With the Spring Festival approaching, food and beverages have entered the “new year goods market”. Both online and offline have entered the “new year goods preparation mode”, and many new year goods set off a strong new year flavor.
It can be seen that, with the gradual changes of Chinese consumers’ New Year’s Eve ways and consumption habits in recent years, the usual high sugar drinks are gradually replaced by low sugar drinks on the dinner tables of many families. Under this change, there is a fierce game between beverage brands.
Over the past 40 years, with the rise of domestic products, domestic drinks are tearing up the market space occupied by foreign brands. Hankou No. 2 factory became popular overnight, Bingfeng impacted the capital market, and Yuanqi forest built its own factory from light to heavy, which proves the rise of domestic drinks.
Obviously, changes in the market are inseparable from changes in consumer demand. On the other hand, the rise of domestic beverage brands has also written a history of struggle with foreign capital. After 40 years of iterative changes, sugar free drinks are now standing at the tuyere. The subdivided track represented by brands such as Yuanqi forest will undoubtedly face more fierce competition.
beverage reform in more than 40 years
The development history of domestic beverage brands is inseparable from the key year of 1982. At that time, the state officially included beverages in the “national planned management products”, which undoubtedly played a great role in promoting the development of beverages.
By 1983, there were “eight soda plants” on the market, and the sales volume accounted for 42% of the total output of the country. In 1984, Jianlibao, the earliest electrolyte sports drink in China, was born. In the 1990s, the domestic beverage market showed a scene of a hundred flowers blooming, with the emergence of Wahaha, Xuri group, Huiyuan, Lulu and other brands. After 2000, international brands such as Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola expanded their investment and development in China. Taiwan funded enterprises represented by Master Kang and uni president also coveted the mainland market, and domestic brands began to survive in the cracks.
The huge expansion of foreign brands is squeezing the production space of domestic beverage brands. In the early 1990s, Coca Cola and PepsiCo acquired seven soda plants in the Arctic Ocean, Shanhaiguan, Hankou No. 2 plant, Asian soda plant, Laoshan, Bawangsi and Tianfu Cola in the form of joint venture. They not only “hid” the seven plants with the advantage of shareholders, but also used their channels to enter the Chinese market.
In addition, Coca Cola has successively launched meizhiyuan and tea drinks; PepsiCo spent 250 million yuan to build Asia’s largest non carbonated beverage production base; Master Kang also allied with Itochu of Japan. Local enterprises represented by Wahaha and nongnongshan spring are also actively exploring this market. However, in the first 10 years of the 21st century, almost all the top three are multinational giants, whether carbonated or non carbonated.
What cannot be ignored is the forbearance and resilience of national brands. After 2010, with the increasing number of market segments, domestic beverage brands are also grabbing back market share step by step. In the milk beverage market, Mengniu yoghurt, yiliyou yoghurt, Guangming yoghurt, Wahaha nutrition express and other brand products have become popular in this field; With the positioning of “being afraid of getting angry and drinking herbal tea”, herbal tea beverage has quickly moved from Guangdong to the national market, and created famous herbal tea brands such as JDB, Wang Laoji and Heqizheng; In the functional beverage market, although Red Bull still occupies more market share, domestic brands such as Dongpeng special drink, Lehu, physique energy and war horse are also rising rapidly.
In recent years, with the enhancement of consumers’ health awareness, sugar free has become a new beverage outlet. In this field, domestic brands represented by Yuanqi forest have risen rapidly, successfully built an industry moat and led the rapid development of the industry.
On the one hand, the change of the market is inseparable from the change of consumer demand. “In the development history of Chinese drinks, the change between the old and the new lies in the change of consumer demand in the market, for example, from sweet drinks to sugar free, from purified water to mineral water.” Pan Helin, executive dean of the Digital Research Institute of Zhongnan University of economics and law, told the reporter of China business daily.
Yu Runjie, an expert in the food and beverage industry, said that the hot concept of “sugar free”, coupled with the rich taste and multi-level taste experience of bubble water itself, catered to the consumption trend of beverages and made this category have a very broad market space. The follow-up of many brand sugar free products will also accelerate the cultivation and expansion of the market.
On the other hand, over the past 40 years, domestic beverages have grown from scratch, and then been suppressed and fought by foreign capital. They have found a breakthrough in the market segments and written a history of the struggle in the beverage market.
