Summi Interim Revenue and Net Profit Surge, Maintain a Leading Position in the Production of Fresh Orange Juice and FCOJ in China

HONG KONG, March 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- China's leading orange juice manufacturer, Summi (Group) Holdings Limited ("Summi" or the "Company", stock code: 00756, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"), announced today an approximately 3 per cent year-on-year increase in its profit for the period to RMB47,197,000 for the six months ended 31 December 2017 ("the Reporting Period"). The Group's revenue and gross profit amounted to approximately RMB316,237,000 and RMB115,650,000 respectively, representing increases of 7.9 per cent and 1 per cent from those of the corresponding period last year. The Company's board of directors has resolved not to declare any interim dividend.

During the Reporting Period, sales of Summi fresh orange juice, frozen concentrated orange juice ("FCOJ") and related products and fresh oranges accounted for 24.2 per cent, 48.6 per cent and 27.2 per cent of the Group's revenue respectively.

During the Reporting Period, each of the Group's business segments maintained favourable performance. Sales of the Group's Summi fresh orange juice during the period under review amounted to RMB76,381,000, which was basically the same as that of the corresponding period last year. During the Reporting Period, the Group continued its strategy of optimising the sales network of Summi fresh orange juice. Since June 2017, the Group has been promoting Summi fresh orange juice through installing smart vending machines in certain hospitals and maternal and child health centres in China. The Group successively set up over 1,000 vending machines in metro stations, high speed rail stations, airports, hospitals and other locations in major cities in China during the Reporting Period.

Summi's smart vending machines are connected with the Group's operations center via the Internet, which helps the Group to obtain real-time sales information of the entire fleet of vending machines. The Group can achieve highly efficient logistics and warehousing management based on these data, with support of quality cold chain logistics and warehousing facilities. The smart vending machines are linked to the Company's e-commerce platform via IoT, enabling the Company to have big data analysis on gathered customer information. Basing on the analysis, the Company can design its marketing strategy and have effective allocation of sales and marketing resources. The smart vending machines are also equipped with digital screen which can be used to promote products and Summi brand, as well as public health consciousness. The vending machine's screen can also be used as a promotional advertising for other commodities.

The Group's FCOJ and related products included FCOJ, orange pulp, orange fibre and other related products, which are mainly supplied to domestic and international renowned beverage enterprises to produce fruit juice beverage. Sales of FCOJ and related products increased from approximately RMB137,983,000 during the same period last year to approximately RMB153,691,000 during the Reporting Period. During the period under review, international frozen orange juice futures prices remained stable. As such, selling prices and sales volume of the Group's FCOJ remained more or less the same as those of the same period last year. On the other hand, due to strong market demand for orange pulp, sales revenue from orange pulp increased by approximately 42.5 per cent from approximately RMB45,658,000 of the same period last year to approximately RMB65,079,000, contributing to improvement in the performance of the Group's FCOJ and related products segment, when compared with that of the corresponding period last year.

During the Reporting Period, the sales volume of fresh oranges was 35,901 tonnes. Sales amount of fresh oranges increased by approximately 10 per cent over that of the same period last year to approximately RMB86,165,000.

Looking forward, Mr. Sin Ke, Chairman of Summi, said: "Given the outstanding quality of Summi fresh orange juice, the Group is confident that Summi fresh orange juice will be able to be listed among the top tier brands of fresh orange juice in China. With consumers' growing awareness of nutritional value of NFC fresh orange juice, we expect Summi fresh orange juice to become a new driving force of the Group's business. We will also maintain our leading position in the production of FOCJ in China, to ensure a steady cash flow."

About Summi

Summi is principally engaged in the production and sale of Not From Concentrate (NFC) fresh orange juice under its Summi brand and frozen concentrate orange juice (FCOJ). It also produces related products such as orange pulp and orange fibre and distributes fresh oranges. The Group launched Summi fresh orange juice for sale in 2015. This product is 100 per cent freshly squeezed orange juice without any reconstituted concentration processing, thereby effectively retaining the nutritional value and original flavour of orange juice. The product is being sold in major cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Chengdu and Nanjing as well as Hong Kong.

With a vertically integrated business model, the Group runs four highly efficient FCOJ production plants and a NFC production plant which are strategically located in China's three major citrus growing areas, namely Chongqing, Hunan and Fujian. The Group is one of the few fully-integrated orange juice manufacturers operating its own upstream orange plantations. The Group operates approximately 97.34 square km of orange plantations with matured fruit trees in Chongqing, China. The Group has been awarded a certificate of Sustainable Agriculture Guiding Principles ("SAGP") from a leading global beverage company. Orange plantations with such accreditation provide the aforementioned company fresh oranges for the production of FOCJ. The accreditation signifies that the Group's agricultural practice complies with the stringent requirements set out by this international beverage giant for sustainable provision of healthy agricultural products for ingredients in an environmental-friendly manner.