Wang's Group Announces Entry into the Greater Health Industry with Filing of IPO Prospectus

Recently, Wang’s Group held the launch ceremony for its strategic partnership with five nationwide chain pharmacies. Xu Yun, Executive Director of Wang’s Group Co., Ltd., announced that Wang’s Group is officially entering the big health industry. The group will leverage its existing business layout and collaborations with chain pharmacies to expand its business scale, aiming to build a full value chain for bee products in the big health sector.

Following the launch ceremony, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) conducted an exclusive interview with Xu Yun. Xu Yun explained that Wang’s Group’s entry into the broader health sector was driven by two factors: optimism about the industry’s growth prospects and a natural extension of its existing business layout. In the near future, Wang’s Group may introduce a new brand to strengthen its product portfolio in the health sector, aiming to build a comprehensive health industry ecosystem rooted in the bee industry.

The interview began with the current buzzwords in the retail industry: “consumption upgrading” and “new retail.” Xu Yun explained that these are not actually new concepts, as they have been discussed for over a decade. In his view, the core of consumption upgrading lies in grasping consumer trends and creating synergy between brand building and product positioning.

He cited Wang’s Group as an example, noting its evolution from a focus on propolis and honey to the development of pollen-based products and cosmetic lines. The objective was to capitalize on shifting trends in honey consumption, expanding from simple food and health supplement purchases to include cosmetics and broader health wellness products. The key to new retail lies in the integration of online and offline channels. Although Wang’s Group previously considered acquiring e-commerce platforms, it has instead established presences on Tmall, JD.com, and other channels, customizing products to align with the marketing characteristics of these e-commerce platforms. The decision between operating proprietary e-commerce sites versus joining third-party platforms depends on societal consumption trends and the company’s strategic intentions. This approach requires dynamic adjustments based on business scale to ensure efficiency between input and output.

According to Xu Yun, Wang’s Group has established an omnichannel operations center, which operates independently from other business units to ensure flexibility in channel operations. This structure enables the company to adjust its marketing and product strategies in response to market dynamics and meet the channel-specific demands driven by varying consumer trends.

During the interview, Xu Yun also introduced the concept of “secondary entrepreneurship.” According to him, after half a century of development, Wang’s Group has maintained an industry-leading position for more than a decade. Systematic infrastructure development and product upgrades are currently key priorities for the company. Following a period of stable growth and sustained industry leadership, organizational alignment has become critical to maintaining this leading edge in the next phase. Such alignment stems from clear corporate self-positioning and individual employee self-positioning, while continuous striving remains essential to ensuring the company’s ongoing growth.

In light of this, Wang’s Group should place greater emphasis on market dynamics. Entering the broader health industry is akin to a second startup venture; stepping out of its comfort zone and pursuing innovation and change are currently the core priorities. Building a talent pipeline is also a key focus for Wang’s Group. Xu Yun stated that only by overcoming barriers related to brand recognition, market access, and talent pipeline development can Wang’s Honey Garden maintain robust vitality and lead the sustainable growth of the honey industry.

In fact, Xu Yun’s statement is no small matter for a company with decades of heritage. According to our understanding, Wang’s Group has been developing for half a century since its founder, Wang Youjin, became involved in beekeeping in 1965. The Enterprise Information Publicity System shows that Wang’s Group Co., Ltd. has a registered capital of RMB 60 million and has made external investments in multiple companies, including Wang’s Cosmetics, Wang’s Food, and Wang’s Pharmaceutical.

Xu Yun also introduced that the Wang Group’s business encompasses beekeeping, processing of bee products, and sales. The company currently offers more than 150 products across six series, including honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, and propolis. Its manufacturing facilities cover an area of 200,000 square meters, featuring a 6,000-ton underground honey storage pool and a 3,000-square-meter dedicated cold storage facility, which have been sequentially constructed and put into operation. The group maintains production bases in Nanchang (Jiangxi Province), Zhuhai (Guangdong Province), and Changbai Mountain (Jilin Province). Nearly 20 of its products have obtained health food approval numbers from the former Ministry of Health and the China Food and Drug Administration.

Earlier this year, Wang’s Group restructured its business portfolio, dividing its organizational architecture into several segments: Health Wang’s, Delicious Wang’s, Beauty Wang’s, International Wang’s, and Children’s Wang’s. With bee-derived ingredients as the core raw material, the company has developed diversified product functionalities tailored to the needs of different consumer groups. The health sector, as a focal point of its industrial layout, has received significant emphasis.

The announcement of partnerships with several chain pharmacies is also aimed at improving product coverage through channel expansion. “We have more than 2,000 specialty stores across China, either company-operated or franchised. In addition to expanding our distribution channels, the purpose of collaborating with chain pharmacies is also to explore product-level cooperation and enrich our product portfolio,” said Xu Yun.