“With the dividend of the rise of a big country and the popularity of the country, the future of domestic drinks must be bright. More national brands will shoulder the responsibility of revitalizing domestic products in the future development of the industry.” Chinese food industry analyst Zhu danpeng said.
“protesters”
“History of resistance” is inseparable from the writing of “protesters”. Looking back on the past 40 years, every domestic brand has its own story.
In 2007, Danone of France wanted to acquire 51% equity of other non joint venture companies with total assets of 5.6 billion yuan and profit of 1.04 billion yuan in 2006 at a low price of 4 billion yuan. If this transaction goes ahead, China will lose the absolute control of “Wahaha”.
Zong Qinghou, who was at the helm of Wahaha at that time, successfully took the shares of Danone’s joint venture into his own hands at the price of 3 billion yuan after 23 lawsuits.
Not only Wahaha, but also in 2007, the Arctic Ocean launched several rounds of negotiations with Pepsi and finally got back the management right, with the additional condition that it could not produce carbonated drinks within four years. In 2008, Tianfu Cola began to recover the ownership of formula and production technology from Pepsi Cola. Although the brand is once again in the hands of its own people, the beverage market has been tightly held by Coca Cola and Pepsi, and the best development opportunity has been missed.
When sugar free drinks stand in the tuyere, domestic brand leaders are also fighting with international giants. It is widely reported by the media that one day in early 2021, Yuanqi forest received a sudden call: “before 12 pm, all factories producing Yuanqi forest must shut down.” The caller is the OEM of Yuanqi forest milk tea products.
To this end, Yuanqi forest decided to build its own factory. It is understood that from 2019, Yuanqi forest has completed the layout of five “forest factories” in three years: its own factories in Chuzhou, Anhui, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, Xiqing, Tianjin, Xianning, Hubei and Dujiangyan, Sichuan. Now it has formed the layout of East China, South China, North China, Central China and southwest China, covering Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay area, Southwest Sichuan Two lakes, central and South China and other key markets.
Most importantly, self built factories can also complete some production tasks that can not be realized by agent factories, so as to improve the control over the production of core products, improve product quality, and further enhance the ability of product innovation. Newly developed products can be quickly put into production, tested and verified in their own factories, and process optimization can be carried out in time according to feedback.
Xie Yingying, an analyst of walnut strategic positioning consulting, believes that there are two reasons for the establishment of Yuanqi forest: first, ensure the supply demand and hold the supply chain in their own hands.
In 2021, the competition in the beverage market is extremely fierce. Under the constant siege of giants, OEM can not guarantee the production capacity; Second, Yuanqi forest produces new products very quickly. Self built factories can meet the strong interaction between production and R & D and feed back innovation.
Zhu danpeng also believes that for new enterprises like Yuanqi forest, it is very critical to improve the whole supply chain from asset light to asset heavy.
The founder of Yuanqi forest once said in an interview, “Why build factories? Because we want to make bubble water without preservatives, but Chinese factories can’t do it. We can only do it ourselves.” At present, China’s OEM plants can not meet the product R & D needs of Yuanqi forest.
Obviously, the struggle of domestic brands has had an impact on the market. According to the data of prospective industry research institute, in 2011, China’s top ten soft drink enterprises accounted for more than half of the national market, with a market share of 54.0%. By 2020, the market share of China’s top ten soft drink enterprises will drop to 44.9%. China’s soft drink market pattern will be scattered, and the competition in the industry will become more and more fierce. This means that the market is no longer occupied by giants, but increasingly scattered, and domestic brands will face more development opportunities.
upper air outlet of sugar free station
According to the Zhiyan consulting report, the market scale of sugar free beverages increased from 1.66 billion yuan in 2014 to 11.78 billion yuan in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 38.69%, far exceeding the total growth rate of the beverage industry. Sugar free drinks have undoubtedly become a new outlet for the beverage segment.
It can also be seen from the output growth of sub categories that erythritol increased from 18000 tons in 2015 to 51000 tons in 2019, and the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) was 29.9%, which was significantly faster than that of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame and sucralose. Among the three types of artificial sweeteners, sucralose increased significantly, with CAGR of 18.9% from 2015 to 2019, followed by Acesulfame (9.8%) and abbasite (- 14.1%).
Zhu danpeng believes that the demand of the new generation of consumers for weight management, beauty management and big health management is increasing, so they pay more attention to “sugar free” products. The transformation of consumer side forces the change of industrial side nodes, so as to match and meet the core demands of consumers.
