Snack foods may cost just pennies each, offering consumers quick fixes of everything from beef jerky to dried peas and spicy peanuts. But those small sums combined can add up to big cash, creating some industry titans. One of those, Liuliu Orchard Group Co. Ltd., whose signature snacks are based on plums, is hoping to raise big bucks by offering investors a piece of one of China’s favorite snacks through its planned listing in Hong Kong.
When Yang Fan of Eastern China’s Anhui province founded Anhui Liuliu in the city of Wuhu in 1999, he could hardly imagine that his small business would one day apply to list on a major international stock market. The company began by initially focusing on pastry products. It planted the seeds of its future success two years later with the launch of its Liuliumei brand in 2001, specializing in its signature plum-based snacks. By 2009, the company was operating factories in some of China’s key plum-producing regions like Anhui and Fujian provinces, ascending to the corporate big leagues.
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