On the evening of March 24th, Jinzai Food (003000) released its 2024 annual report. The company achieved a revenue of 2.412 billion yuan for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 16.79%; Realize a net profit attributable to the parent company of 291 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.01%; Deducting non recurring net profit of 261 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.91%. The company's operational quality continues to improve, with a Q4 net profit of 76.622 million yuan, reaching a historic high for the quarter.

At the same time, the company announced a proposed dividend plan, distributing 3 yuan in cash for every 10 shares. In addition to the previous mid-term dividend, the dividend amount for 2024 will reach 179 million yuan, accounting for 61% of the net profit attributable to the parent company, and will share the development dividend with investors.

It is worth mentioning that the company has achieved doubled performance in the past three years, with both revenue and net profit doubling in 2024 compared to 2021. The return on equity (ROE) of the company has been increasing year by year, reaching as high as 21.26% in 2024, continuing to lead the A-share leisure food sector.

The first stock of fish snacks is well deserved, with a small fish selling for 1.5 billion yuan

The annual report shows that Jinzai Food is mainly engaged in the research and development, production, and sales of Chinese style snack foods, and continues to focus on high-quality protein health categories such as snack fish products, poultry products, and soy products. During the reporting period, the main categories achieved steady growth, among which leisure fish products, poultry products, soy products, and vegetable products achieved sales revenue of 1.533 billion yuan, 509 million yuan, 247 million yuan, and 79 million yuan respectively, with year-on-year growth of 18.76%, 12.67%, 13.89%, and 9.58%, respectively.

It is worth noting that fish products have surpassed 1.5 billion yuan for the first time, achieving the highest volume, scale, and performance growth in multiple categories, further consolidating their reputation as the "number one fish snack stock". The company's fish products actually only have one product, the Jingzai Deep Sea Anchovy, which has consistently ranked first in the category in sales for 8 consecutive years. Such a large-scale product is not common in the industry.

However, the company's expectations for this product are not limited to this. According to the latest disclosed production capacity data, the designed capacity of fish products has reached 33000 tons and is still expanding its capacity. The under construction capacity is 6000 tons, indicating its confidence in the high growth of deep-sea anchovy.
The anchovy is a small economic fish species that lives in deep sea areas and is one of the main ingredients for deep-sea fish oil. It is rich in protein and unsaturated fatty acids. During the reporting period, Jinzai Food innovated and upgraded its product, launching the nitrogen filled packaging of deep-sea anchovy. The main selling points of this product are its high DHA, high calcium, and high protein content. The packaging clearly indicates that each 100g of product contains 60mg of DHA, 30g of protein, and 467mg of calcium, with full nutritional value.

At the annual partner summit, the company's chairman Zhou Jinsong solemnly announced a new mission of "making delicious and healthy snacks to improve people's quality of life", aiming to make Jinzai a "delicious and healthy snack". At this year's Spring Sugar and Wine Fair, Zhou Jinsong showcased a variety of innovative products such as Jinzai deep-sea anchovy and seven Dr.'s soft boiled quail eggs, reaffirming the positioning of healthy snack products.

'Adhering to integrity and innovation' is the industry's annotation of Zhou Jinsong. Since entering the snack food industry in 1990, he has been committed to this industry for 35 years and firmly adheres to the "big single product" strategy. The growth of Jinzai deep sea anchovy is the best interpretation of this strategic advantage, while the cultivation of quail eggs, dried meat, dried tofu and other strength products is its unremitting efforts to implement this strategy.

Launching Seven Professional Quail Egg Brands and Pioneering Soft Heart Products in the New Industry for Doctoral Students

In recent years, quail eggs have transformed and become a new favorite in the snack food industry, thanks in no small part to Jinzai Food. In 2022, Jinzai Food was the first in the industry to launch single packaged shelled quail eggs, marking the beginning of the quail egg competition in the snack market. Many leading companies in the industry followed suit. In 2023, the annual sales revenue of the company's quail egg products exceeded 300 million yuan, ranking first in category sales. The quail egg product category experienced explosive growth, attracting more companies to enter the market.

