Garden Biochemical's 2021 performance rebounds sharply

    On 30 March, Zhejiang Garden Biochemical High-tech Co., Ltd. (Garden Biochemical) released its annual performance report for 2021. In 2021, the company's revenue totalled USD175.90 million (RMB1,117.10 million), up 69.40% vs. USD103.83 million (RMB659.44 million) in 2020; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed company reached USD75.55 million (RMB479.83 million), up 82.29% vs. USD41.45 million (RMB263.22 million) in 2020.   

    Garden Biochemical's performance in 2020 was poor, with lower sales and average price of vitamin D3 products, resulting in a 15.12% YoY decline in revenue and a 18.00% YoY drop in net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company. However, 2021 saw a significant rebound in performance, boosted by the income from newly-added business segment of pharmaceutical manufacturing after Garden Biochemical's acquisition of 100% shares of Zhejiang Garden Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Note: 2019 and 2020 data is adjusted in 2021 annual report.)   

    In 2021, the revenue of vitamin D3 and its analogues added up to USD65.57 million (RMB416.44 million), up 5.78% YoY; the drug revenue amounted to USD78.49 million (RMB498.51 million), up 1,073.95% YoY.   

    Among vitamin D3 and its analogues, production and sales of food and pharmaceutical grade vitamin D3 are better than those of feed grade vitamin D3. According to Garden Biochemical, there were more feed grade vitamin D3 producers and the price of feed grade vitamin D3 fluctuated at a low level in 2021 because of the influence of supply and demand, while prices of food and pharmaceutical grade vitamin D3 were less affected by the industry cyclical changes due to their fewer domestic and foreign producers and increasing market demand. And as people's health awareness gradually improve after the COVID-19 outbreak, the company's food and pharmaceutical vitamin D3 production and sales increase significantly.    

    Garden Biochemical has two production bases: Dongyang base mainly produces cholesterol, food and pharmaceutical grade vitamin D3, calcifediol, etc.; Jinhua base (the Jinxi Science and Technology Park project)'s feed grade vitamin D3 etc. have been put into production, and other products are in trial production or under capacity construction. And Xiasha base was completely demolished in 2021 and has no production nowadays.   

    In 2021, Dongyang base was at full-load production. As for Jinhua base, its construction progress has been slowed by factors such as COVID-19 epidemic, but its equipment installation has basically been completed and the conditions for trial production are in place, and it is planned to have full production before the end of June 2022. After all the projects under construction at the Jinhua base have been put into production and operate normally, product lines of the Dongyang base will gradually cease production and the production capacity will be taken over by the Jinhua base.   

    According to Garden Biochemical, it will continue to strengthen market integration of feed grade vitamin D3, increase market shares of food & pharmaceutical grade vitamin D3 and lanolin cholesterol, improve bargaining power of raw material of vitamin D3—crude lanolin to ensure safety stock of vitamin D3 in future. However, as the revenue of vitamin D3 and its analogues occupy a relatively high proportion of of the total revenue, their sales price fluctuations have a great impact on the performance. If the price changes in an adverse direction, there is a risk of decline in the performance.