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The CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund Completed its Strategic Investment in the a1 Snack Lab
Released:2021-06-22

Under the general trend of domestic consumption upgrades and the rapid rise of the post-90s and Generation Z consumer groups, the CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund is proactively making overall planning and arrangements for the new snack industry. The Fund recently announced the completion of its strategic investment in Aiyi (Xiamen) Food Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "a1 Snack Lab"). The invested funds will be primarily used to increase production capacity and supply chain construction to expand the new retail business segment and enhance brand awareness.


The a1 Snack Lab was established in Xiamen, Fujian Province in 2016. With the original intention of providing snacks for families, the a1 Snack Lab has been dedicated to making new products and improving traditional foods since its establishment. This brand has six categories and more than 400 items covering baked, meat and seafood products, nuts, fruits and vegetables. The a1 Snack Lab has also successfully created several popular products such as the egg-yolk puff, the cloud-like sponge cake and the watermelon-like toast. By adopting an omni-channel model covering online, offline and new retail channels, the a1 Snack Lab has more than 400,000 offline retail outlets. The a1 Snack Lab’s mini program has over 1.2 million users and more than 300,000 members. There are 22 a1 Snack Lab stores nationwide. It is expected to see more than 100 stores by 2021.
The a1 Snack Lab adheres to the product-driven development concept. It insists on independent R&D and production to make products with excellent cost performance. Traditional food companies usually spend a lot of money on advertising. The a1 Snack Lab, on the other hand, spends more money on improving its products. It integrates the "light processing" concept with R&D, production and marketing. It attaches importance to the original taste of food, which is also the taste in consumers' memory.

Mr. Zhou Weiping, Chairman and CEO of the a1 Snack Lab, believes that China's first generation of snack foods fully enjoyed the marketing advantage of TV commercials and the channel advantage of hypermarkets during the decade from 2000 to 2010. That was an era of meeting basic needs, while the next decade (2010-2020) was an era of diverse choices brought about by internet channels. The third era has come with the rise of the new post-90s and post-95 consumer groups. This will be an era of consuming quality products. Product innovation and rapid product update will be the common theme and goal of the development of third-generation snack food enterprises.


Mr. Wang Xin, General Manager of the CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund, said that the snack food market has been expanding rapidly with the improvement of people's living standards. This market has undergone several changes and has guided China's snack industry into the 3.0 era with the rise of Chinese products. China's snack food market has exceeded a trillion yuan in size. However, the share of leading companies in the market is small. Therefore, this market is large enough to accommodate the development of quality snack food enterprises. At this critical point, the CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund decided to invest in the a1 Snack Lab, an emerging snack brand in China. The Fund hopes to help the a1 Snack Lab seize the benefits of the times and move forward on the third wave of snack food business development. From the perspective of investment in the growth period, the a1 Snack Lab can gain precise insights into consumer needs and continuously enhance product and brand power to keep creating popular products. In addition, the a1 Snack Lab meets new consumer needs quickly and successfully through its omni-channel layout. The CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund is highly optimistic about the development prospects of the a1 Snack Lab. It will also help the a1 Snack Lab to deploy and develop in China's snack industry through various channels and supply chain empowerment.


The CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund is jointly supported by three state-owned enterprises (China Resources Group, Chengtong Fund and Overseas Chinese Town), Xiamen Municipal and Xiang'an District People's Governments, Xiamen Jinyuan Investment Group and Xiamen Xiang'an Investment Group. The Fund has fully integrated the industrial and resource accumulation of the three state-owned enterprises. It has effectively taken advantage of the geographical location of Xiamen's municipal- and district-level guidance funds. The Fund promotes the leapfrog development of its invested companies through equity investment and industrial empowerment. Therefore, it can support the transformation and upgrade of the local economy and consumer industry. It can also contribute to the construction of the new Fujian Province in the new era and the high-quality development of the Economic Zone on the West Coast of Taiwan Strait. Xiamen Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiamen Venture Capital") is the trustee of Xiamen Industrial Investment Fund and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jinyuan Investment Group. It fully leverages its function as a local government industry funder. Xiamen Venture Capital builds a project exchange platform for enterprises invested by the CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund in Xiamen. It can help empower these enterprises by increasing resources and business volume for them. In addition, Xiamen Venture Capital is also optimistic about investments in consumer products. It strongly supported the establishment of the CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund. It also continues to pay attention to fund development. Xiamen Venture Capital and the CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund work together to provide a better growth environment and opportunities for invested enterprises.

 

The CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund was jointly established by China Resources Capital Management Co., Ltd., China Resources Enterprise Ltd., Chengtong Fund Management Co., Ltd., Shenzhen OCT Capital Investment Management Co., Ltd., Beijing Pop Mart Culture and Creative Co., Ltd., Xiamen municipal- and district-level guidance funds and the Xiang'an District People's Government of Xiamen City. The CR State-Regulated Xiamen Consumption Fund invests in consumer products and supports the consumer industry's upgrade and transformation. It continues to pay attention to opportunities in the overall arrangement for new supply chains, logistics transformation and consumer technology. It also focuses on consumer product opportunities under new consumer preferences. In addition, it promotes the coordinated development of products, supply chains and channels. The Fund will promote the coordinated development of the whole industry chain through CR Group's existing and invested businesses. It will focus on fast-growing enterprises and deploy leading enterprises in niche industries. It will also magnify collaborative advantages based on the accumulation of various industries.