The consumable beauty market is growing rapidly in China. Picture Getty
China’s consumable beauty market is set to explode, and ASX wellness stocks are hoping to benefit
Health & Biotech
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In recent years, the Chinese beauty market has been growing at a fast rate of knots.
For example, China’s cosmetics industry grew from 74 billion yuan in 2009 to 340 billion yuan (around A$71 billion) in 2020.
But now, a new category in the beauty sector is set to explode and take a grip on the market: the consumable beauty sector.
Chinese consumers are now more keen to combine orally ingested healthcare products with externally applied cosmetics.
Distrust in locally-produced ingested healthcare products is also pushing consumers towards Western and Japanese made products.
Australian companies like Nutritional Growth Solutions (ASX:NGS) is one of a handful of ASX-listed stocks that’s riding on this wave.
Today, NGS has launched its Healthy Height shake range in China, signing a supply agreement with the Chinese subsidiary of Australia’s largest pharmacy retailer, Chemist Warehouse.
Under the deal, NGS’ patented Healthy Height shake range will be sold on the shelves in Chemist Warehouse stores in China, as well as on the Chemist Warehouse China T-Mall Global store, one of the largest pharmacy stores currently on the platform.
Nutritional Growth share price today:
Other consumable beauty companies set to ride the China boom
The biggest ASX-listed company selling consumable beauty products in China is Blackmores (ASX:BKL).
The company’s sale of supplements in China has been rapidly growing, and in the last half it reported a 27% increase of revenue in the country to $77 million.
The company had lost around in $200m in ‘daigou’ sales when international borders were closed when the pandemic struck, but has seen replaced it with direct and online presence in the country.
JATCorp (ASX:JAT) has an omni-channel marketing strategy in China to sell beauty products, as well as plant-based meat in the country.
The company has just moved its plant-based meat manufacturing from Australia to China, as sales grew rapidly. JAT says its plant-based meat has been “very successfully received” by major Chinese vegetarian restaurants, hotels and food retailers.
Brisbane-based Fiji Kava (ASX:FIJ), inked a deal with a Shanghai-base import company PuMate to sell its kava-based products in China.
PuMate will be marketing Fiji’s ‘Sleep’, ‘Mind’, and ‘Body’ product range, and the deal is said to be one of the ‘most material commercial deals in Fiji Kava’s history’, according to FIJ’s chairman Dr Andrew Kelly.
RooLife (ASX:RLG) meanwhile, is working with some of the top Western brands from Australia, NZ, UK, Europe, US, South America, to bring their respective products into China.
The fast-growing company helps these brands get a foothold into the Chinese market by driving sales through some of China’s biggest online marketplaces like TMall, Taobao, and JD.com.
Baby products and cosmetics also vie for market share
There is a host of other ASX companies vying for the beauty and wellness markets in China.
Baby milk powder is one category that’s always been fiercely contested, and was one of the best performing export sectors before the pandemic.
In this space, companies like A2 Milk (ASX:A2M), Bubs Australia (ASX:BUB), and Keytone Dairy (ASX:KTD) have market strategies in China.
Forbidden Foods (ASX:FFF) has also recently launched its online branded flagship store on Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global called Funch, which sells a range of baby products.
You also have the non-ingestible cosmetics company like BWX (ASX:BWX), which exports its range of skincare products into the Chinese market.
BWX owns skincare brands such as Sukin, Andalou Naturals and Mineral Fusion, and its core offering centres around the vegan theme.
Recently listed micro cap EZZ (ASX:EZZ) is an Australian distributor into the Chinese cosmetics market, and also produces its own branded skincare product called Eaoron.
The company aims to sell direct to Chinese consumers through T-mall, China’s largest B2C cross-border online shopping platform.
Share prices today:
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Roolife is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
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