New product "not powerful," Joy Home's performance falls short of expectations

Why Did AI · Joy Family’s New Product Marketing Fail to Boost Performance?

On March 25, Joy Family disclosed its 2025 annual financial report, showing that revenue during the reporting period was about 1.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.11%; net profit attributable to the parent company was about 44.17 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 70.03%. The financial report indicated that the revenue from Joy Family’s main coconut juice beverage dropped by 21.51% year-on-year, while revenue from other beverages fell by 35.65%. Under pressure in its core coconut juice business, Joy Family attempted to break through by expanding new products, but combined with cost pressures and a decline in traditional channels, Joy Family’s performance did not meet expectations.

Coconut Juice and Canned Fruit “Are Not Selling”

Joy Family’s 2025 annual financial report showed that during the reporting period, its main product, coconut juice beverages, achieved revenue of about 756 million yuan; canned fruit products generated revenue of about 502 million yuan. Compared to the previous year, the revenue from these two major businesses fell by 21.51% and 19.96%, respectively.

Joy Family primarily engages in the research, production, and sales of food and beverage products such as plant-based protein drinks, canned fruit, juice beverages, and probiotic drinks. In the plant-based protein beverage industry and the canned fruit food industry, its core products, Joy Family canned fruit (especially canned oranges and canned yellow peaches) and Joy Family coconut juice, have high market recognition.

In recent years, competition in the coconut water sector has intensified, prompting Joy Family to increase its new product marketing efforts. On April 11, 2024, Joy Family officially announced NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal (“The Big Shark”) as the spokesperson for “Coconut Shark” coconut water, launching the “Double Shark Fusion” marketing concept. In August 2025, Joy Family collaborated with the national IP “Milk Dragon” to launch canned products such as yellow peaches and bayberries, attempting to reach Generation Z consumers. However, despite high marketing volume and substantial investment, market conversion has not been significant. In the 2024 fiscal year, Joy Family achieved revenue of 1.855 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 3.53%.

The financial report reveals that Joy Family’s revenue from its distribution model, agency model, direct sales, and other models all declined, leading to a year-on-year decrease of 22.43% in main business income, an 18.1% decrease in main business costs, and a 3.63% drop in gross profit margin.

Regarding the changes in revenue, costs, and gross profit margin, Joy Family stated, “The main business income and costs of the snack wholesale channel sales model changed by more than 30% year-on-year, mainly because the company expanded the snack wholesale chain channel, which was in the exploration phase in 2024 and gradually formed a certain business scale during the reporting period, thus increasing the business income and costs under this model; the main business income and costs of the direct sales and other models changed by more than 30% year-on-year, mainly due to a decrease in the company’s OEM business during the reporting period.”

Renowned strategic positioning expert and founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consulting, Zhan Junhao, stated in an interview with Beijing Business Daily, “Joy Family’s expansion of new products is an attempt to break through under the pressure of its coconut juice core business. However, the promotion of new products is weak, mainly influenced by multiple factors. First, market competition is fierce, with brands like if and Qing Shang occupying minds, and new products lack differentiation and blockbuster potential; second, product iteration is slow and positioning is vague, leading to some new products being discontinued before meeting expectations, with insufficient channel and marketing investment, making it difficult to break through quickly.”

Price Increases to Offset Raw Material Costs

While both revenue and net profit declined, Joy Family’s gross profit margin during the reporting period was 29.59%, a decrease of 4.41 percentage points year-on-year.

Regarding the main reasons for these changes, Joy Family stated, “During the reporting period, the company’s main sales channel, the distribution channel, experienced a certain degree of decline in sales revenue due to the pressure of the consumption environment and intense industry competition; the decline in the company’s gross profit margin was mainly due to changes in the company’s product structure and the expansion into snack specialty chain channels and the sale of primary processed coconut raw materials (freshly squeezed coconut meat juice), which have relatively low gross margins but align with the industry characteristics and actual situation of these channels; the procurement costs of some key raw materials increased significantly during the reporting period.”

Zhan Junhao pointed out, “The rise in raw material costs is a structural supply-demand contradiction in the industry; the coconut planting cycle is long and difficult to alleviate in the short term, and it is expected that new capacity will be gradually released in 2-3 years.”

