After seeing sales plunge 32 per cent last year when the daigou trade between China and Australia dried up due to Covid-19 border closures, Australian vitamins brand Swisse hopes the business will stabilise in the year ahead.
Swisse, the nation’s number two vitamins and supplements brand, is owned by Hong Kong-headquartered Health & Happiness, whose CEO Laetitia Garnier said the company will continue to invest in the Swisse brand in the trans-Tasman markets to reduce its reliance on the export business.
Last year’s sales revenue fell to $260 million after the loss of personally ferried orders from Australia to Mainland China by daigou traders. It has tried to mitigate some of the sales decline by focusing on boosting Swisse’s presence in the Australian grocery trade and online, the latter through its own DTC site as well as on marketplaces and with partners such as Chemist Warehouse.
While retail sales in Australia and New Zealand slipped by 14 per cent in the year to December 31, daigou sales were down by 55 per cent.
Health & Happiness paid $1.7 billion to buy Swisse in 2015 when demand for Australian supplements in China was growing at a rapid rate.
