How Blackmores entered China, and what it cost them

Blackmores, the Australian vitamin brand, entered China in 2012 and grew on two channels it only half controlled: bonded cross-border warehouses and Chinese shoppers buying off Australian pharmacy shelves. A rumor in 2016 and a law in 2019 cut into the second, then COVID shut the border. China revenue fell 28% in two years. When it came back, the China profit didn’t.

Every figure below comes from Blackmores’ annual reports, filed in Australian dollars, or from a dated Chinese report, all checked on October 8, 2026. Kirin Holdings bought the company in 2023. The last full-year China figures in an annual report are for fiscal 2022, the year to June 2022.

Where Blackmores stands in China now

Blackmores still sells in China, mostly online. Its Chinese website, blackmores.com.cn, was live on October 8, 2026, and every product on it links to a Tmall Global listing. Those listings sit behind a Taobao login for a logged-out visitor, so there’s no assortment count, no current price check and no review count here.

China is now a smaller share of the business than Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia makes up nearly 30% of Blackmores revenue, above mainland China’s 20%, and is its fastest-growing market. Kirin wants to use Blackmores’ regulatory experience and sales channels to grow in Asian health foods. Source: Economic Daily News (經濟日報), October 2026. https://money.udn.com/money/story/5599/9787415

That is a long way from 2018, when Peter Osborne, then president of Blackmores Asia, called China the brand’s second market after Australia.

China had grown into Blackmores’ second market after Australia, with 40% of global sales, Osborne said. Source: The Paper (澎湃新闻), November 2018. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2619490

In the annual report for the year to June 2018, the China segment was A$143.3 million out of A$601.1 million, about 24%. Our reading is that Osborne’s 40% also counts the Chinese buyers who shopped in Australia.

The last figure the company filed was for fiscal 2022.

China revenue rose 10.6% to A$145.6 million in fiscal 2022 and reported China EBIT was A$16.0 million. Blackmores remained a top 4 vitamin and supplement brand on every cross-border platform in China that year. Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2022, August 2022. https://announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20220818/pdf/45cz6p0pw9r1s3.pdf

Then Kirin paid for the whole company.

Kirin Holdings offered A$95 a share, A$1.88 billion in total, a 24% premium to the previous close. Marcus Blackmore, who held 18%, backed the deal. Source: Sina Finance (新浪财经), April 2023. https://finance.sina.com.cn/world/2023-04-27/doc-imyruraw1873790.shtml

The sequence they ran, with dates

Before Blackmores formally entered China in 2012, many Chinese consumers were already buying its products on trips to Australia and elsewhere in Asia. Source: Jiemian (界面新闻), April 2019. https://www.jiemian.com/article/2995052.html

The free trade zones came next, and Osborne credited them with the jump.

The Shanghai free trade zone opened in 2013. Blackmores was among the first companies in, and within a year its share price went from the low 30s to more than A$200. Source: The Paper (澎湃新闻), November 2018. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2619490

Blackmores’ 2015 annual report explains the mechanics.

Sales to China were supported by the wholly foreign-owned enterprise set up the prior year. The free trade zones that opened in 2014 created “a substantial opportunity, especially as Blackmores was one of only a few companies in this category to secure a licence to directly trade within the zone.” Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2015, August 2015. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2015.pdf

The channel they picked first, and what it locked in

Cross-border came first, and it stayed first. A product shipped into a bonded warehouse and sold online to Chinese buyers skips the Chinese product registration that general trade requires. Osborne put numbers on the gap.

Through general trade, a food product needs three months to register, then one to two weeks to clear customs. Cross-border products take about six weeks in total, and the route let 70% of Blackmores’ range into China. Source: The Paper (澎湃新闻), November 2018. https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2619490

90% of Blackmores’ China sales came from cross-border ecommerce platforms and 10% from offline. Source: Jiemian (界面新闻), April 2019. https://www.jiemian.com/article/2995052.html

The second channel was never on a Chinese platform at all. It was the daigou trade: Chinese shoppers and resellers buying on Australian pharmacy and supermarket shelves and shipping the goods home. Blackmores booked those sales in Australia, and it tried to size them.

In-country China sales reached A$48 million, up 536%, helped by the bonded warehouse. “We estimate that Chinese consumers now influence over $250 million of our Group sales, almost a four-fold increase in the last 12 months.” Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2016, August 2016. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2016.pdf

So about A$200 million of that demand sat outside China, mostly on Australian shelves Blackmores didn’t run, bought by shoppers it couldn’t track. That’s our arithmetic from the two figures. The rest of this story turns on it.

A supplement brand can test the same route today. On Tmall Global, health supplements take a 300,000 RMB deposit and a 30,000 RMB annual fee at 3% commission, 330,000 RMB before the first sale. JD Worldwide asks a 35,500 RMB deposit at 5%, and Douyin’s cross-border store a 5,000 RMB deposit at 4% (TheChinaPath calculator data, October 2026). Run your own category in the Tmall Global setup and run calculator.

What it visibly cost

No filing puts a figure on what Blackmores spent building China. The filings do show what China earned, year by year, from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2022.

China segment revenue was A$122.2 million in fiscal 2019 against A$143.3 million in fiscal 2018, and China EBIT A$21.5 million against A$35.6 million, down 40%. Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2019, August 2019. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2019.pdf

China revenue rose 28% to A$131.6 million in fiscal 2021, and the segment posted reported EBIT of A$14.3 million against break-even the year before. The free trade zone channel now made up “more than 70% of net sales.” Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2021, August 2021. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2021.pdf

Read the first and last rows together. Revenue in 2022 was back above 2018. China EBIT was less than half, a margin of about 11% against about 25% four years earlier (our arithmetic from the filed figures). Our reading: Blackmores had swapped a channel that cost it little to serve, other people’s shops in Australia, for platforms where it paid for traffic and service.