Xu Yun’s remarks may be interpreted as suggesting that Wang’s Group could potentially collaborate with chain pharmacies to develop bee products specifically tailored for retail through these channels, while leveraging pharmaceutical industry expertise to drive innovation and deepen its presence in the broader health and wellness sector.

To this end, Wang’s Group has continuously increased its investment in product research and development. According to Xu Yun at the signing ceremony, Wang’s Group has conducted specialized applied research and development with several institutions both domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, the company places strong emphasis on cultivating internal talent and building independent R&D teams, constantly expanding its industrial chain, exploring market demands and consumer trends, and pursuing differentiated operations compared to other similar products.

“Wang’s Group has completed its transformation from a niche professional brand to a mass-market brand, achieving a comprehensive upgrade from specialization to diversification. Building on its core categories of honey, propolis, bee pollen, and royal jelly, the company has extended its bee-derived products into multiple fields, developing beverage, health supplement, beauty and skincare, and daily chemical product lines, thereby evolving toward a comprehensive, diversified major brand,” said Xu Yun.

Within the strategic framework of “Dual-Engine Drive, Four-Dimensional Innovation,” Wang’s Group plans to implement corresponding transformations across the entire value chain, from raw material sourcing and brand building to final product sales. Technological innovation encompasses product, service, brand, and sales channel innovation, with detailed applications spanning every stage of the operational process, including raw materials, production, R&D, warehousing, and logistics. Meanwhile, the innovation-driven model for the big health industry covers multiple sectors—such as food, health supplements, wellness, culture, and real estate—with the aim of establishing platform-based operations.

Indeed, during my conversation with Xu Yun, I was deeply impressed by the clear business logic and practical implementation path. Wang’s blueprint, evolving from a single bee product to a bee-based comprehensive health operations platform, holds great promise.

The health and wellness industry has emerged as a prominent sector in recent years. The "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline sets forth the goal that by 2030, key health indicators for residents should reach the levels of high-income countries. Regarding industrial development, two primary aspects are emphasized: first, a substantial enhancement in health service delivery, with the establishment of an improved, integrated medical and healthcare system characterized by high quality and efficiency; second, a significant expansion in the scale of the health industry, fostering a comprehensive and structurally optimized health industry system, cultivating a cohort of large enterprises with strong innovation capabilities and international competitiveness, and positioning them as pillar enterprises of the national economy.

According to relevant projections, the scale of the health and wellness industry will reach RMB 20 trillion. In addition to medical services and pharmaceuticals, another major segment comprises health supplements and over-the-counter health products. As a key player within the health supplement category, honey products will directly benefit from the rise of the health and wellness industry.

It is understood that humans have been keeping bees for thousands of years. As early as on the obelisks of ancient Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphs recorded the dietary and medicinal uses of honey. In China, awareness of bee products can also be traced back to ancient times; the character for “honey” (蜜) already appeared in the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Yin-Shang period, 3,000 years ago. The Shennong Ben Cao Jing (The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica) classified honey as a top-grade medicinal substance, and Li Shizhen, a medical expert of the Ming Dynasty, also documented bee products and their applications in his Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu).

Xu Yun also introduced that bee products have significant effects in areas such as antibacterial and bacteriostatic activity, cell regeneration, immune enhancement, neurological regulation, fatigue elimination, and improvement of blood circulation and respiratory function. The balanced nutritional composition of plant and animal origin found in propolis also contains flavonoids and terpenoid active substances, which have demonstrated notable therapeutic effects against tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes.

Data from retail pharmacies indicate that health supplements are a significant source of profit. Against the backdrop of declining gross and net profit margins for chain pharmacies, these chains are also willing to introduce new specialty drugs and health supplements to boost profitability.

Industry insiders note that consumers typically have established preferences for specific brands and efficacy when purchasing health supplements, favoring well-established brands with relatively fixed consumption patterns. New entrants to the health supplement industry may gain market traction through strategies such as premium ingredient selection and brand building, while products based on traditional ingredients like honey, ginseng and deer antler, and donkey-hide gelatin (Ejiao) are more likely to win consumer favor.

Last year, the market size of China’s health supplement industry was approximately RMB 100 billion. It is projected to reach RMB 110 billion this year and maintain an average annual growth rate of over 8% in the subsequent years, significantly higher than the average growth rate of the pharmaceutical industry. Research findings from Boston Consulting Group indicate that by 2020, the market size of China’s health supplement industry may exceed RMB 400 billion. This is undoubtedly significant positive news for companies in the health supplement and related derivative products sectors, such as Wang’s Group. We also believe that, against this backdrop, Wang’s Group is poised to achieve substantial development.