Bingboke (冰博克) in milk tea: a “new battleground” for dairy companies?

The deal

Sanyuan (三元股份) has placed a strategic bet on the chilled, ultra‑filtered milk powder category known as bingboke (冰博克), announcing a 104 million RMB investment to take a 42% stake in Shanghai Biruo Foods (必如食品). Sanyuan will be the company’s second‑largest shareholder, behind founder Li Jiankang (李健康). The move positions a long‑established regional dairy player alongside a specialist supplier already embedded in China’s fast‑growing tea and coffee chains. Why chase milk for milk tea? Because bingboke is proving to be a high‑margin input for B2B beverage makers.

Strategy and capacity

Sanyuan says the transaction “fits the company’s strategic plan” to deepen its restaurant and low‑temperature dairy business. The investment is the first major acquisition under new general manager Chen Haifeng (陈海峰), an executive with P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Feihe (飞鹤) and JD backgrounds who has prioritized a Beijing‑focused, low‑temp strategy. Sanyuan brings industrial heft: two processing parks in Beijing and Hebei, 2024 processing capacity of roughly 714,300 tonnes and differentiated milk sources (A2, melatonin‑treated, organic) that could provide stable contract manufacturing for Biruo’s growing B‑side customer base. Sanyuan also has ample liquidity — it reportedly booked 234 million RMB in investment income from its 50% stake in Beijing McDonald’s Food Co. in 2024 — giving it room to push into higher‑value dairy.

Who is Biruo and what is bingboke?

Biruo Foods (必如食品), founded in 2014 with Chinese and Czech technical partners, developed the “bingboke” product line: a membrane‑filtered, concentrated milk with higher protein and calcium, lower water content and a naturally sweeter lactose profile that boosts mouthfeel and can reduce the need for sugar syrups in milk teas. Biruo has been described as “China’s Fairlife,” though it has reportedly avoided a mass retail push and instead focused on B2B channels—supplying chains such as CoCo, Naixue’s Tea (奈雪的茶) and others. It has attracted VC backing in earlier rounds (including funds linked to Tang Binsen (唐彬森), founder of Yuanqi Forest), and it has relied on third‑party co‑packers — a gap Sanyuan can help fill as Biruo expands SKUs and volumes.

Industry context: deep processing as the next front

The Sanyuan–Biruo tie‑up is emblematic of a broader shift in China’s dairy sector away from low‑margin liquid milk toward deep‑processed, B2B ingredients — cheese, butter, cream and membrane‑separated proteins — where import dependence and higher margins create space for domestic players. Large incumbents are already reallocating capacity: Mengniu (蒙牛) put roughly 1 billion RMB into its “Nai Li Fang” deep‑processing project; Yili (伊利) launched a 10,000‑tonne mozzarella line aimed at foodservice in March; and Feihe has formed joint ventures to capture downstream bakery demand. With retail milk prices under pressure and raw‑milk oversupply, dairy firms are hunting new battlegrounds. In China’s tea‑drink counters, bingboke may be one of them.