Great-Sun debuted on SSE

Great-Sun Foods (stock code: 603336) debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on November 24, thereby becoming the first produce company to be listed on the SSE. The IPO price was 9.31 CNY with an IPO volume of 133.35 million shares.

Founded in 1992, Great-Sun Foods is an integrated produce provider, spanning the whole range of produce cultivation, post-harvest acquisition, field pre-cooling, frozen storage, product selection and classification, processing and packaging, and cold-chain distribution. The company provides more than 46 categories of fruits and 43 kinds of vegetables, with different varieties from all parts of China and abroad. Last year, the prime revenue of the company was 632 million CNY, of which the income from fruit contributed 90.82%. For the past three years, the gross profit margin of the company was in the range of 17–24%.

Great-Sun Foods has seven wholly owned subsidiaries, namely, Yantai Great-Sun Foodstuffs Co., Ltd., Shanghai Great-Sun Foods Co., Ltd., Fujian Great-Sun Foods Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Zhengtong Logistics Co., Ltd., Tianjin Great-Sun Foods Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Great-Sun Foods Co., Ltd., and Great-Sun Foodstaffs (HONGKONG) Co., Ltd. It has also built more than 50 fruit and vegetable harvest bases in all favorable areas of fruits and vegetables in China. To diversify its varieties of fruit and vegetable products, Great-Sun also imports apples, oranges, grapes, cherries, blueberries, kiwis, dragon fruits, durians, and longans from the US, Chile, Australia, Peru, Egypt, New Zealand, and several Southeast Asian countries, allowing it to meet the diverse demands of consumers in the various geographic regions of China with its comprehensive sales network.

Through international quality standards such as GLOBALGAP, ISO22000 (HACCP), and ISO9001, Great-Sun fully executes product quality control and safety management, embedding safety control into every stage along the supply chain of fruit and vegetable production. It has established quality assurance checkpoints at the various stages of planting, collection, transportation, storage, processing, and other sections, building a comprehensive quality control management system throughout the manufacturing process from raw materials to finished products, thereby ensuring the quality and safety of its products.

After years of planning and practicing, Great-Sun has fully opened the distribution channels. It is currently a high-volume supplier for a number of well-known supermarket chains and wholesalers, including but not limited to Yonghui Supermarket, Parknshop, China Resources Vanguard (including Tesco China), Xinhua Supermarket, Lianhua Supermarket, BBK Supermarket, Hualian Hypermarket, Jiajiayue Supermarket, Shangshu Yonghui Supermarket, Lotus Supermarket, Wumart, and RT-Mart. Meanwhile, it also supplies directly from the field to the rising star of Chinese online retail, JD.com, with its seamless cold-chain logistics system, providing fresh and nutritious produce to different demographics that shop online.

Besides the domestic market, Great-Sun also plays a significant role in the international arena, cooperating with Giant (Singapore), Cold Storage (Singapore), Makro (Thailand), Tesco (Thailand), Econsave, GCH Retail, The Store (Malaysia), Rustan (Philippines), DFI Lucky (Cambodia), and T&T (Canada).

During its past 14 years of development, Great-Sun has turned into a bellwether of the industry. The company has been awarded the title of “Agricultural Leading Enterprise” in the municipalities of both Shantou and Yantai. Its brand “Great-Sun Foods” became a designated Famous Trademark in the province of Guangdong. The company has also been credited as a “China Fruits Advanced Company”, “Outstanding Enterprise for National Citrus Sales”, “2013 Top 10 Grape Exporter”, “Top 50 China Fruits Exporter”, “Outstanding Industry Member”, and “2015 Top 100 China Fruits Brand” by the China Fruit Marketing Association, as well as “China Vegetable Advanced Company” by the China Vegetable Marketing Association.

The IPO of Great-Sun is not only a landmark in the company’s development, but also a milestone for the whole industry. Despite the huge potential of the Chinese produce market, the commercialization rate of produce products is only 10%, which is far behind that of Western countries. An integrated service provider like Great-Sun will be a boost to the field. According to Great-Sun, “we will continue practicing the concept of vertical integration, offering more comprehensive services to our clients with closed-loop quality control, seamless cold-chain logistics, and one-stop-shop offering, building significant presence in critical regions in China and in the world to strengthen our purchase and distribution network.”

Image source: Great-Sun Food