The capital landscape of the bulk snack industry is once again stirring.
On February 28, Hong Kong-listed company HUITONGDA NET signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Snack Selection. The announcement revealed that the two parties will establish a joint venture as the sole operational entity for the &#34;Snack Selection&#34; brand chain.
In the future, Snack Selection will maintain regional autonomous operations and continue to deepen its focus on the hard discount bulk snack sector; HUITONGDA will provide support in areas such as platformization, ecological development, capitalization, and AI capabilities.
Thus, another participant with a listed company background has joined the bulk snack sector.
This cooperation occurs at a time when the industry landscape is rapidly solidifying. The business logic of bulk snacks is not complicated: the more stores there are, the more centralized the procurement, the stronger the bargaining power, and the more stable the gross profit margin; once scale is achieved, it becomes increasingly difficult for newcomers to catch up.
Since 2023, the two leading companies in the bulk snack sector have been continuously expanding their territory through mergers and acquisitions, with a combined store count nearing 40,000 and a total market share exceeding 70%.
Among them, Mingming is busy has completed its listing on the Hong Kong stock market, and Wanchen Group's &#34;A+H&#34; process is also underway. The combination of capital and scale further reinforces the Matthew effect.
In contrast, while Snack Selection, as a regional brand, has a certain scale foundation, it faces constraints in terms of national expansion and capital operations.
What HUITONGDA values may be the offline network extension space brought by the high-frequency consumption scenario of bulk snacks.
As an industrial internet platform, HUITONGDA has been promoting the integration of AI with offline store scenarios in recent years, strengthening systematic support for physical retail terminals.
At the supply chain level, its membership store system is expected to connect with Snack Selection's hard discount product resources, optimizing product structure, enhancing customer flow and repurchase rates, and exploring a standardized replication path of &#34;fast-moving consumer goods upgrade + small store big chain,&#34; thereby increasing the stickiness and profitability between the platform and stores.
In terms of AI and digitalization, HUITONGDA has commercialized applications in retail chain scenarios around its self-developed &#34;QianCheng Cloud AI Model&#34; and related AI Agents.
After this cooperation, the relevant systems can be quickly deployed to Snack Selection's 2,800 stores, connecting data, decision-making, and operational processes, from product selection, warehousing and distribution to store management and community operations, achieving a higher degree of refined management.
The high-frequency consumption attributes of bulk snacks and the community scenario stickiness will also fill an important puzzle piece for HUITONGDA in the hard discount sector.
Whether the curve can achieve overtaking remains to be seen over time. However, it is certain that against the backdrop of increasing industry concentration, single-dimensional expansion is no longer capable of shaking the existing landscape, and the focus of competition will ultimately shift to the contest of supply chain efficiency and system capabilities

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- The capital landscape of the bulk snack industry is shifting, highlighted by a strategic partnership between Huaitongda and Snack Selection to establish a joint venture.  
- This collaboration aims to enhance Snack Selection's operations while leveraging Huaitongda's resources in areas like AI and supply chain efficiency, amidst a rapidly consolidating industry.  
- As major players solidify their market positions with nearly 40,000 stores, the competitive focus is shifting towards optimizing supply chain efficiency and system capabilities to thrive in an increasingly concentrated market.

The snack wholesale sector welcomes another player in the Hong Kong stock market: HUITONGDA NET partners with Snack Selection