Instant noodles steaming back to life (3)

A consumer is photographed with the locally rated top 10 instant noodle brands at an industry expo in Shanghai. [Photo by Yin Liqin/China News Service]

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.