From November 16 to 18, 2024, the 20th China (International) Condiment and Food Ingredients Expo (CFE) was held at the Canton Fair Complex in Guangzhou. At this CFE, the Chubang brand made a striking appearance with its newly transformed strategy. As one of the leading enterprises in the condiment industry, Chubang has always had strong market influence. In March 2024, Chubang released its new development strategy of "Recreating a New Chubang," drawing significant attention. During CFE, Chubang showcased its important changes in "inheritance of Southern-style soy sauce craftsmanship," "channel strategy layout," and "product innovation strategy," becoming a benchmark for industry transformation.
First Show at the Expo Marks Full Implementation of New Strategy
This participation in CFE was Chubang's first public appearance at a major industry expo after implementing its strategic transformation, making it highly significant. Chubang's booth was located at the prime main entrance of the condiment main exhibition area, covering 180 square meters, the largest in its history of participation. The booth design centered around Southern-style soy sauce craftsmanship, showcasing Chubang's sauce garden cultural heritage and highlighting the historical depth of its inherited techniques. The decoration style meticulously incorporated elements of Lingnan ancient architecture, demonstrating unique ingenuity. Additionally, at the expo, Chubang attracted the attention of many visitors through carefully arranged activities such as famous chef cooking demonstrations and in-depth experiences of Southern-style soy sauce craftsmanship, using the most vivid methods to embed the brand and Southern-style soy sauce craftsmanship in people's minds.
As an outstanding representative of Southern-style soy sauce craftsmanship, Chubang has always adhered to the essence of traditional brewing techniques, with its history tracing back to the Xiangshan Sauce Garden in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. After a century of development, Chubang has been honored with the title of "China Time-honored Brand" and successfully transformed into a high-tech enterprise. In April 2023, Chubang's soy sauce brewing technique (Zhongshan soy sauce brewing technique) was successfully selected for the tenth batch of Zhongshan City Intangible Cultural Heritage representative projects, with Guangdong Meiweixian Seasoning Food Co., Ltd. recognized as the protection unit for the project. This not only affirms Chubang's craftsmanship inheritance and innovation but also further enhances its brand's cultural heritage and core competitiveness within the industry. With its outstanding overall performance, Chubang has won high recognition and widespread acclaim from the industry. Among these, Meiweixian Company received the "2024 China Condiment Industry Golden Taste Award" during CFE, and its "Chubang 30% Salt-Reduced Premium Light Soy Sauce" won the "2024 Consumer Favorite Product in the Condiment Industry" honor. These CFE honors fully demonstrate Chubang's strong brand influence in the condiment industry and mark the great success of its first industry appearance after strategic transformation.
Reduced Salt Without Reducing Freshness
The Core of Product Innovation is Healthier
"Food is the first necessity of the people, and flavor is the first priority of food." As essential consumer goods, condiment products have seen competition rise from simple taste and price dimensions to healthier and more delicious dimensions with consumption upgrades. In recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO) advocated the healthy eating concept of "adults should consume no more than 5 grams of salt per day," which has gradually gained popularity, and consumer demand for salt-reduced products is growing. At this CFE, Chubang's 30% Salt-Reduced Premium Light Soy Sauce stood out with its unique salt-reduction formula and excellent market performance, earning high recognition from the Weidong China Organizing Committee and the Condiment Industry Empowerment Center, and winning the "2024 Consumer Favorite Product in the Condiment Industry" title, becoming a highlight of the expo. This product was officially launched on January 1, 2024, and quickly became a phenomenal bestseller in the market. In terms of salt reduction, "Chubang 30% Salt-Reduced Premium Light Soy Sauce" contains less than or equal to 12 grams of salt per 100 milliliters, a reduction of nearly one-third. While reducing salt, Chubang preserves the natural "umami" of soy sauce through exquisite craftsmanship, with amino acid nitrogen content meeting the premium quality standard, successfully achieving the product breakthrough of "reduced salt without reducing freshness." For consumers, choosing this product not only makes it easy to precisely reduce salt in every meal but also provides full umami, satisfying the dual pursuit of healthy eating and delicious taste. For distributors, Chubang's 30% Salt-Reduced Premium Light Soy Sauce has become a favored cutting-edge product due to effective product innovation, further driving stronger growth momentum for the Chubang brand in market competition.
One Channel, One Strategy: Precise Layout of Five Major Channels
2024 is the year of channel construction under Chubang's new strategy, and this CFE also served as an important platform for brand display and channel promotion. The application scenarios and channels of the condiment market are undergoing profound changes. Chubang accurately perceives these changes and innovatively created "five major channel scenarios: traditional catering, large-scale catering, industrial, civil, and export." At CFE, Chubang's booth showcased how it closely addresses user pain points through the spatial design of five scenarios, fully demonstrating its deep understanding and precise grasp of the market.