From Joy Family’s disclosed content, it can be seen that the increase in production costs has significantly impacted its performance. Joy Family stated that due to factors such as climate change leading to a reduction in coconut supply, coupled with an increase in market demand for coconut processing products, and the company’s heightened quality requirements for coconut raw materials, the procurement unit price of freshly squeezed coconut meat juice increased by over 30% year-on-year. The procurement unit prices of strawberry meat and yellow peaches also rose. Additionally, due to an increase in market supply of orange raw materials, the procurement unit price of oranges decreased by over 30% year-on-year. These fluctuations in raw material prices resulted in an increase in production costs of 38.53 million yuan for the company. Canned oranges and canned yellow peaches are the top two single products in Joy Family’s canned fruit business, together accounting for 71.62% of the company’s canned fruit revenue.

Faced with cost pressures, Joy Family chose to adjust its ex-factory prices. On June 23 last year, Joy Family announced that due to the rise in raw material costs and other factors, the company decided to adjust the ex-factory prices of certain specifications of its coconut juice beverage products, with an increase of about 1%-8%. The products involved in this price increase generated sales revenue of 795 million yuan for the company in the 2024 fiscal year. At the same time, to coordinate the ex-factory prices of products in different regions nationwide, the ex-factory prices for certain specifications of products in a few regions were adjusted downward by about 1%-5%, with the products involved in this price reduction generating sales revenue of 5.1889 million yuan for the company in the 2024 fiscal year.

Zhan Junhao believes, “For coconut water companies, they can layout upstream planting and processing in Southeast Asia, securing long-term procurement agreements; at the same time, optimize product structure, moderately raise prices, and enhance raw material utilization rates to offset cost pressures.”

Strategic Instability

Joy Family primarily operates through a distribution model, with some sales conducted via snack wholesale channels, agency models, direct sales, and other models. During the reporting period, the sales revenue from its distribution model accounted for 80.35% of its main business revenue, making it the company’s primary sales channel.

In the second and third quarters of 2025, Joy Family reported net profits attributable to the parent company of approximately -15.7 million yuan and -8.03 million yuan, respectively, marking the first quarterly losses.

In light of sluggish growth in distribution channels, Joy Family has increased its sales efforts in the snack wholesale channel in recent years. Last year, sales in this channel reached nearly 175 million yuan, accounting for 12.73% of its main business, becoming its second-largest source of income. During the reporting period, revenue from this channel grew by 52.06% year-on-year. Among Joy Family’s top five customers, Ming Ming Hen Mang and Wancheng Group are notably ranked first and second, together accounting for 9.44% of its annual sales total.

However, compared to the gross margin of 33.97% for the distribution model, the gross margin for the snack wholesale channel sales model was only 17.81%, which somewhat dragged down the overall gross margin.

Additionally, Joy Family may also face issues related to mounting accounts receivable. The financial report shows that at the end of the period, Joy Family’s accounts receivable exceeded 142 million yuan, with 98.6589 million yuan due within one year (including one year), more than double the net profit attributable to the parent company for 2025.

In response, Joy Family stated in the financial report, “The company primarily adopts a cash-on-delivery settlement model for its distributors. In recent years, to expand product markets and enhance sales capabilities, the company has provided certain distributors with substantial growth potential and previously untapped markets, as well as key sales areas, with credit limits to enhance marketing channel development and market cultivation. The company flexibly adjusts credit periods and credit limits based on sales conditions in related markets, the credit ratings of distributors, cooperation situations, and financial strength. Although the company has made provisions for bad debts in accordance with accounting standards, if large-scale bad debts occur in the future, it may negatively impact the company’s cash flow.”

Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng stated, “The significant decline in the performance disclosed in Joy Family’s financial report is largely related to frequent changes in its senior management and the instability of its overall channel operation strategy. From its new products, there is not much novelty, lacking blockbuster support, making it difficult to achieve long-term growth.”

On April 25, 2025, Joy Family appointed Lv Jianliang, who has held positions at COFCO Coca-Cola, Yinlu, and Ximai Foods, as the company’s vice president, fully responsible for the company’s marketing business. This personnel appointment is seen as Joy Family’s effort to implement the “canned fruit + coconut-based beverage” dual-drive strategy and the marketing system reform initiated earlier. However, on March 2 of this year, just less than a year into his role, Lv Jianliang resigned from his position as vice president of Joy Family for personal reasons.

Regarding the risk of a surge in accounts receivable and other issues, a Beijing Business Daily reporter sent an interview request to Joy Family via email but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Kong Wenshe.