One of the key objectives of the revamp is to push up the total volume and growth rate of its VDS business, said the firm.
“This is not merely BY-HEALTH’s brand upgrade to meet evolving trends, it is more of an industry leader’s pre-emptive move for the future,” the company said.
It explained that the industry-wide growth rate of VDS retail sales in China had been declining over the past year.
“The growth rate of VDS retail sales of Chinese pharmacies dropped from 5.4% in 2017 to 2.3% in 2018, and even to 0.8% in 2019.
“In 2019, BY-HEALTH realised a VDS growth rate of 19.9% in domestic offline channels, much higher than the industry average level. However, we need to be soberly aware that such ‘pressure-fed growth’ will not sustain the momentum of development,” it said.
It added that the per capita consumption of VDS in China was lower than other developed countries due to late development of the category.
For the first time, the company has featured the Chinese and English characters of the brand name in two separate logos. It is also the seventh time the company has revamped its logo since year 2002.
Product packaging wise, it said it had highlighted the country of origin for the key ingredients used in its VDS products.
For example, it sources its fish oil from Iceland, nature beta-carotene and squalene from Australia, propolis and acerola from Brazil, lycopene from Israel, coenzyme Q10 from Japan, and grape seed from France.
For its protein powder, it said it sourced its whey protein concentrate from Australia and New Zealand.
Starting from self
The plan to upgrade the brand logo and product packaging to reinvigorate its business was mentioned in BY-HEALTH’s Q1 report.
Last month, the Chinese nutraceutical giant reported that its quarterly revenue had slipped 4.84% as compared to the same period in 2019 to RMB$1.49bn (US$211m).
Revenue from key brands had declined at varying levels, with that of the same name flagship brand ‘BY-HEALTH’ down 10.8% to RMB924m, and bone health brand ‘Keylid’ down 10.5% to RMB316m. Its probiotic brand Life-Space achieved operating income of RMB40m in the domestic market.
The firm attributed the decline partly to the outbreak of COVID-19, whih caused offline sales to dip, while production, marketing, and sales activities could not be carried out as scheduled.
“[The company will] continue to activate brand power, reactivate the VDS business and ‘Life-Space’ business, expecting to lead the industry to achieve restorative growth,” it said.
According to a Euromonitor report published in October last year, Amway, GSK Consumer Healthcare were the key industry leaders of the vitamins segment in China last year.
