---
title: "Tianwo International's Quiet Exit from Supermarkets: A Major Defeat"
description: "Tianwo International, once selling 5 billion yuan thanks to its star product honey citron tea, has quietly withdrawn from supermarkets. The company reported losses of 4.174 billion yuan in 2018 and 60.94 million yuan in the first half of 2019, totaling over 4.2 billion yuan. Industry insiders attribute the decline to a sluggish tea beverage market and severe internal management issues."
author: "钱瑜 王晓"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2020-01-16"
categories: "Retail Formats"
language: "en"
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# Tianwo International's Quiet Exit from Supermarkets: A Major Defeat

> Tianwo International, once selling 5 billion yuan thanks to its star product honey citron tea, has quietly withdrawn from supermarkets. The company reported losses of 4.174 billion yuan in 2018 and 60.94 million yuan in the first half of 2019, totaling over 4.2 billion yuan. Industry insiders attribute the decline to a sluggish tea beverage market and severe internal management issues.

Once relying on its star product honey citron tea, Tianwo International sold 5 billion yuan in sales, but recently it has quietly withdrawn from supermarkets.
Recently, Beijing Business Today reporters found that Tianwo International's products, including honey citron tea, pistachios, pork jerky, and fruit-flavored ready-to-drink tea, have been removed from major supermarkets and convenience stores in Beijing. Data shows that Tianwo International lost 4.174 billion yuan in 2018 and still lost 60.94 million yuan in the first half of 2019, with total losses exceeding 4.2 billion yuan.
Industry insiders analyze that **Tianwo International's continuous decline in performance is largely related to the sluggish tea beverage market.** However, compared to the "external troubles" of declining revenue due to consumer market trends, **Tianwo International's "internal worries" in management and operations seem more severe.****Events such as executive departures and the chairman being taken away for investigation have repeatedly plunged Tianwo International into crisis.**
**-01-********
****Removed from Supermarkets**
Beijing Business Today reporters found during visits that major supermarkets and convenience stores in Beijing, including Wumart, Carrefour, Yonghui, Hema Fresh, and Bianlifeng, have all removed Tianwo International products. Besides snacks like Tianwo pistachios and pork jerky, the star product Tianwo honey citron tea, which once achieved annual sales of hundreds of millions of yuan, is also hard to find.
According to data, in 2013, with the star product honey citron tea, Tianwo International successfully went public. In 2015, Tianwo Group's sales reached 5 billion yuan, with honey citron tea accounting for the vast majority of that share.
Regarding the phenomenon of Tianwo International removing products from supermarket channels in Beijing, supermarket staff told Beijing Business Today reporters, "Half a year ago, Tianwo International rarely had new products on shelves, and later products like Tianwo honey citron tea were gradually no longer stocked." As for the reason for removing related products, supermarket staff said they were unaware.
In addition to exiting offline supermarket channels, Tianwo International's online sales have also shrunk. Beijing Business Today reporters checked Tianwo's flagship store on Taobao and found that the 250ml, 16-pack Tianwo honey citron tea is priced at 24.9 yuan per box, with monthly sales of only 326 boxes.
It is worth noting that the product is shown as sold out in the Beijing area. Customer service staff at Tianwo's flagship store told Beijing Business Today reporters, "Honey citron tea is only shipped to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. Long distances can easily cause damage."
Beijing Business Today reporters checked Tianwo International's official website and learned that Tianwo International has ten production parks in Shanghai, Fujian, Wuhan, Chengdu, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, etc. Taking the Wuhan park as an example, the Wuhan Tianwo Tea House factory officially started production in May 2011, with a factory area of 18,000 square meters. Currently, there are three beverage production lines with an annual output of 18 million pieces.
Regarding the issue of honey citron tea only being shipped to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai despite having ten production parks, Beijing Business Today reporters contacted Tianwo International for comment, but as of press time, no reply was received.
In addition, during the visits, supermarket staff told Beijing Business Today reporters, "A long time ago, the sales of Tianwo honey citron tea were already not good, and after it was removed, few consumers asked about this product.
Especially now that brands like Wahaha and Suntory have also launched citron tea series products, they quickly replaced consumers' choice of Tianwo honey citron tea."
**-02-********
****Performance Mystery**
In fact, Tianwo International has been suspended from trading for as long as 16 months. In May 2018, Tianwo International was suspended due to Chairman Lin Jianhua being taken away for investigation. Although it briefly resumed trading afterward, Tianwo International was suspended again starting August 13, 2018. At that time, the announcement called it a "brief suspension," but it has continued until now.
