Australian baby formula producer teams up with leading Chinese distributor

SYDNEY, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Shares in Australian goat-milk baby formula manufacturer, Bubs, have surged on Wednesday after the company announced a marketing and distribution deal with Chinese infant nutrition giant, Beingmate.

Bubs's founder and Chief Executive Officer Kristy Carr said the company is seeking to use Beingmate's "extensive infrastructure, local knowledge, regulatory expertise and extensive domestic distribution footprint" to expand their product into a further 30,000 mother-and-baby shops in China.

The company's share price soared 25 percent on the back of the news.

"Beingmate is particularly strong in driving distribution via China's lower-tier cities which are benefiting from China's new multi-child family policy, and so there are higher expectations for addressable market growth than in the tier 1 cities where the costs to entry are high," Carr said.

Already well established in the industry, Beingmate owns 280 infant nutrition products and said that Australian health goods have a very positive reputation in China.

"We are particularly attracted to the control Bubs has over its goat milk supply chain from the farm gate to the end consumer product, and the sheer size of their milk pool," Beingmate Chief Executive Officer Bao Xiufei said. Enditem