"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, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" noticed that a number of Nongfu Spring employees suddenly posted pictures and texts on the promotion of Nongfu Spring's pure water products in the WeChat circle of friends, compared with the familiar red bottle Nongfu Spring natural water, the pictures and texts of the Circle of Friends showed that the pure water launched by Nongfu Spring was a 550ml green bottle.
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. The slogan follows the classic advertising slogan of Nongfu Spring: "Nongfu Spring is a little sweet".
Screenshot of Nongfu Spring employee circle of friends
Founded in 1996, Nongfu Spring started with packaged drinking water business and is currently the largest leading packaged drinking water enterprise in mainland China. Packaged drinking water has always been the category with the largest revenue contribution to Nongfu Spring.
According to the official website of Nongfu Spring, there are currently a total of 8 water products under Nongfu Spring, 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 bottles) and natural mineral water (zodiac bottles). According to Beijing Business Daily, Nongfu Spring Pure Water has not yet been put on the shelves of major e-commerce platforms, and it has not been 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.
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.
According to a report by the Financial Associated Press on April 23, in 2000, Nongfu Spring developed the concept of "natural water" to strictly distinguish it from the "pure water" of other companies, and claimed that "pure water is groundwater, and natural water is water in natural resources".
In April of that year, the founder of Nongfu Spring, Zhong Sui, held a large-scale press conference at Qiandao Lake. At the meeting, Zhong announced that the production of pure water would be discontinued, and all natural water production would be switched, and a new classification of natural drinking water appeared in the domestic bottled water market.
At present, Nongfu Spring's purified water market is also based on current business considerations.
Nongfu Spring's 2023 annual report data disclosed that packaged drinking water products are still the basic source of the company's performance, and in 2023, Nongfu Spring packaged drinking water products recorded annual revenue of 20.262 billion yuan, an increase of 10.9% over 2022, accounting for 47.5% of the total revenue in 2023. This is the first time that the revenue share of packaged drinking water has fallen below 50% in the entire revenue structure.
According to Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in China's food industry, Nongfu Spring needs to find a growth point in addition to natural water, and it definitely needs to make different types of water.
According to Beijing Business Daily, a relevant person from 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."
A person close to Nongfu Spring told a reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Agency that the production of pure water or Nongfu Spring "hopes to give consumers a choice".
Screenshot of Nongfu Spring employee circle of friends
Chen Fangchao, general manager of the industry department of Kmind Strategic Consulting, told Beijing Business Daily that "ordinary consumers do not clearly distinguish between mineral water, natural water or purified water, 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. With brand advantages, we will launch purified water with a higher quality-price ratio, and form a better multi-category and multi-price competition synergy 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."
On April 23, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" asked Nongfu Spring for verification on the pricing, channels and market supply of Nongfu Spring's pure water products, but no effective information has been obtained.
Source: Daily Economic News is synthesized from every economic app, Beijing Business Daily, Finance Associated Press, and Nandu Bay Finance Society