Yoghurt and Sour Milk Products in Hong Kong, China

PROSPECTS

Greater efforts by players to promote brands pay dividends

Yoghurt and sour milk products continued to be dominated in retail volume terms by drinking yoghurt. However, players did not remain complacent with greater time and effort being invested in marketing campaigns, in addition to offering more convenient formats and making healthier fortified/functional claims on their packaging, specifically targeting working adults.

Local consumers become increasingly adventurous in their flavour choices

Hong Kong consumers are becoming increasingly adventurous when trying new flavours of yoghurt, particularly if they originate from Japan or South Korea. Yakult Honsha introduced a variant of the brand from Japan called Joie, which includes a number of nutritional attributes such as calcium, vitamin D and probiotics, with a new range of flavours including grape and orange, which is an interesting move away from the traditional strawberry or blueberry, although peach and mango are also gaining in popularity as yoghurt flavours in Hong Kong.

Changing perception of yoghurt to include snacking and other consumption occasions

Yoghurt has long been perceived as offering functionality due to its digestive health properties and benefits including its soluble fibre content to support the digestive system. However, unlike in Western countries, yoghurt is not traditionally seen as a snack to be consumed on a daily basis.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Yakult retains dominance of drinking yoghurt but innovative brands continue to gain share

Hong Kong Yakult Co Ltd retained its leadership of yoghurt in 2019, due to its dominance of the largest category of drinking yoghurt with this popular Yakult brand. Although the player attempts to retain its share through the launch of new flavours or formats such as its good-for-breakfast drinking yoghurt brand, Joie, the player continued to slowly lose ground to innovative competitors such as Yoyi C (Beata Corp Ltd) and Nestlé’s Acti-V.

Kowloon Dairy continues to launch interesting new flavours of yoghurt

Known more for its strong presence in drinking milk products, especially fresh milk, Kowloon Dairy has been present in yoghurt since 2017 when it launched drinking yoghurt in both original and green apple flavours. The products were positioned as “healthy and natural” as they were made with 100% fresh milk, no artificial preservatives and contained a high quantity of probiotics and FOS (fructooligosaccharides) prebiotics for intestinal health.

Trappist Dairy’s collaborations aim to increase awareness of its new brands

Trappist Dairy, which is more established in drinking milk products, entered yoghurt mid-2018 with two plain yoghurts, Spoona Yoghurt (with a pudding texture) and Sippa Yoghurt (in a ready-for-sipping form). To create greater awareness of its brands, the player embarked on several collaborations; with UA Cinema encouraging consumers to purchase its products as an additional snack option while watching films, in addition to collaborating with Hong Kong Sweet Store to promote Sippa Yoghurt, which appeared to be a successful strategy as the brand often sold out across the city with a lengthy wait to restock shelves.

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