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International Food Exhibition | Global Bread Giant Enters China’s Leisure Snack Market

2025.01.10

Global bakery giant Grupo Bimbo recently announced that its brand Melton has launched a new product, "Bread Crunchy Dings," officially entering the leisure snack market in China. This strategic move marks not only an expansion of Grupo Bimbo's product portfolio but also a significant step in deepening its localization strategy in the Chinese market. International Food Exhibition provides you with a detailed analysis.

 

Since entering the Chinese market in 2006, Grupo Bimbo has invested a total of $410 million, with an additional $72 million in China between 2023 and 2024, mainly for equipment investment and upgrading R&D centers. Bimbo's development strategy in China has primarily been through a series of acquisitions. In 2006, Bimbo entered the Chinese market by acquiring Pannak, and then from 2009 to 2010, it acquired the Western food brand "Million Estate" to strengthen its business in China. In 2017, Bimbo Group acquired East Bread Industrial Co., Ltd., which supplies burger buns to KFC and McDonald's. In 2018, Bimbo acquired the Melton trademark and 100% of its shares for $200 million. Melton is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise invested and established in China in 1995 by the Belgian Asia-Pacific International Group Artal Group, with products such as Dophie Corner, Qiao Ke Dou Le, and Didi Cup.

 

After a series of acquisitions and integrations, Bimbo Group currently has three brands in China: Bimbo, Million Estate, and Melton, covering more than 100 supermarket chain systems, including Sam's and Costco. At the same time, Bimbo also provides hamburger buns for McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and other catering companies, with 10 factories and 51 distribution centers in China, serving 25,000 stores.

 

Why has Bimbo chosen to enter the leisure snack market? With the steady recovery of China's economy, the consumer market has shown a robust growth trend, especially in the bakery food industry. According to iMedia Research data, the retail market size of China's bakery food reached 561.42 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%, and it is expected to break through the 800 billion yuan mark by 2029. Chinese consumers have diverse demands for bakery products, not only during meal times but also during many non-meal times. At the same time, with the popularization of healthy eating concepts, consumers' health requirements for bakery products are increasingly high, and low-sugar, low-fat, additive-free healthy products are gradually becoming the mainstream of the market.

 

To further enrich its localized product layout in China, Bimbo has chosen to enter the new track of leisure snacks with the product "Bread Dings" to meet the diversified needs of Chinese consumers. At the same time, the huge potential of the leisure snack market is also an important reason for Bimbo to choose to enter the market. According to iMedia Research, from 2010 to 2022, the market size of China's leisure food industry continued to grow, from 410 billion yuan to 1165.4 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 1237.8 billion yuan by 2027. The growth of leisure food also provides new development opportunities for bakery companies like Bimbo.

 

By entering the leisure snack market, Bimbo can not only expand new business growth points but also further consolidate its leading position in the Chinese market. In the future, how Bimbo will delve into and innovate in the field of leisure snacks is worth looking forward to.

 

If you would like to learn more about the food industry, please visit the SIAL China website for more information.

 

Source: Snack Newsflash

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