The Chinese brand “MINISO”, which has always been labeled as “cheap and easy to use”, is once again exposed as having quality problems with its products. According to the quality inspection results of protective mask products in Guangzhou in 2020 released by Guangzhou Market Supervision Bureau, 2 batches of “MINISO (Guangzhou)” disposable masks produced by nominal MINISO (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “MINISO”) (production date/batch number: The 2020-09-15/1971028501; 2020-09-15/1971028503) were detected and the rupture strength item of the mask belt and the connection between the mask belt and the mask body was not qualified.
MINISO cosmetics contain toxic substances
In the past two years, MINISO has repeatedly exposed product quality problems. On September 23, 2020, Shanghai Food and Drug Administration issued the first phase of sampling inspection quality notice of cosmetics supervision in 2020, which showed that the detection value of chloroform of the one-step peelable nail polish (specification: 7ml/ bottle) sold by Pinli Department Store in Jing’an District, Shanghai as the agent of MINISO (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (batch number: 9C19) was 589.449μg/g, while the standard is less than 0.40μg/g, which means sampling test results exceeded the standard of more than 1400 times. As for the sampling test results, the company involved applied for re-inspection, but the results were still unqualified after the re-inspection by Shenzhen Institute for Drug Control.
Trichloromethane (alias: chloroform) is a colorless transparent liquid with a special odor, sweet taste, high refractive index, non-combustible, heavy, volatile, low toxicity, narcotic, and carcinogenic. On October 27, 2017, the list of carcinogens published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization was preliminarily compiled for reference, and chloroform was included in the list of 2B carcinogens. On July 23, 2019, chloroform was included in the list of toxic and hazardous water pollutants (the first batch). At the same time, chloroform is a banned substance in cosmetics in the “Cosmetics Safety Technical Specification” (2015 edition), that is, it cannot be added or used.
According to the “2019 Shanghai Children’s Tableware (Miamine Tableware) Quality Supervision and Spot Inspection Results” released by Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision on June 18, 2020, the nominal KaKao Friends RYAN apple bowl (Specifications and model: 380mL) was found that the transfer amount of melamine (4% acetic acid) item was unqualified.
MINISO depends on OEMs, its quality is difficult to guarantee
In the past two years, MINISO has been “named” by the market supervision authorities many times, which exposes the shortcomings of MINISO in quality control. When it comes to quality control, the production and operation mode of relying on OEMs is an unavoidable topic.
It is understood that MINISO sales categories include home decoration, small electronic products, textiles, toys, cosmetics, stationery and so on. Its products are mainly low-priced, taking the route of small profits but quick turnover. In order to improve profit margins and strictly control costs, MINISO cooperates with a large number of OEMs and operates in an integrated supply chain.
Take cosmetics as an example. A search for “MINISO” on the Chinese National Food and Drug Administration’s domestic non-special purpose cosmetics filing service platform shows that there are multiple companies registered, which means its products are produced by multiple OEM suppliers.
It is worth noting that Cosmax (Guangzhou) Cosmetics Co., the supplier of products such as Miniso snail cream, isolation cream and foundation displayed on the platform, was ordered to rectify the situation. On January 17, 2020, China’s State Food and Drug Administration issued a flight inspection notice on Cosmax (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., which revealed that the company had problems in quality management, such as failing to detect sunscreen content as required; In terms of materials and products, there were problems such as not storing according to requirements; in terms of production management, there were problems such as not preparing according to the production process. In response, China’s State Food and Drug Administration ordered the company a deadline to rectify.
Miniso has been the subject of several disputes over plagiarism
As of December 31, 2020, MINISO has a global retail network of 4,514 stores in nearly 90 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Russia, Australia and Germany, according to MINISO’s official website.
At the same time of rapid expansion, Miniso seems to have ignored the principle that “quality is king”, and its products have caused a number of disputes for “copying”.
According to Tianyancha, Miniso has been involved in more than 50 legal disputes (between 2018 and 2020), five of which involved infringement of design patents.
As brands pay more attention to the protection of intellectual property rights, companies copying in the future will be caught in more legal disputes, resulting in serious damage to brand reputation, said a Chinese industry insider.
Source: China Quality News