With the changes in consumer grading and channels, quail egg products will also face an impact in 2024. A large number of competitors flooded in, making the competition in quail egg products particularly fierce, and "price war" became the choice of most companies.

But Jinzai Food gave a different answer. During the reporting period, the company successively passed the certification of postdoctoral innovation and entrepreneurship base and doctoral innovation station by the Hunan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and relied on multiple scientific research platforms such as the Hunan Provincial Health and Leisure Food Engineering Technology Center to release seven professional quail egg brands with doctoral degrees. Subsequently, the company renamed its two quail egg production bases as Hunan Seven Doctoral Food Co., Ltd. and Beihai Seven Doctoral Food Co., Ltd., further supporting the construction of the seven doctoral brands.

More importantly, the company has launched the industry's first product, Seven Doctoral Quail Eggs, centered around "deliciousness" and "health". The product is made from antibiotic free, fresh quail eggs that can be eaten raw, and uses a special process to maximize the retention of nutrients and mouthfeel. Its lutein content is three times that of eggs, which is highly favored by families with children and young white-collar workers, further expanding the consumer base.

The company's quail egg products have successively obtained authoritative certifications such as "Industry First Soft shelled Quail Egg" and "China's Antibiotic free Quail Egg Product Pioneer", and have won the international "Superior Taste Award".

In addition to DHA rich deep sea anchovy and antibiotic free seven Dr.'s soft boiled quail eggs, the company has also launched innovative products such as zero additive, short-term preservation, fresh Pingjiang sauce, and freshly mixed shaken dry, continuously improving product quality, seeking differentiated competition, and leading high-quality growth in the category.

New channels, new markets, high performance, overseas and snack system growth both exceed 100%

Since its listing, Jinzai Food has continued to promote the steady development of traditional offline distribution channels, modern channels, emerging channels, and online channels in a three-dimensional omni channel manner. The number of dealers will increase to 3406 in 2024, with a net increase of 349.

Dong Mifeng Wenji introduced that in 2024, the company's offline revenue reached 2.021 billion yuan, accounting for about 84% of the total revenue; Online revenue reached 391 million yuan, accounting for 16% of the total revenue. Overall, offline performance is more impressive, with revenue increasing by approximately 23% year-on-year. On the one hand, the company has further consolidated the achievements of offline channel construction, forming a coordinated development of channels such as circulation, KA, BC, CVS, etc; On the other hand, snack specialty channels have become a new growth point for offline channels, with annual revenue increasing by over 100% year-on-year.

Throughout its history, the company has focused on growing together with emerging channels. During the reporting period, it has collaborated with over 100 snack specialty systems, including Snacks Busy, Zhao Yiming, Xiangxianglai, Sugar Nest, Snacks Youming, and Wives, covering more than 35000 terminal stores. In addition, the company will continue to deepen cooperation with high-end member stores such as Hema, and meet the needs of more consumer groups by providing customized products and services.

In terms of online channels, Jinzai Food continuously strengthens the management and operation of online channels, actively adjusts the layout of traditional e-commerce, community group buying, new media e-commerce, and accelerates the construction of content e-commerce. The sales volume of Jinzai fish products has ranked first in the sales volume of instant fish snacks and seafood snacks on Tmall platform, Tiktok platform and other platforms for consecutive years, and bean products have been ranked first in the leisure bean products on Tmall platform for the first time.

It is worth noting that Jinzai Food is accelerating its overseas expansion and actively expanding into the markets of the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. During the reporting period, the company's overseas sales increased by over 90% year-on-year, with self operated exports growing even faster, with a year-on-year increase of over 200%. At present, the company's products have been exported to about 40 countries and regions around the world, such as the United States and Japan. (Hu Min)