Reporter | Zhao Xiaojuan
Edit | Ya Han Xiang
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More than 10 yuan a bottle, less than 300 ml, need to refrigerate the NFC juice began to disappear in the terminal channel. Interface News visited a number of supermarkets in Beijing and found that the high-end juice brand Zero Degree Fruit Fang, which used to be on the refrigerated shelves of supermarkets, quietly withdrew from physical stores such as Yonghui, Hema and Convenience Bee, and could only buy in a small number of high-end supermarkets such as Ole. In addition, more purchase channels have been converted to online platforms.
On the shelves of Aeon juice in 2020, Zero Degree Fruit Mill products also occupy the C position. (Photo: Zhao Xiaojuan)
At the Aeon supermarket in Beijing's Fengtai District, on the island shelf of low-temperature juice juice, Weiquan and Nongfu Spring NFC juice each occupy half of the space, and the price of small packaged products with a capacity of about 300 ml ranges from 7-10 yuan. However, the flavor of the whole product is not strictly NFC juice. NFC juice (abbreviation for "Not From Concentrate Non-Concentrated Reducing Juice") is the juice that is washed and pressed from fresh raw fruit, and then directly filled after instantaneous sterilization. Its shelf life is usually only 28-45 days, and it needs to be refrigerated at low temperatures during transportation and sale.
Since the price of NFC juice is usually 14-20 yuan in 300 ml, consumers are more inclined to accept FC juice such as Weiquan, which is usually priced below 10 yuan and has a better taste than room temperature FC juice.
In 2016-2020, there are many participants in NFC juice, in addition to the 10-year development of zero degree fruit mill in this field, there are also natural juice foundries that started from juice foundries, chu oranges made from fruits, beverage companies Nongfu Spring, and tea and coffee brands such as Heytea and Luckin. At present, among the above brands, except for Zero Degree Fruit Fang, Nongfu Spring and Chu Orange NFC juice products, other brands of NFC juice products are almost stagnant.
The promoter told Interface News that the marketing ads of flavored whole juice can bring young customers, the price is cheap and the brand awareness and promotions, the sales have been relatively stable, and the sales are also good.
Flavored whole juice products on the shelves. (Photo: Zhao Xiaojuan)
Insufficient purchasing power, declining consumption environment, and high supermarket channel costs are the main factors that make such products shrink.
Zhang Zhi, who was originally a sales manager at an NFC juice foundry, told Interface News that the entire high-end juice market has fallen sharply since 2021. In fact, in recent years, consumers' cognition of NFC juice is not unfamiliar, market players on consumer education in first- and second-tier cities are basically popularized, but with the change of the general environment, consumers' consumption of juice returned to the low-price era, "juice above 10 yuan is not good to sell, let alone more than 15 yuan, catering channels may be acceptable, but this year's catering industry has also encountered many downturns." He said.
The cost of NFC juice in the circulation link cannot be reduced by increasing sales.
Taking a bottle of 300 ml of NFC juice as an example, its cost structure is that the factory price is 7-8 yuan, and the premium to the dealer is 8-9 yuan, plus the transportation cost is an average of 0.5-0.6 yuan per bottle; into the supermarket link, the purchase price of a bottle of NFC juice is about 13-14 yuan. Dealers also need to bear the cost of cold chain transportation, as well as the labor costs of store promoters. Based on this, some distributors are even reluctant to hire promoters to organize tasting activities at the terminal.
On the other hand, there is competition for freshly made tea drinks. In Zhang Zhi's view, these products are more conducive to social networking for young people, and some stores provide consumers with seats, photo environments, etc., coupled with the general price reduction of freshly made tea drinks this year, further stealing a part of the share.
"NFC juice products and other follow-up also depends on whether the economic situation can be good, after all, in the consumption concept of Chinese consumers, fruit juice products are highly replaceable, and the rigid demand is not as good as low-temperature milk, which is a category that is easy to be abandoned." He said.
To this end, giving supermarkets OEM private brand products is one of the strategies to reduce channel costs, because there is no need to consider the pressure of distributors and the return loss of retail channels.
For example, since 2020, Zero Degree Fruit Factory has produced Hema NFC juice for Hema OEM, and the price has also dropped. At the Beijing Hema New City Plaza store, 3 consecutive NFC juices (300 ml 1 bottle) are priced at a total of 29.9 yuan, which is within 10 yuan, which is the same as Nongfu Spring NFC juice products.
Sun Jun, the founder of Zero Degree Fruit Fang, maintained confidence in this market in an interview with Interface News in 2020. He told Interface News that the juice market, including NFC juice, is about 10 billion yuan in size, and there is still enough room for development, and the key is to meet the diversified needs of consumers. At present, the contraction of offline channels of Zero Degree Fruit Mill has cast a shadow on the market prospects of NFC juice.
Zhang Zhi told Interface News that he has turned to the juice supply chain oem for tea shops, and he is more optimistic about the future of NFC juice in the tea supply chain than the performance of NFC juice in the retail channel.