On September 24th, Guotai Junan said that according to channel research, Haitian Flavor Industry will verbally convey the price increase message to all dealers before September 26. It is expected that the way of price increase will be fully announced by the end of September, and the preliminary judgment of this price increase will be 5%. The price increase covers soy sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce, while hedging cost pressure to boost performance. Help to open up the channel inventory flow (now facing a group of high inventory, distributors are not willing to hoard the pressure), and rich channel profits, thus boosting channel motivation.

Stimulated by this news, Haitian flavor industry suddenly rose by the limit, and its share price also returned to the top of 100 yuan, closing at 100.74 yuan per share.

And tonight, Haitian flavor industry issued a clarification announcement.

The announcement said that since the beginning of this year, the costs of major raw materials, transportation and energy have continued to rise sharply, which has brought certain challenges to the company's operation. Recently, the company is evaluating whether to adjust product prices, but the price adjustment plan has not yet been finalized.

Liu Guangyi, a food and beverage analyst at Minsheng Securities, said that the first two price increases of Haitian Flavor Industry were in 2014 and 2016 respectively. In his view, the previous two price increases have sufficient objective conditions, with low channel inventory and good terminal demand. Cost pressure-driven price increases are secondary, but the background of this price increase is different: "the high level of channel inventory and weak terminal demand make it more difficult to raise prices."

As for the reasons for the price increase, from the point of view of the industry, on the one hand is the sales pressure and dealer inventory pressure. Use price increases to dredge channels to ensure smooth flow. Because after the news of the price increase comes out, downstream merchants and users will hoard some of the original price goods. On the other hand, the company is under the pressure of rising raw materials and performance growth, resulting in price increases.

In fact, not only the Haitian flavor industry, the whole industry is facing greater cost pressure, the overall downturn of the seasoning industry in the first half of the year, the gross profit margins of various condiment enterprises have declined. Haitian flavor industry, Qianhe flavor industry, Zhongju high-tech industry and Hengshun vinegar industry decreased by 3.63%, 7.52%, 4.84% and 2.65% respectively compared with the same period last year.

Industry analysts said that if Haitian issues a formal notice of price increases, other condiment companies are likely to follow suit, and historically, other brands will generally follow suit by a quarter later.

In fact, prior to the news that Haitian flavor industry will verbally convey the price increase message, there are industry insiders speculate that this kind of behavior may have the motivation to observe the market reaction and test the acceptance of channel merchants.

So after the news of the price increase came out in the past two days, Haitian Flavor Industry today issued a clarification announcement: is it possible to adjust the price increase plan due to poor market reaction and low acceptance of channel merchants?

It is worth noting that Haitian has always conveyed "no price increase" and "no price increase plan", but now it is "evaluating" whether the product price has been adjusted or not.