It is worth noting that a week after the suspension on August 13, 2018, Tianwo International announced that an internal inspection found unusual transactions, resulting in a significant loss in the expected interim results for 2018.
The announcement showed that the unusual transactions were mainly divided into three categories. First, since 2016, multiple subsidiaries of Tianwo International paid 1.685 billion yuan in advance payments to partners, but after self-inspection, the board found that Tianwo International had not received any goods to be delivered, most of which constituted a breach of contract, and the board was previously unaware.
Second, in 2017, Lin Jianhua, on behalf of Tianwo International's subsidiary Tianwo Food, signed a loan of 450 million yuan, but after investigation, it was found that multiple executive directors, non-executive directors, and independent non-executive directors of Tianwo International said they were unaware, and it was not disclosed in the 2017 annual report as required. At that time, 336 million yuan had been allocated. Third, Tianwo International's subsidiary also paid over 50 million yuan to purchase red wine, but the delivery was delayed twice, and the goods changed from red wine to spirits.
In June 2018, the shipper notified the subsidiary that the goods had been delivered, but Tianwo International said it had not received the goods. In short, 2.1 billion yuan was "spent" by the former chairman, and other executives were unaware.
However, not only the confusing 2.1 billion yuan, but the huge performance loss also dealt another heavy blow to Tianwo International. According to the 2018 financial report, Tianwo International lost approximately 4.174 billion yuan in 2018. In the delayed 2019 interim report, Tianwo International still had a net loss of approximately 60.94 million yuan in the first half of 2019, with total losses exceeding 4.2 billion yuan.
**-03-********
****Internal and External Troubles******
Combining Tianwo International's market performance and financial disclosures, industry insiders analyze that **Tianwo International's continuous decline in performance is largely related to the sluggish tea beverage market.**
Currently, beverages in the market are emerging one after another. Major overseas brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, as well as major domestic beverage brands, are competing to enter the tea beverage market. Other categories such as coconut milk, fruit juice, functional drinks, soy milk, and walnut milk are also continuously encroaching on the tea beverage market share. Therefore, the decline in sales performance of Tianwo International's products is expected.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, said, **"The fundamental reason for the sluggish tea beverage market is the overall environment of consumption upgrade and consumers' pursuit of healthy diets."**
Currently, the beverage demand of mainstream consumer groups has transitioned from carbonated drinks to tea drinks, and then to packaged water and healthy drinks. However, Tianwo International's beverage layout is still mainly based on honey citron tea and charcoal-roasted coffee, with too single a focus on main products.
**"However, compared to the 'external troubles' of declining revenue due to consumer market influence, Tianwo International's 'internal worries' in management and operations seem more severe."** Economist Song Qinghui said. In addition to the sluggish tea beverage market, events such as executive departures and the chairman being taken away for investigation have also repeatedly plunged Tianwo International into crisis.
In May 2018, Lin Jianhua, founder and former board chairman of Tianwo International, lost contact and was required to assist relevant authorities in investigations. Affected by this, Tianwo International's stock price fell sharply, leading to suspension on August 13, 2018.
On November 12, 2018, a creditor filed a winding-up petition against Tianwo International with the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands. A week later, the Grand Court approved the application for joint provisional liquidators of Tianwo International.
Facing the precarious Tianwo International, many senior executives also chose to leave. On December 31, 2018, Tianwo International announced that Yan Zhixiong resigned as executive director and CEO.
Prior to that, executive director Lin Keng, independent non-executive director Shen Yalong, independent non-executive directors Liu Ganzong, Zhang Ruijia, Wang Longgen, CFO Wu Wennan, and executive director and operations director Xu Jianxin had already resigned one after another.
Zhu Danpeng believes, **"Tianwo International's situation is increasingly unoptimistic, and its future prospects are very unclear.****As a listed company, Tianwo International has not established a sound professional manager mechanism and supervision system in its internal management, leading to major financial problems. After the founder had issues, the company's operations fell into paralysis.****In the short term, it is difficult for Tianwo International to find a 'white knight'."**
Source: Beijing Business Today
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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 钱瑜 王晓
- Published: 2020-01-16
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/tianwo-international-s-quiet-exit-from-supermarkets-a-major-defeat-bad531fa/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vKHDpQ8YQsefSOU_K6REBA

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