The rise in temperature has accelerated the competition in the tea beverage market. Since the beginning of this year, sugar free tea has become the focus of competition for tea beverage brands, and the actions of top brands have attracted industry attention. Recently, leading tea brand enterprise Suntory issued the latest price adjustment notice, involving the distribution and purchase prices of its three ready to drink teas. On the other hand, beverage companies are entering the sugar free tea beverage market and continuously promoting new products.
The investigation by reporters found that during the period before the arrival of summer, many beverage companies, including Dongpeng Beverage, Kangshifu, Wahaha, and Vita Lemon Tea, have launched new sugar free tea drinks and intensively increased their consumption of sugar free tea.
Survey: Online "price wars" are more intense
In the beverage area of Baijia Yonghui Supermarket in Tianhe Zhengjia Square, sugar free tea drinks dominate two rows of shelves, with the core "confrontation" position being occupied by the current two heads of sugar free tea drinks: Sandeli Oolong tea on one side and Dongfang Leaf on the other. The Reese Consulting report points out that the current market pattern is "Oriental Leaf, Suntory, and Others".
From the journalists visits, it can be seen that the "price war" between sugar free tea drinks has quietly begun. At Baijia Yonghui Supermarket, the reporter saw that Sandeli Oolong Tea 500ml sugar free is priced at 5.5 yuan, while Dongfang Yes Black Oolong Tea and Jasmine Flower Tea 500ml were originally priced at 5 yuan, but there is an "average price" of 10 yuan and 3 bottles. One bottle is priced at only about 3.3 yuan, giving it an advantage in price. From the investigation by reporters, it can be seen that both traditional top enterprises and rising stars are indiscriminately involved in the "price war".
The price war is more intense online channels. At the Pupu Supermarket, Suntory also came to an end, with three bottles of Wulong tea without sugar priced at 13.5 yuan, or 4.5 yuan per bottle; At the Little Elephant Supermarket, there is a promotional price of 13.5 yuan for three bottles of 500ml Jasmine Tea Beverage from Dongfang Ye and 500ml Green Citrus Puer Compound Tea Beverage, both of which are priced at 4.5 yuan per bottle.
Familiar "new" faces, increasingly crowded tracks
In convenience stores, supermarkets, and online instant retail channels, journalists have seen countless sugar free tea beverage brands. Among these "new" brands, there are also familiar "faces" from the public, such as Wahaha, Kangshifu, Yili, Yibao, and so on. Since the beginning of this year, brands that have never set foot on the sugar free tea drink track have flocked to layout. For the first time, Wahaha has set foot on the sugar free tea drink track, launching four flavors of tea drinks in one go: jasmine tea, Zhengshan Xiaozhong, Dahongpao, and Qinggan Puer. And beverage brands that entered the sugar free tea beverage industry last year also rushed to launch the latest sugar free drinks before the arrival of summer.
The swarming layout of various brands is driven by the high-speed growth rate of the sugar free tea beverage industry. Huafu Securities pointed out in its "Summary of Financial Reports for the Food and Beverage Industry 23&24Q1" that during the reporting period, functional beverages, sugar free tea, and other sectors were booming, and corresponding sub sectors were in the incremental market
Field state. The leading enterprise Nongfu Spring has proven the popularity of this track with its own business situation. According to the 2023 financial report of Nongfu Spring, its total revenue during the reporting period was 42.667 billion yuan, of which tea beverage products including sugar free tea brand Dongfang Ye had a revenue of 12.659 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 83.3%, accounting for 29.7% of the total revenue in 2023. It became the second growth line of Nongfu Spring, the second category to exceed 10 billion yuan in revenue.
Industry analysis
Differentiated competition in sugar free tea requires a focus on product innovation and upgrading
"Price war is not a long-term strategy. Next, the competition among top brands will definitely focus on product innovation and upgrading, creating differentiation ," food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told reporters. Shen Meng, a strategy analyst at Guangke Consulting, believes that without R&D innovation, sugar free tea drinks will find it difficult to achieve differentiated competition and ultimately fall into the marketing of various concepts. It needs to expand into more new tea drinking groups, rather than switching shares among similar competitors.
Industry voices have pointed out that there is another development direction for the sugar free tea market in the future: functionalization. From the current perspective, sugar free tea beverages have begun to differentiate and develop under major categories, such as green tea and oolong tea, which have differentiated into highly accepted sub flavors such as jasmine green tea and jasmine oolong. During a media interview, Luo Xianliang, Vice President of Reese Category Innovation Strategy Consulting in China, mentioned that strong functional attributes are a powerful tool to truly break through the boundaries of sugar free teas "water substitution". At present, reducing sugar and zero sugar are only the first steps. Accelerating fat burning, metabolism, and supplementing vitamins may become the development direction of sugar free tea drinks.
