December 15, 2011

Bright Dairy and Food Co recently launched the new Pure Canterbury brand to tap into China's high-end infant formula market despite the current dominance of foreign brands.

The brand will be operated by Bright Dairy, China's third-largest dairy producer,  and produced by New Zealand milk processor Synlait Milk, in which the Chinese company holds a 51% stake that it bought for RMB382 million (US$60 million).

Guo Benheng, president of Bright Dairy, said Tuesday (Dec 13) that he expects Pure Canterbury to achieve sales of RMB2 billion (US$316 million) or even RMB3-4 billion (US$474-631 million) in the next three to five years through direct sales, e-commerce and traditional offline sales channels.

Guo expected China's milk powder industry to generate RMB50 billion (US$7.89 billion) worth of sales annually, with one-fifth coming from high-end products.

But newcomers may face a tough fight as the foreign big-four firms - Mead Johnson, Dumex, Wyeth, and Abbott - have dominated the domestic market.