The advent of tuyere can also be confirmed by the rapid development of Yuanqi forest, one of the earliest entrants. At the beginning of 2021, the authoritative agency dolphin society released the top 100 list of Chinese new consumption and new domestic brands in 2021. Yuanqi forest won the first place in the growth rate of domestic beverage and beverage industry, and the sales scale increased by 309% year-on-year in 2020. The 2021 China sugar free beverage market trend insight report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences also shows that the compound growth rate of Yuanqi forest in 2020 is as high as 334%.
However, the competition for sugar free drinks is becoming more and more fierce. It is understood that after the explosion of sugar free bubble water in Yuanqi forest, Jianlibao also launched “micro bubble” sugar free bubble water with “0 sugar and 0 fat” and “dietary fiber” and “Jianlibao fiber + sports drink”. In fact, other Chinese beverage enterprises have also laid out sugar free areas early. In 2011, nongnongshan spring launched sugar free tea, Oriental leaves; In the same year, tianwo tea house launched three sugar free teas of “tianwo gold” series; In 2018, Wahaha launched “Anhua black tea” beverage; Subsequently, Yibao launched “flavored tea” sugar free tea.
International Beverage giants have also seen the market potential of sugar free beverages. It is reported that Coca Cola’s sugar free products have long occupied major shelves. At the same time, Pepsi Cola and ITO garden, a well-known Japanese beverage brand, have begun to layout the sugar free field.
“At this stage, sugar free products are still in the key node of slowly entering the growth period from the introduction period. Therefore, for enterprises, whoever first arranges the field and takes the lead in seizing consumers’ brand awareness can seize the first opportunity. In the next three years, this field will be in the stage of consumption expansion and market expansion, which is also the best time for brands to enter.” Zhu danpeng said, but the hotter the industry is, the more fierce the competition is. If there is no high-quality products or mature channel layout to support the brand, it is very difficult to develop in this industry.
compete for the annual market
In 2021, the “2021 national online New Year Festival” jointly guided by the Ministry of Commerce and relevant departments made its debut. At that time, there was a fierce competition for drinks on the online battlefield, and domestic brands were brilliant.
With the Spring Festival approaching in 2022, food and beverage has once again entered the “new year goods market”. Yuanqi forest has also joined the new year goods campaign for two consecutive years and launched a new year special package – the new year “Fuqi” bottle. The traditional word “Fu” is printed on the package. Buying Yuanqi forest is to make “Fuqi” home. Drinking vitality forest is to drink “blessing”, and there is “blessing” every year.
Blessing on the table, focusing on the reunion catering scene, is a beautiful moral and the Chinese people’s expectation for the new year. Some consumers said that there are many things to buy at one time, so we should choose carefully. Many things should also be used to visit relatives and friends. Chinese people want to be happy and lucky during the Spring Festival. Therefore, we should consider not only the health, but also the good meaning of the product.
In fact, for a long time in the past, the Spring Festival table was occupied by high sugar coke and fruit juice. However, after 2020, under the background of the outbreak of the epidemic, Chinese people’s demand for health and low sugar is becoming stronger and stronger, which is also reflected in the purchase of new year goods. The process of Chinese people purchasing new year goods has not only become the transformation of the trend of mass consumption throughout the year, but also the concentrated period of brand replacement under this new trend.
Taking family “sharing” as the starting point and accurately positioning the new year goods market, Yuanqi forest is obviously well prepared. Whether the appearance of the packaging is full of flavor of the previous year, or the 1.25l high-volume packaging, or the product feature of “0 sugar, 0 fat and 0 card”, all firmly grasp the pain point of consumers’ shopping in the Spring Festival.
In fact, in the past impression of consumers, bubble water is the representative of summer drinks, and it is a product to drink alone. The domestic beverage represented by Yuanqi forest has entered the annual product market for two consecutive years, completing the transformation and transformation of the domestic brand itself.
“In the context of the national tide and the continuous innovation of products, in fact, domestic brands in various industries are loved by many consumers. Now consumers are becoming younger and younger. Products that meet the tastes of young people and have the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year are naturally a good choice. In addition, the bubble water of 0 sugar and 0 fat is both appetizing and healthy for all kinds of dinner during the Chinese New Year.” A consumer told reporters.
