Ziyun "joins hands" with Angie in selling seasonings—has the trend in the compound seasoning market changed?

Ask AI · How do Ziyan and Angel Yeast’s collaboration reshape the flavor competition landscape?

Author: Banxia

Source: First Food Information (ID: cdsspaqxh)

Cover image source: Xiaohongshu @BlackPepperBeefLiu

In 1984, Wang Shouyi founded Shisanxiang in Zhumadian, Henan. He blended and ground various spices—such as chili peppers from Hainan, grass fruit from Yunnan, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise from Guangxi—into powder and packaged them for sale.

Since then, Chinese housewives cooking at home no longer limited themselves to oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Spices like Shisanxiang gradually became the key to unlocking fragrant flavors.

Wang Shouyi’s Shisanxiang ingredients

In that era, the emergence of compound seasonings changed people’s cooking methods and quietly planted the seeds for future industry transformation.

More than thirty years later, this scene continues to unfold in a different form.

Recently, a noteworthy event occurred in the food industry—Ziyan Food signed an agreement with Angel Yeast to jointly establish a joint venture, holding 60% and 40% stakes respectively. The new company will focus on the development of compound seasonings and meat products.

On the surface, this is just a corporate partnership; but looking further, it reflects an emerging industry trend: more and more companies originally focused on finished food products are entering the compound seasoning track.

Last year, another major marinated food company, Zhou Hei Ya, also partnered with Shentang Industrial Group to establish a joint venture, launching GagaXiang compound seasonings, which continue Zhou Hei Ya’s classic sweet, spicy, and savory flavors. They target both home cooking and diverse catering channels, transforming flavors traditionally associated with snacks into products for households worldwide.

When two leading marinated food companies enter the same field, operators should ask themselves: why focus on compound seasonings?

Because in the business world, when multiple industry players make similar choices simultaneously, it often signals—new industry opportunities are opening.

1

From “selling marinated foods” to “selling flavors”

From a business logic perspective, whether it’s Ziyan or Zhou Hei Ya, their move into the compound seasoning market points to the same industry shift: competition in the food industry is shifting from product-based to flavor-based.

Over the past decades, China’s marinated food industry experienced rapid growth.

Products like marinated duck, chicken, duck necks, and duck collar bones expanded quickly nationwide. Many brands built scale advantages through their store networks. For example, Ziyan Food now has a sales system covering over 200 cities with nearly 7,000 stores, while Zhou Hei Ya’s outlets are present in more than 300 cities across the country.

However, the problem is that, despite its large scale, the marinated food industry remains highly fragmented.

Industry data shows China’s marinated food market is about 300 billion yuan, but the CR5 (top 5 companies’ market share) is only about 5%. This means the combined market share of the top five companies is roughly 5%, indicating fierce competition and increasing product homogenization.

[Image source: Setu Wang]

In this context, many companies realize that relying solely on store expansion and single-product growth is insufficient for the next stage of development.

Thus, a new idea emerged: since consumers like the flavor, why not turn the flavor itself into a product?

Compound seasonings are a natural extension of this logic.

Because, fundamentally, compound seasonings are not just single ingredients but a complete flavor solution. They can bring restaurant, brand, or regional flavors into home kitchens and restaurant kitchens through standardized seasoning.

2

Why did Ziyan choose Angel Yeast?

Returning to this collaboration, many ask: why did Ziyan partner with Angel Yeast?

The answer is simple: this is a classic example of industry chain complementarity.

Ziyan’s core capabilities are flavor profiles and consumer scenarios.

As an important brand in the Sichuan marinated system, Ziyan has accumulated a large number of mature flavor profiles over decades. Its extensive store network and consumer data provide deep insights into Chinese family tastes.

Angel Yeast’s core strength lies in food industrial technology.

As one of the world’s leading yeast companies, Angel Yeast has long been involved in upstream food industrial applications. Its yeast extract (YE) is widely used in flavor enhancement systems and is a crucial natural flavoring raw material in modern food manufacturing.

In other words, this collaboration combines a clear set of capabilities: Ziyan provides flavor logic and consumer understanding, while Angel Yeast offers technological expertise and industrial systems.

When these two capabilities merge, there’s an opportunity to transform flavors traditionally found in restaurants and stores into scalable, industrialized compound seasoning products.

From a business perspective, this is not just a new product line but an upgrade of capabilities—shifting from selling marinated foods to selling flavors.

3

Why are compound seasonings suddenly a hot track?

Looking further into the future, the competition in compound seasonings may not just be about “whose seasoning tastes better.”

The real competition likely unfolds on three levels.

First, flavor assets.

Many restaurant and food brands have developed unique flavor systems over years. Once these flavor profiles can be standardized, they can be transformed into new consumer products.

Second, supply chain capabilities.

Producing compound seasonings involves raw materials, formulations, fermentation, flavor extraction techniques, and large-scale manufacturing systems. Without mature supply chain capabilities, maintaining consistent quality is difficult.

Third, channel reach.

The consumption scenarios for compound seasonings include home kitchens, restaurant kitchens, e-commerce, and retail channels. Whether a brand can reach consumers effectively often determines how quickly the product can scale.

When flavor assets, supply chain, and channels are combined, a new food growth model emerges.

4

Three reflections for food business owners

If you’re a food industry operator observing Ziyan and Zhou Hei Ya’s strategies, perhaps more important than what they are doing is pondering three questions:

First, does your company have “flavor assets”?

Many companies have been making products for years, but what truly sticks with consumers is the flavor, not the brand itself.

Second, can these flavors be standardized?

If a flavor only exists in restaurants or stores, its scale is limited; but if it can be industrialized, it can become a new product.

Third, can your flavors enter more scenarios?

Catering, retail, e-commerce, home kitchens—these are different consumer entry points.

When a flavor can cross multiple scenarios, it becomes more than just a product; it becomes a business capability.

The competition in the compound seasoning track has just begun. But it’s certain that in the coming years, more cross-industry entrants will emerge.

Because for food companies, the real opportunity often lies not in the product itself but in the capabilities behind the product.

And flavor is one of the most important capabilities in China’s food industry.

If you are a food industry practitioner, you’re also welcome to discuss: will China’s compound seasoning industry give birth to the next billion-yuan brand?

Perhaps the answer lies in these ongoing industry changes.