1. Traditional Catering Channel: Customized Services to Support Standardization and Cuisine Integration
Catering clients are heavy users of condiments, but the needs of different scales and forms of catering clients vary greatly. For restaurant chains and central kitchens, the most concern is how to organically combine basic seasonings with compound seasonings in standardized production; while small and medium-sized restaurants or individual businesses pay more attention to closely linking condiments with different cuisines. Therefore, Chubang focused on showcasing the precise correspondence between its condiments and various foods in the traditional catering area. In particular, it launched highly compatible product series for different cuisines such as Cantonese, Hunan, and Sichuan. For example, in the Cantonese area, Chubang demonstrated how its light soy sauce and oyster sauce play a key role in enhancing freshness and flavor in classic dishes like char siu and soy sauce chicken; in the Sichuan area, it highlighted the unique contribution of chili sauce and soybean paste to spicy dishes. At the same time, Chubang also provides standard seasoning solutions for catering enterprises. In the pre-kitchen section, products directly correspond to specific dishes based on the characteristics and taste needs of different cuisines, offering Chubang's standardized configurations to help catering enterprises achieve standardization and stability of dish flavors, improving meal preparation efficiency and quality consistency.
2. Large-Scale Catering Channel: Strengthening Supply Chain Collaboration to Reduce Costs and Improve Efficiency
The large-scale catering channel, such as restaurant chains, corporate cafeterias, and large banquet catering services, has large and stable demand for condiments, but also faces challenges of cost control and supply stability. In response to this channel's characteristics, Chubang has established an efficient supply chain system, working closely with large-scale catering clients to achieve information sharing and collaborative forecasting. Through large-scale procurement of raw materials, optimized production processes, and logistics distribution, Chubang provides competitive pricing advantages for large-scale catering clients. At the same time, to meet the diverse dish needs of large-scale catering, Chubang offers one-stop procurement services covering all categories of basic condiments such as soy sauce, vinegar, cooking wine, and chicken essence. Additionally, compound seasonings can simultaneously address clients' low-cost needs, and the standardization of product applications effectively reduces clients' procurement costs and inventory pressure.
3. Industrial Channel: Precise Adaptation to Promote the Development of the Prepared Food Industry
For large food processing enterprises, such as those in the prepared food sector, cost control, product standardization, and diverse packaging specifications are particularly prominent needs. Chubang has conducted in-depth research on the development trends and seasoning needs of different food processing industries and established long-term strategic partnerships with many food enterprises. Chubang provides a rich variety of seasoning product options for different food enterprises, including customizable compound seasonings, basic soy sauce, vinegar, sauces, etc., to meet strict requirements for taste, color, and aroma in different dishes. For example, it can develop a special braised sauce seasoning for braised pork to ensure every portion presents an authentic braised flavor; it can provide specially formulated soy sauce and filling seasonings with rich aroma for dumpling fillings to enhance the taste and flavor of the filling... At the same time, Chubang can provide seasonings in various packaging specifications according to the production scale and packaging needs of different enterprises, from small trial packs to large packaging for mass production, flexibly adapting to different development stages of enterprises and helping them improve product quality and market competitiveness.
4. Civil Channel: Focusing on Health and Convenience to Meet Upgraded Household Consumption Needs
With the continuous improvement of consumer health awareness and the acceleration of life pace, ordinary consumers pay more attention to factors such as health, salt reduction, and portability when purchasing condiments. In its civil channel product strategy, Chubang accurately grasps this market trend and continuously optimizes its product structure. In terms of health and salt reduction, in addition to the highly anticipated Chubang 30% Salt-Reduced Premium Light Soy Sauce, Chubang has also launched a series of salt-reduced and low-salt condiments, such as salt-reduced oyster sauce and salt-reduced chicken essence series, to meet the personalized needs of different consumers for salt intake in different condiments. At the same time, Chubang actively develops high-end healthy condiments such as zero-additive and organic products, providing consumers with more diverse health choices. In terms of product packaging, it emphasizes portability and user-friendly design, launching various portable packaging forms such as small bottles, bags, and squeeze bottles, making it convenient for consumers to use in different scenarios such as home cooking, outdoor picnics, and travel, meeting the diverse needs of upgraded household consumption.
5. Export Channel: Strict Quality Control to Expand International Market Share
Overseas enterprises in the export channel pay special attention to food safety and export qualifications. Chubang is well aware of the strict requirements of the international market for product quality and safety standards, and has established a comprehensive quality management system and food safety traceability system to ensure that every batch of exported products meets international standards and the regulatory requirements of target markets. Chubang actively expands the international market, and its products have been exported to multiple countries and regions. In terms of export product strategy, it conducts targeted product promotion and packaging design based on the dietary culture and taste preferences of different countries and regions. For example, for the European and American markets, which demand high standards for health, natural foods, and quality, it focuses on promoting organic soy sauce and zero-additive condiments. At the same time, Chubang actively participates in international food exhibitions and exchange activities, strengthens cooperation with overseas distributors and partners, continuously enhances the brand's visibility and reputation in the international market, and gradually expands its international market share. Through CFE activities, the industry can see that after releasing its new strategy in 2024, Chubang has implemented major reform measures in supply chain upgrading, product innovation, and channel expansion, and has achieved considerable market results.
Chubang's strategic transformation not only brings new changes to the long-established condiment industry but also brings new development opportunities and more possibilities for distributors in this industry.