Share market debutant Vitaco expects strong demand in China for health products such as milk biscuits and infant formula to help drive future growth.
Nutritional products supplier Vitaco, whose brands include Aussie Bodies, Nutra-Life, Healtheries and Musashi, made a strong start to trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday.
Shares in Vitaco had risen 23 cents, or 10.95 per cent, to $2.33 by 1433 AEST.
They closed 28 cents, or 13.33 per cent, higher at $2.38.
Vitaco raised around $232 million in an initial public offer of more than 110 million shares at an issue price of $2.10 each.
Funds raised from the share offer will underpin the next phase of the company's growth as it consolidates its market in Australia and New Zealand and expands in China, Brazil and the United Kingdom.
Vitaco chief executive Ryan d'Almeida said on Wednesday that its underlying business in Australia and New Zealand continues to grow steadily.
He said more than one in three Australians takes a dietary supplement each day, and the sports nutrition market in Australia and New Zealand is now the world's second largest.
The market in China is growing very well, albeit off a lower base.
"It (Vitaco's market in China) has gone from very little to somewhere between eight and 10 per cent of our business," Mr d'Almeida said.
He said demand in China was strong for milk biscuits - containing compressed milk powder - and nutritional supplements.
"There's clearly a large population in China, with a strong preference for western brands," Mr d'Almeida said.
"In terms of food brands, they particularly like food products coming out of this part of the world - they trust them."
Vitaco manufactures its products in New Zealand.
Mr d'Almeida said Vitaco was targeting the sports nutrition market in Brazil, with the Aussie Bodies brand of protein powders.
In the UK, Vitaco was in talks with some leading grocery retailers to carry the Aussie Bodies brand of protein bars, which were more of a mass-market healthy snack.
Mr d'Almeida resisted comparisons with another ASX-listed nutritional products supplier, Blackmores, whose share price has rocketed from $35.00 at the beginning of calendar 2015 to around $132.00 on Wednesday.
"We operate in the same thematic. We're focused on growing our business in China," he said.
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