Spring Sheep Milk Co And Neptunus Food Sign Strategic Cooperation In Beijing

BEIJING, 30 June 2023 – Spring Sheep Milk Co. and Neptunus Food, a subsidiary of Neptunus Group, reached an agreement this week on a newly established strategic cooperation. The agreement was officially signed at a distinguished ceremony held in Beijing on Tuesday, attend by New Zealand's Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins.

The overall Neptunus Group was established in 1989 and is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province in China. Their primary business operations include pharmaceutical and health care products, with full industrial and commercial capabilities including research and development, production and distribution.

Spring Sheep Milk Co. is an advanced nutrition business from New Zealand, specialising in premium Infant Formula uniquely made from grass-fed New Zealand sheep milk. It is a public-private partnership between the New Zealand Government state-owned enterprise Pāmu (formerly known as Landcorp) and the export-focussed sales and marketing company, SLC Group.

Spring Sheep started in 2015 with a single farm and has since rapidly grown to become the largest sheep dairy group in the Southern Hemisphere. In total, 17 farms milk and over 17,000 of Spring Sheep’s very own breed of sheep, the Zealandia®.

“This strategic cooperation is a major step in our journey in the Chinese market for the Spring Sheep brand,” said Spring Sheep CEO, Nick Hammond.

“We have been exporting into China since July 2020 and the reception to our sheep milk products has been overwhelmingly positive. We’re continuing to invest in this channel through building our brand presence both on the ground and online in the Chinese market.”

The partnership leverages two sets of highly complementary capabilities, Hammond adds.

“Spring Sheep has the breed, farms and production capability to make a multi-award-winning product sheep milk product range. Neptunus brings the crucial expertise to expand the brand in the China market with an extensive sales and marketing capability alongside deep understanding of the advanced nutrition market.”

Neptunus distribution territory covers 28 provinces, including 260 distributors and over 16,000 retail outlets.

“This represents a significant opportunity for our Sheep Milk products to be able to plug into a sales network of exceptional size and quality,” said Peter Jin, GM-China Market for Spring Sheep.

Mr Huaming Gong, chairman of Neptunus Food, said, “The collaboration between Neptunus Food and Spring Sheep holds great importance in advancing the sheep dairy industry in China. Our wealth of expertise in new product research and development, operational management, and sales and marketing has fuelled steady and enduring growth over the years. We are thrilled to include a premium range of products in our portfolio and eagerly anticipate developing innovative offerings specifically tailored for the Chinese market.”

Spring Sheep has an early life nutrition range (which has received global recognition), a family nutrition range and a more recently launched seniors’ product which has been a category leader within sheep and goat milk products in China through online sales platform Tmall.

“We’ve been impressed with the rich consumer insights that the Neptunus team brings to the table, and we are confident that together we can ensure our new product development is closely tailored to capture opportunities in key growth areas, like Seniors advanced nutrition for example”, continued Hammond.

The goal of the cooperation is to enable Spring Sheep to become the leading sheep dairy player in China.

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