There were smaller bills too.

Infant nutrition sold A$4 million through the Bemore partnership, hit by “continued regulatory uncertainty in China.” Blackmores’ share of Bemore operating losses was A$7 million for the year, with all finished goods inventory written down. Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2017, August 2017. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2017.pdf

Where they lost time

Twice, a rule change in China pulled demand off the Australian shelves. The company’s own words for the first drop: it “came without warning.” And it started as a rumor.

“Speculation in April 2016 about potential regulatory changes in China impacted the buying patterns of Chinese entrepreneurs and tourists who previously were purchasing through Australian retailers.” The decline “came without warning.” Group sales fell 3% to A$693 million and net profit 42% to A$58 million. Direct China sales rose 71% to A$132 million. Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2017, August 2017. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2017.pdf

The second was the E-commerce Law, in force from January 1, 2019.

Sales grew in every market except China, “down 15% due to e-commerce law changes taking effect from January 2019.” In-country sales to ecommerce platforms rose 22%. Counting China-influenced sales through Australian retailers, Blackmores estimated sales to Chinese consumers fell about 14%. Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2019, August 2019. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2019.pdf

COVID closed the border on what was left.

Demand from Chinese shoppers was 24% of Australian retail sales of vitamins and supplements in calendar 2019, and 16% in the second half of fiscal 2020. China revenue fell 16% to A$103 million. Source: Blackmores Limited, full year results release, August 2020. https://www.belldirect.com.au/smarter/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Blackmores-Presentation.pdf

The same year, Blackmores relabeled its range, which the company also blamed for lower China sales, and started over with the platforms.

From December 2019 Blackmores reshaped its China range and reset its work with the main ecommerce platforms. It became category captain with Tmall in May 2020. During the 618 festival that June, GMV rose 75% and 3 million unique visitors came to the Tmall flagship. Source: Blackmores Limited, Annual Report 2020, August 2020. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/B/ASX_BKL_2020.pdf

The Tmall store itself went dark for most of a month.

Blackmores’ Tmall Global official flagship closed on August 1, 2017 and reopened on August 28. After signing a deeper agreement with Tmall Global in July, Blackmores planned to switch to a more suitable service provider. Source: Niuxuan (牛选), September 2017. https://www.niuxuan.cn/redian/4187.html

A year before that, the same product carried three prices.

A Blackmores cranberry supplement sold for 99 RMB on JD’s self-operated store, 169 RMB from a third-party seller and 189 RMB in the Tmall Global flagship. Source: China Industry Information (中国产业信息研究网), July 2016. https://m.china1baogao.com/news/20160712/8066828.html

What to copy, and what to avoid

Copy the license. Blackmores was early into the bonded zones and could put most of its range in front of Chinese buyers in weeks, without registering each product first. That route is still open, and it’s where a supplement brand should test demand. The setup sits in cross-border store setup.

Copy the counting, too. In 2016 Blackmores tried to measure the Chinese demand it couldn’t see in its own China numbers, and published the estimate. That number told the board how much of its China business sat outside China.

Then avoid the dependence. The A$250 million figure was the warning. When roughly four dollars of every five in that estimate run through someone else’s shop in another country, a rumor about China’s import rules can take a year’s growth. Move that demand onto a store you run in China, with your own customer data, before a regulator moves it for you.

Pick the service provider for the long run. A flagship that goes dark for four weeks to change operators gives up nearly a month of sales. Check who owns the store and how you leave before you sign; that’s what finding a Tmall partner is built around.

Hold one price across platforms. A 99 RMB listing next to a 189 RMB one teaches buyers to wait for the cheap channel.

Budget the wait in any category where China’s rules are still moving. The Bemore infant nutrition venture lost Blackmores more in a year than it sold.

And plan for the margin you’ll actually keep. Blackmores’ China revenue came back and its China profit didn’t. Our reading of the filings is that selling on the platforms costs more than selling through Australian shelves ever did.

Questions brands ask

When did Blackmores enter China?

Blackmores formally entered China in 2012, according to its Asia leadership, and set up a wholly foreign-owned company in fiscal 2014. In 2014 it won a license to trade directly inside China’s new free trade zones, which let it sell into China online from a bonded warehouse.

How much does Blackmores sell in China?

The last full-year figure in an annual report is A$145.6 million of China revenue in fiscal 2022, with A$16.0 million of China EBIT. Kirin Holdings bought the company in 2023. Economic Daily News reported in October 2026 that mainland China is about 20% of Blackmores revenue.

Does Blackmores sell through cross-border or general trade?

Mostly cross-border. In 2019 Blackmores said 90% of its China sales came from cross-border ecommerce platforms, and by fiscal 2021 the free trade zone channel made up more than 70% of China net sales. In 2019 the remaining 10% came from offline sales.

What does a supplement brand pay to open on Tmall Global?

Health supplements are a special category on Tmall Global: a 300,000 RMB deposit and a 30,000 RMB annual fee, 330,000 RMB before the first sale, then 3% commission (TheChinaPath calculator data, October 2026). JD Worldwide and Douyin’s cross-border store ask far smaller deposits.

If you sell supplements and want a partner who’ll run your China store for the long haul, request a Compass shortlist and we’ll come back with vetted partners for your category.