#快消八谈##农夫山泉##纯净水##娃哈哈##怡宝#在纯净水一哥 After China Resources Beverage, the parent company of "C'estbon", submitted the report to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Nongfu Spring couldn't sit still. On April 23, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned that Nongfu Spring launched a "green bottle" of pure water, claiming that it comes from the natural water source of the ten major water sources including Qiandao Lake, Emei Mountain and Danjiangkou. Nongfu Spring's move may invade the hinterland of pure water, which is a declaration of war on brands such as Wahaha and Cestbon.
Industry analysts pointed out that Nongfu Spring's main drinking water growth is weak, so the launch of new products to make up for the gap in the market is essentially to compete with competitors in an all-round and full-category manner.
"To this day, I still insist that the minerals in water are essential for human health, which is why I insist on producing natural water. "It has only been more than a month since the founder of Nongfu Spring, Zhong Sui, released "Two or Three Things with the Elder Zong", and Nongfu Spring has invested in pure water.
On April 23, a promotional image of "Nongfu Spring Pure Water" circulated on the Internet, in which Nongfu Spring changed the classic red bottled water packaging, and the new packaging was green, with a net content of 550ml. According to the promotional map, the pure water of Nongfu Spring comes from ten major water sources, including the underwater depth of Qiandao Lake, the underwater depth of Danjiangkou, and Mount Emei in Sichuan.
At the same time as the promotional image was released, Nongfu Spring Pure Water had not yet been put on the shelves of major e-commerce platforms, and it was not seen in offline stores. A number of water station staff told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that there is no such product in the store, and it will be notified as soon as it arrives.
According to the official website, Nongfu Spring's water business mainly includes 8 types, including drinking natural water, Changbaixue natural snow mountain mineral water, drinking natural water (suitable for infants and young children), natural mineral water (containing lithium), drinking natural mountain spring water (for tea), natural mineral water (sports capped), natural mineral water (glass bottle) and natural mineral water (zodiac bottle).
This is Nongfu Spring's second launch of pure water after 24 years. In 1997, the first Nongfu Spring packaged drinking water was put on the market with Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang Province as the water source, and Nongfu Spring was still producing pure water until 1999. In 2000, Zhong "bombarded" pure water, saying that it did not contain minerals and therefore was not beneficial to human health, and announced that it would no longer produce pure water and would instead produce natural water. After announcing the discontinuation of pure water and the conversion to natural water, a new classification of natural drinking water appeared in the domestic bottled water market.
After 24 years, why does Nongfu Spring produce pure water again? A person related to Nongfu Spring said, "Nongfu Spring's natural water has not changed and will continue to be produced." Pure water also uses natural water sources, but in a different form of filtration."
However, according to Zhan Junhao, a well-known strategic positioning expert and founder of Fujian Great Aim Brand Positioning Consulting, the sluggish growth of the water business may be a factor for Nongfu Spring to consider launching pure water, and with the improvement of consumers' requirements for drinking water quality, the pure water market still has certain growth potential. Nongfu Spring's move may be to seize more market share and improve its overall performance.
Last year, Nongfu Spring's total revenue was 42.667 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%. Among them, packaged drinking water increased by 10.9% year-on-year, and the proportion of packaged drinking water revenue fell below 50% for the first time in the entire revenue structure.
Nongfu Spring, which has occupied the largest market share of packaged drinking water, is facing the pressure of competitors step by step.
In the field of natural mineral water, Cestbon and Wahaha have taken the lead in layout. In 2023, Cestbon launched the natural mineral water brand "Benyou", Wahaha also launched natural mineral water products in 2022, plus Baisui Mountain, which has been deeply cultivated in this field, the brand competition is very fierce.
In addition, there are a number of enterprises that cross borders. For example, Yuanqi Forest has launched "Youkuang" natural soft mineral water, Yili Group has launched "Yike Huoquan" natural mineral water, and pharmaceutical company Renhe Pharmaceutical has spent 500 million yuan to build Mingyue Renhe Mineral Water Plant project.
