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Comvita products first entered the mainland China market in 2004 via a key local distributor. Two decades later, Comvita has almost 200 people on the ground in China – the world’s biggest honey market – plus another 74 in Hong Kong.
The company’s strategy has changed from a distributor model to a subsidiary model in 2019, with the New Zealand-based company having full control of its China strategy and building the Comvita brand.
China’s honey market size is approximately 1/7th of global honey market while Chinese culture has a long history in using honey as a “super food” for health benefits.
The large number of healthy conscious consumers in big cities are o keen for high quality, natural solutions to meet their health needs.
As a result China is a perfect market for Comvita with high number of sophisticated consumers who are cultivated in health food.
Comvita’s revenue in Greater China reached 46% of our global revenue in FY22 and China is our largest market. In the past 3 years, Comvita China has achieved consecutive growth mainly through ecommerce (up 41% in FY21) and we are now is the no.1 manuka honey brand in China through both on/offline channels (based on market share).
Our milestones in China:
2004 – Comvita products were first sold in mainland China; the first Comvita store in China opened
2019 – Comvita Food (China) Limited, a subsidiary to Comvita Limited was established
2018 – Comvita join the first CIIE as an exhibitor
2021 – Comvita announced its first global ambassador Ning Chang for the 25+ new product launch
2022 – Comvita announced its new global ambassador Xin Liu for the new regional new product launch
Our challenges and how we overcome:
Low brand equity- Comvita entered China in 2004 through a local distributor, with limited investment in brand marketing. For most consumers in China, “Comvita” is unfamiliar, they only recognise and know Comvita as the “red & black” honey jar. This low brand equity capped scalability and Comvita could only compete in the market through pricing.
Starting from 2021, Comvita has made large investments in brand marketing. We engage Chinese consumers through various marketing campaigns and have seen improving feedback in major social and ecom platforms.
Lack of connection to younger consumers- Comvita has a group of loyal aging consumers, whom are extremely valuable for Comvita. However, the size of the group is too small to support our ambitious growth goals.
To achieve these goals, Comvita needed to connect with younger consumers who predominantly shop online. We tailored our marketing campaigns to appeal to this group as well as launched targeted products to appeal to trends among young people. We’ve seen a huge number of social engagements and encouraging sales results from our activities.