Instant noodles steaming back to life

As the middle class and young families with children generally pay great attention to quality and nutrition, Master Kong is speeding up innovation, upgrading nutrition and launching high-end products. It said it has a 66.5 percent market share in developed areas of the country.

For middle-class consumers, it has developed the Express series of instant noodles, whose flavor and ingredients are as good as the noodles available in restaurants. It has also launched a series of products, such as DIY noodles and pot-boiled noodles, to meet the needs of young families with children.

To bolster the brand's image of being health-conscious, the company has diversified its products to match different scenarios. In May, together with the National Winter Sports Administrative Center, Master Kong tailor-made an Express series of instant noodles for Chinese winter sports athletes, based on their eating habits and nutritional needs.

Jinmailang, a domestic instant noodle maker, said it saw double-digit growth both last year and this, and its main products are noodles that sell for more than 4 yuan a cup.

One series of products, which comes in a larger-size cup, has been in particular demand, with sales this year exceeding 4 billion yuan. The company promoted the series, which uses cups one-and-a-half times bigger, after some customers said they still felt hungry after eating noodles served in traditional-sized cups.