Media Updates, page-9799

Danone (which produces Aptamil) posted their results yesterday. Apparently China label and CBEC are both performing strongly, but daigou is still flat.

"Infant Nutrition posted low single-digit sales growth. In Europe, sales grew by high single digits on a back of softer bases of comparison. In China, performance remained polarized. Domestic labels posted positive growth in the quarter, despite the very high base of comparison, leading to a semester growing at around mid single digits. E-commerce platforms for International labels delivered very strong growth, while indirect cross-borderchannels, which include Daigous, Friends&Family and the Hong-Kong platform, continued to be under pressure and declined within the -45% to -60% range they delivered in the second half of 2020. Aptamil market share continued to be resilient."

In the investor call, they noted that sales are increasing despite the reduction in birth rate, mainly because per capita (or per baby) consumption is increasing. Particularly going forward they see a 'pocket of growth' in specialised nutrition even if the decline in birth rate were to continue (I guess, assuming that policy reforms in this area have no effect).