Key Chinese Cigarette Brand Evaluated at 2.63 Billion U.S. Dollars

Source from:  Spring City Evening News newspaper 07/02/2007

Yunyan - a key competitive cigarette brand of Hongyun Tobacco Group in southwest China's tobacco-producing Yunnan Province - was evaluated at 21.018 billion yuan (2.63 billion U.S. dollars) and ranked the 35th among the 500 most valuable Chinese brands at the 4th World Brand Summit and the Conference of China's 500 Most Valuable Brands for the year 2007 held in Beijing on June 22. At the summit and conference co-sponsored by the World Brand Lab and the World Executive Weekly, the ranking of Yunyan among the 500 moved up by 32 places from 2004 and its value increased by 13.063 billion yuan (1.63 billion U.S. dollars) from that year, indicating that both the market competitiveness and influence of Yunyan have been increasing over recent years. Over the past nearly 50 years, Yunyan, as a leading competitive cigarette brand of Hongyun Group, has won more than 100 honors at the ministerial or provincial level or higher, including the National Gold Prize for Highly Quality and the titles as a famous Chinese trademark, a famous-brand Chinese product and a most competitive Chinese cigarette brand. Over recent years, Hongyun Group has developed a variety of new products as additional members of the Yunyan brand family, including the Soft Precious Yunyan, the Purple Yunyan and the Yunyan Impression, contributing to increasing the influence of Yunyan at the marketplace of grade high cigarettes in China, and steadily strengthening the profit-making capacity of Yunyan. So far, Hongyun Group has sold more than 300 billion cigarettes (6 million cases) of newly developed brands, earning over 50 billion yuan (6.25 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits, contributing to the economic development in Yunnan Province. Since the beginning of 2007, Yunyan has been in favorable trend of growth. From January to May, Hongyun Group - the second largest Chinese tobacco manufacturer - sold 22.7 billion cigarettes (454,000 cases), a sharp increase of 54.1 percent over the same period of 2006. At a biannual online national cigarette trade fair for delivery in the second half of 2007 held recently by China National Cigarette Sales Co. and China Tobacco Trade Center through the intranet of the tobacco industry of China, Hongyun Group made deals for the supply of 23.98 billion cigarettes (479,600 cases), a sharp increase of 35.29 percent year-on-year. At the fair, Hongyun Group was ranked the first among the Top Ten Chinese tobacco manufacturers in terms of the trade turnover, with its single-case sales value reaching 16,100 yuan (2,013 U.S. dollars). Hongyun Group is planning to spend the next three years or so in turning Yunyan into a national-level key competitive cigarette brand with a high credibility standing, strong competitiveness and high profit-making capacity, with the annual output and sales volume expected to top 75 billion cigarettes (1.5 million cases). It was reported that at the 4th World Brand Summit and the Conference of China's 500 Most Valuable Brands for the year 2007, a total of 16 cigarette brands were ranked among the 500 most valuable Chinese brands, including five ranked among the Top 50, with Yunyan ranked the second among all the cigarette brands rated among the 500. Enditem