Yili aiming to be among top 20 milk producers
By Jing Ji (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-05-31 08:47

Yili Group, one of China's largest makers of dairy products, aims to maintain fast growth to achieve its goal of being one of the world's top 20 milk producers by 2012, a senior company official says.

"With the rapid growth of the domestic dairy market, we are expecting to keep growing at an annual rate of more than 50 per cent," said Pan Gang, Yili's president.

Last year, the Inner Mongolia company sold 6.299 billion yuan (US$760 million) worth of products, 57.09 per cent up on the previous year.

Its net profits totalled 199 million yuan (US$24 million), a year-on-year growth of 40.61 per cent.

Based on its strong performance, the company has set an ambitious long-term goal.

It plans to be China's No 1 milk brand by 2005 with annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan (US$1.21 billion).

The company also aims to be one of the world's top 20 milk producers by 2012, with annual sales of US$3 billion.

"We will focus on technical innovation, development of new products, and improvement of product quality and production capacity, to achieve this goal," Pan said.

The 34-year-old president is confident about his company's future development.

"The company's recent performance shows great probability of a 50 per cent growth this year," Pan said.

According to the listed company's first-quarter report released recently, it sold 1.752 billion yuan (US$211.59 million) worth of milk products during the first three months this year.

That marked a year-on-year growth of 50.78 per cent.

"Yili is able to have at least 40 per cent growth this year, with its good milk sourcing ability, research and development for new products, and improved distribution channels," said Zhang Yun, an industry analyst from Huatai Securities.

China's milk market is growing at a rate of about 30 per cent each year, and has huge potential, as per capita consumption is still low.

The average Chinese consumes just 9.7 kilograms of dairy products a year, compared with 200 kilograms per person in Europe, and a world average of 100 kilograms.

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