulk products. In 2024, it established a dedicated team and customized dozens of products to meet the channel needs of bulk snack stores.
Figure / Orion "HotMaxx Exclusive" products sold at HotMaxx
However, compared with other brands, Orion seems to have entered this channel a step slower.
For example, Yanjin Puzi entered the snack bulk retail channel in 2021. Leveraging its multi-SKU and brand strength, it developed rapidly with the expansion of the snack bulk retail channel. In 2022, Yanjin Puzi's revenue from the snack bulk retail channel reached RMB 300 million.
During the rapid development of the snack bulk retail channel, Orion has become a conservative player in the snack market.
From its improper response to public opinion in 2022 and its late entry into the snack discount store channel, Orion seems to have fallen into a midlife crisis, with its understanding and insight into the Chinese market aging.
**To regain the recognition of Chinese consumers, Orion must not only upgrade and iterate its products according to new market trends but also keep up with channel developments. Whether Orion can rejuvenate through reform remains unknown.**


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