According to the CIC report, China Resources Cestbon's parent company, China Resources Beverage, is the second largest packaged drinking water company in China and the largest drinking water company in China (in terms of retail sales in 2023). The retail sales of the company's "Cestbon" brand drinking purified water products reached 39.5 billion yuan in 2023, making it the No. 1 brand in China's drinking purified water market. According to the report, in 2023, CR Beverage's market share in the packaged drinking water market and the purified drinking water market will be 18.4% and 32.7%, respectively.
On April 23, 2024, China Resources Beverage submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with BOC International, CITIC Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS Group as joint sponsors. In terms of performance, from 2021 to 2023, CR Beverage's revenue will be approximately RMB11.340 billion, RMB12.623 billion and RMB13.515 billion respectively, and its profit in the same period will be approximately RMB858 million, RMB989 million and RMB1.331 billion respectively. The gross profit margins for the past three years were 43.8%, 41.7% and 44.7% respectively.
Wahaha's revenue from 2021 to 2022 will be 51.915 billion yuan and 51.202 billion yuan respectively, with relatively stable performance and further growth in revenue in 2023. Jingtian's mineral water brand "Baisui Mountain" will have sales of 11 billion yuan in 2021.
According to Euromonitor International data, from 2017 to 2022, the top five bottled water market shares by sales volume were Nongfu Spring (12.2%), Cestbon (8.3%), Jingtian (5.3%), Master Kong (3.2%), and Wahaha (2.2%).
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, said, "It is normal for Nongfu Spring to have sluggish growth in drinking water, because the whole has reached the ceiling. In the future, from the development trend of the entire industry, beverages will account for the majority, especially with catering materials, there is a lot of room for development.
For Nongfu Spring, natural water and pure water are two different categories, and pure water is a major field that has not yet been deployed.
In the past, Nongfu Spring mainly promoted natural water and naturally resisted other categories, but now natural water has become bigger, and it is reasonable to expand the product line. According to a research report by the China Research Institute of Puhua Research Institute, mainland consumers are still dominated by pure water and natural water, and the retail sales of pure water alone accounted for 60.4% of the overall retail sales of bottled drinking water in 2019.
Song Liang, a senior dairy analyst, said, "Nongfu Spring pushes pure water, first, the main mineral water business may have a significant market decline, so it has launched some new products to make up for the gap in the market; Cestbon has also pushed mineral water, the advantage of Nongfu Spring natural water is no longer there, and eventually it will fall into involution, and compete with competitors in all directions;
Chen Fangchao, General Manager of the Industry Department of Kmind Strategic Consulting, said, "There is no clear distinction between mineral water, natural water or purified water in the cognition of ordinary consumers, and all kinds of bottled water are collectively referred to as mineral water in the terminal. At this time, Nongfu Spring is aware of the big brand of bottled water, and it is feasible to expand the pure water business on the cognitive side. The launch of purified water with a higher quality-price ratio with brand advantages can hit down some markets of Cestbon and Wahaha, and form a better competition and synergy of multiple categories and multiple price bands in the product line. The launch of purified water is conducive to alleviating the downward trend of the Group's drinking water business, bringing confidence to investors and distributors to inject new business, thereby further expanding the drinking water business."
However, Zhan Junhao also said that Nongfu Spring also faces certain risks and challenges in launching pure water, "First of all, pure water brands such as Cestbon and Wahaha already have a certain market share and consumer base, and Nongfu Spring needs to make more efforts to compete for market share." Secondly, consumers are demanding more and more from the quality and taste of purified water, and Nongfu Spring needs to ensure that the quality and taste of its products can meet the needs of consumers."
Regarding the reasons for the production of purified water, the terminal retail price and other issues, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview letter to Nongfu Spring by email, but did not receive a reply before press time.
Beijing Business Daily reporter |
Edited by Topol