Chinese dairy giant Yili Group was honored at the World Beverage Innovation Awards 2018, which took place in Nuremberg, Germany, on Nov 14. The firm was the only Chinese company to win an award this year. 

The World Beverage Innovation Awards, held by FoodBev Media, have been hosted for consecutive 16 years, and they are hailed as the highest honor in the global beverage sector.

This year, winners have been selected from 241 companies from 28 countries, with awards covering 25 categories.

In 2017, around 264,000 new food and beverage brands entered the market –– an average of 700 per day. As markets and the requirements of consumers change, companies are relying on innovation to stay ahead of the competition.

Yili was one of the earliest companies in China's food industry to realize the importance of innovation, having started research on breast milk more than a decade ago. It later developed lactose hydrolysis technology for new products.

In the past few years, Yili has worked with top international research institutions developing new food and dairy technology, in order to further improve its technological innovation capability.

Relying on industry-leading R&D technology and continuous upgrading of its products, Yili has developed many popular offerings, such as “Youyue” and "Changqing PET" yoghurt.

Yili's impressive development boils down to its innovation capability. In 2005, the group's annual revenues exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.44 billion), and hit 60.36 billion yuan in 2015.

Recent data revealed that in the first three quarters of 2018, Yili achieved revenues of 61.33 billion yuan, marking year-on-year growth of 16.88 percent, making it China's highest-earning dairy company. 

But Yili has its sights set on an even bigger achievement –– earning revenues of 100 billion yuan for the first time.