Milkana Launches "13434" Ecosystem Strategy, Is Chinese Cheese Market About to Transform?

Listing | China Visitor Network

Review | Li Xiaoyan

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, “China’s No. 1 Cheese Stock” MiaoKeLando is entering a critical transformation. At the Partner Development Conference held in Lingang, Shanghai, the company’s new President, Kuai Yulong, officially announced the “13434” ecological strategy and confirmed its role as the global official cheese supplier for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. These moves mark MiaoKeLando’s shift from the first half of growth driven by single products and channel expansion to the second half of ecosystem co-creation and full-scene coverage. It also signals that China’s cheese industry is entering a new development cycle led by industry leaders and ecological collaboration.

MiaoKeLando’s decade has been the decade of Chinese cheese from nothing to something, from niche to mainstream. Relying on its flagship children’s cheese sticks, the company quickly gained market share and became the industry leader. However, as industry competition intensifies and the single-category dividend peaks, the competitive logic has shifted from “who can expand fastest” to “who can deepen, broaden, and tighten.” Against this backdrop, the “13434” ecological strategy emerged as the core operational blueprint for MiaoKeLando’s next five years.

This strategy centers on “consumer-centric” goals, aiming to achieve over 10 billion yuan in revenue and double net profit. It focuses on three core categories—cheese, dairy fats, and whey—and builds four major nutritional systems: growth, dietary, sports, and functional. It leverages three main growth engines: B2B, B2C, and M&A international expansion. Through product innovation, brand leadership, channel reform, and digital intelligence, it aims to evolve from a supply chain leader to a network-centric ecological enterprise. Kuai Yulong summarized the strategic logic as “mutual development, strengthening weaknesses, sharing dividends,” intending to break linear industry thinking and enable multi-party resource collaboration across R&D, milk sourcing, equipment, and channels for networked co-creation.

This strategic announcement coincides with MiaoKeLando’s critical transition into the “post-founder era.” Since the management team with Mengniu background took over, the company’s development has shifted from mission-driven to data and management-driven. The ecological strategy provides clear long-term direction for distributors, partners, and capital markets, and demonstrates to the industry that Chinese cheese is moving from single-company leadership to full-industry collaborative upgrading.

Implementing this ecological strategy requires breakthroughs in both branding and scene application. After becoming the Olympic official cheese in 2025, MiaoKeLando again secured the global official cheese role for the 2026 World Cup—achieving two major global sports IPs within a year—setting a benchmark for Chinese dairy brands’ international marketing.

Sports events naturally create scenes of family gatherings, social sharing, and leisure consumption, which align closely with cheese consumption attributes. Drawing on Japan’s experience of popularizing cheese through sports events, MiaoKeLando uses the World Cup as an opportunity to target diverse scenes such as watching matches, late-night snacks, and parent-child interactions, promoting cheese from a children’s snack to a daily food for all ages and all scenarios. In response to fans’ needs, the company launched room-temperature versatile cheese slices, breaking the refrigeration barrier for instant noodles, burgers, and late-night snacks; for children, it introduced Jiejie high-calcium cheese mini-packs with high calcium, high protein, and zero additives to support growth nutrition; adult leisure products like small cheese triangles and cloud-shaped cheeses continue to expand consumption boundaries.

The empowerment of sports IP not only enhances the brand’s global influence but also becomes a key tool in the ecological strategy. By innovating scenes to drive product innovation and leveraging brand momentum to penetrate channels, MiaoKeLando is gradually reducing reliance on single categories, creating ample space for a second growth curve.

MiaoKeLando’s ecological strategy is not an isolated layout but deeply integrated into Mengniu’s “One Body, Two Wings” large ecological system. Mengniu explicitly designates MiaoKeLando as the sole platform for cheese, providing comprehensive support in supply chain, R&D, channels, and branding, ensuring the strategy’s effective implementation.

On the supply chain front, Mengniu’s global milk sourcing and procurement system effectively alleviates the high dependence on imported cheese raw materials domestically, stabilizing costs and supply; in R&D, leveraging Mengniu’s research platform, functional product development across the four nutritional systems accelerates, helping the company break through homogenization competition; in channels, Mengniu’s nationwide retail and catering resources promote deeper B2C penetration and rapid breakthroughs in B2B catering and industrial channels; in branding, global marketing resources are shared to support top-tier sports IP collaborations, enhancing brand premium.

With Mengniu’s support, MiaoKeLando is equipped to pursue multi-track development. B2B business becomes a new growth engine, M&A and international expansion open global opportunities, and the layout across three categories and four nutritional systems points to new industry growth beyond cheese sticks. It also sets a leading example for China’s cheese industry to address gaps in R&D, supply chain, and channels.

From an industry perspective, MiaoKeLando’s ecological transformation is timely. China’s per capita cheese consumption remains far below Japan, Korea, Europe, and America, with low market penetration and vast long-term growth potential. However, the industry faces challenges: first, serious product homogenization, with no scale success beyond cheese sticks; second, consumer awareness still needs cultivation, and regular cheese consumption habits are not yet widespread; third, low upstream raw material self-sufficiency and cost volatility impact profitability; fourth, B2B channels are dominated by international brands, making breakthroughs difficult.

For MiaoKeLando, the ecological strategy also faces implementation tests. On one hand, the company is in a management transition period, requiring time for organizational adjustments and strategic execution; legacy issues still need resolution. On the other hand, ecological co-creation involves multiple stakeholders, and balancing interests among the company, distributors, and suppliers tests management capabilities. Additionally, functional nutritional products face high regulatory thresholds and long R&D cycles, while M&A and international operations carry uncertainties.

Long-term, these challenges are part of the industry’s initial growth phase. MiaoKeLando aims to break through with ecological thinking, expanding the industry through open cooperation rather than limited competition. This approach aligns with its long-term development needs and China’s cheese industry upgrade trajectory. Supported by Mengniu’s empowerment and its own innovation, the company is poised to lead industry solutions, transforming from rapid growth to high-quality development.

The 10th anniversary is a milestone and a new starting point. The launch of MiaoKeLando’s “13434” ecological strategy signifies not only a strategic upgrade for the company but also marks China’s cheese industry entering the second half. Moving from product leadership to ecological leadership, from domestic focus to global presence, from solo enterprise to industry chorus, MiaoKeLando is reshaping China’s cheese landscape through openness, collaboration, and co-creation.

Looking ahead, as the ecological strategy is gradually implemented, the sports IP effect unfolds, and Mengniu’s synergy deepens, MiaoKeLando is expected to reach a revenue of over 10 billion yuan, continuously increasing cheese penetration in China and bringing high-nutrition cheese products to more people. The second half of China’s cheese industry has begun with ecology, and MiaoKeLando is at the forefront of this industry transformation.