DayDayCook Looks To China, Bitcoin For New Growth

It might be Tariff Wednesday (or whatever “Liberation Day” means), but one packaged food maker is looking at China as a partner rather than a competitor

Multi-brand Asian food company DayDayCook (DDC) announced a new partnership with prepared-meal producer Hewen Agricultural Technology Limited (HAT) today to scale its ecommerce, foodservice and DTC business across mainland China.

The deal with HAT is expected to contribute about $3 million in annual profits to DDC over the course of the next five years. The joint venture will also allow Hong Kong-based DDC’s portfolio of primarily U.S.-based brands the chance to reach China’s 1.4 billion potential customers

“By combining DDC’s innovation-driven brands with Hewen’s localized production expertise, we’re poised to capture the fast-growing demand for high-quality, health-focused meal solutions across China’s digital and offline ecosystem,” said DDC CEO and chairwoman Norma Chu in a statement.

Exploring new expansion opportunities to support the business is a prudent move considering the company’s rapid acquisition rate thus far.

Let’s Rewind: It’s been a wild nearly two years for DDC, which began with a buying spree with Nona Lim in August 2023 followed by Yai’s Thai in December. Rounding out the portfolio, DDC added Omsom in June as it aimed at becoming the “General Mills of Asian food” brands.

The journey has not been without bumps. The company went public in November 2023 on the NYSE and has run into more than one financial hurdle since. DDC restructured its debt last August after it was warned of a potential delisting in April. By January it had returned to good standing.

Amid all this, DDC took steps to shore up its finances by bringing on co-CFOs Tony Tao and Jeff Ervin; at the time, Chu simultaneously increased her stake in her company by 10 million shares (representing about $2.2 million).

Most recently, DDC said it is diversifying its finances via the cryptocurrency market. Earlier this month, it announced that an unnamed investor group would inject 100 BTC (bitcoin) into the business over the next three months in exchange for Class A Ordinary shares.

The move is “the first of many that we will be making to integrate Web3 innovations to the DDC consumer community,” Chu said at the time: “This strategic decision to launch a bitcoin reserve not only diversifies our balance sheet but also secures a premium-priced equity agreement that reflects our partner’s belief in our long-term growth.”

Now, let’s pull back to the present day. U.S. CPG businesses face looming uncertainty over trade wars and an economic climate plagued by years of inflation (and possibly more to come) as well as a potential recession. DDC appears to be hedging against the current, precarious environment by returning to its roots.

Chu launched DDC as a content platform in China and is now seemingly looking to re-capitalize on that established brand equity. By securing a manufacturing foothold in the country (presumably as a route around tariffs, too) DDC could bring new growth avenues to the business if the situation seriously heads south over here in the states.