The company has also outlined its 2025 plans, including the launch of its first OTC product and plans in growing infant nutrition business in South East Asia.
BYHEALTH released its FY24 annual results last Friday (March 22). Sales across all its key brands, including its eponymous brand BYHEALTH and bone and joint health brand Keylid had declined by 30 per cent or so.
Total revenue was down 27.3 year-on-year from RMB9.41bn (US$1.3bn) to RMB6.84bn (US$943.3m). Net profit attributable to shareholders nosedived 62.62 per cent from RMB1.75bn (US$240.9m) to RMB652.83m (US$90.1m).
Sales of eponymous protein powder brand BYHEALTH shrunk 30.79 per cent to RMB3.7bn (US$515.5m).
Sales of Keylid also declined in similar fashion, registering a decline of 31.51 per cent to RMB808m (US$111.46m).
Probiotics brand LifeSpace saw sales within Mainland China decreased by 29.38 per cent to RMB314m (US$43.3m) while that of overseas sales also went down by 11.8 per cent to RMB872m (US$120.29m).
The decrease in sales came from both its online and offline channels - with the former down 25.35 per cent to RMB3.36bn (US$463.91m) and the latter down 29.79 per cent to RMB3.42bn (US$471.5m).
Tough market competition with the entry of more players was cited as the main reason for the underperformance.
“In recent years, industry competition has continued to intensify. First is the entry of industry-leading international companies into the China market, as well as that of major pharmaceutical companies and food companies.
“Second, overseas brands, through the help of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) channels are very much competing with domestic brands on China’s online channels.
“Third, under the new era, new media, new channels, and new technology applications have provided opportunities for the rapid development of new categories and new brands,” said the company.
It added that in the online channels are seeing greater competition due to lower barriers of entry.
One of the platforms that have emerged in popularity in China especially post-COVID, is the private domain channel (私域) .
These private domain channels could have started off from an interest group or knowledge sharing group, and owners of these channels will then work with experts to develop nutraceuticals specially catered to their audience through WeChat groups or mobile applications.
“Due to continuous changes in consumption environment, intensified industry competition, the company at this stage has yet to effectively push forth the materialisation of targets set in the start of the year (year 2024).
“In addition, upgrades to the company’s two core products were slower than planned, which also contributed to the big decline,” said the company.
Still, citing data from Euromonitor, BYHEALTH said that it remained China’s vitamin and dietary supplement industry’s market leader with a market share of 9.3 per cent.
China’s vitamins and dietary supplements market size was RMB232.3bn (US$32bn)，an expansion of 3.7 per cent from the year before.
“We saw that the entire industry’s growth largely came from livestreaming e-commerce. In 2024, the vitamins and dietary supplements category’s sales were down by approximately 20 per cent in offline pharmacies.”
NPD for 2025: OTC glucosamine sulfate
This year, the company is expecting to launch its first in-house developed OTC product “Keylid Glucosamine Sulfate”.
At the same time, it will also dive deeper into the areas of anti-ageing, precision nutrition, metabolic health.
It will also tap on new technologies in better understanding ageing, and develop new raw materials and products.
International expansion: Infant nutrition in SEA
South East Asia (SEA) is one of the regions that BYHEALTH will tap on for its overseas expansion this year.
In particular, it said it would expand its infant nutrition product offerings in response to needs from the local SEA markets, as well as expand its offline sales channels and work on its online channels.
BYHEALTH sells its infant nutrition products under the brand Nature’s Bay.
