First Chinese Brands Day marks rise in excellence

Country's biggest dairy group Yili seen as typifying growth in quality

May 10 is being marked as the nation's first Chinese Brands Day, which aims to publicize brands owned independently by Chinese companies and attach greater importance to brand building in the country.

The decision by the State Council to introduce Chinese Brands Day was made in response to a request filed by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic regulator.

The celebration comes at a time when the phrase "Made in China" has come of age. Nowadays often adorning leading as well as high-tech and world-beating goods, among others, it has evolved into an international attention-grabbing marketing epithet.

Previously, however, the mainland did not have many renowned brands and low prices were once the main feature of Chinese goods. Chinese brands are now pushing the boundaries of excellence in quality and companies are devoted to increasing brand values and promoting the overall images of their products.

One such group is Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co, China's biggest dairy company, which according to analysts has broken the previous monopoly held by international companies in the dairy market and continued to increase its brand value.

Yili became the most selected brand in China with over 1.1 billion purchases in a year, according to the 2016 Brand Footprint report released by consumer research firm Kantar Worldpanel.

Last year, Yili achieved sales of 60.6 billion yuan ($8.78 billion), and net profit of 5.67 billion yuan, the latter growing 21.8 percent year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2017, its net profit reached 1.74 billion yuan, according to the company.

From a leading brand in China to its globalization, Yili has attracted the attention of Harvard University, which has conducted case studies of Yili for about 10 years.

"We have noticed that Yili has transformed from a renowned dairy brand in China, to a world-class brand now," said Ke Weilin, a professor at Harvard University.

In 2017, the total value of the list of BrandZ Top 100 Chinese Brands hit record levels, growing 6 percent to reach $557.1 billion in brand value, and Yili Group was listed as one of the top 100 most valuable brands.

Compared with some countries with developed dairy industries, the dairy industry in China started relatively late with a poor foundation.

Yili said that raising its innovation capabilities became one of the company's priorities, especially in relation to its contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative.

In New Zealand, Yili set up a dairy production center and cooperated with local research institutions. In the Netherlands, Yili founded a R&D center with Wageningen University, providing support for the innovation of China's dairy sector.

zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn

A worker inspects dairy products at a production line of Yili Industrial Group Co in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Provided To China Daily