文 | 食悟（ID：food-gnosis）
China's richest man, Zhong Sui, may be about to slap himself in the face.
In the past two days, a promotional picture of Nongfu Spring's new pure water product has spread on the Internet, and it is said that many employees of Nongfu Spring have forwarded this picture in the circle of friends.
In 1997, with Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang Province as the water source, Nongfu Spring's first packaged drinking water was launched. In 2000, because of the discovery of the New World (natural water), the founder of Nongfu Spring, Zhong Sui, suddenly began to "bombard" pure water, saying that it did not contain minerals and was therefore not beneficial to human health, and announced that he would no longer produce pure water and would switch to natural water.
Until March 3, 2024, when Zhong Sui was reviewing his two or three affairs with Zong Lao (Zong Qinghou), he also emphasized in the article: "To this day, I still insist that the mineral elements in water are essential for human health, which is why I insist on producing natural water." ”
Therefore, it can be judged from this sentence: as of March 3, 2024, Zhong has no plans to produce pure water.
Based on this, Nongfu Spring has completely denied itself and is ready to re-produce pure water, which should be the only idea in the past two months.
According to the online product map, Nongfu Spring is preparing to put on new pure water, and the main color of the packaging has changed to green similar to C'estbon, with a net content of 550ml, and the pure water comes from the top ten water sources of Nongfu Spring, including Qiandao Lake, Changbai Mountain, Danjiangkou, Emei Mountain, etc.
The slogan still emphasizes that "Nongfu Spring is a little sweet".
Why did the richest man suddenly "go back on his word", and did not hesitate to slap himself in the face to put pure water on his scalp, it is no accident behind the strangeness, or hot-headedness, there must be some inevitable factors behind this.
Today, Shiwu will explain to you why farmers resume producing pure water?
First, the market environment has changed.
Zhong Xiao's bombardment of pure water was in 2000, 24 years ago, the per capita income of Chinese was very low, many people were not willing to spend one or two yuan to buy a bottle of drinking water, especially in the second, third, fourth tier and below the city, towns and villages, spending money to buy water is more luxurious.
At that time, many people would rather spend two or three yuan to buy a bottle of Coke, Sprite, and Fanta than spend money on pure water, otherwise they felt that it was not cost-effective.
As a result, the farmer decided to abandon pure water and switch to natural water. And do our best to popularize the advantages of natural water with consumers, such as a lot of mineral elements, weak alkaline, spring water from various rock formations, no pollution, and so on.
Therefore, in that era of lack of nutrition, Nongfu Spring brought the nutritional value of natural water to consumers, which means that what everyone drinks is not ordinary water, but the nutrition they drink.
However, 24 years later, consumers' consumption cognition has improved unprecedentedly, and the new generation is unwilling to be brainwashed, and they have begun to have their own independent thinking. No matter where the bottle comes from, water is water after all.
Moreover, today's consumers are not short of nutrition, but are worried about gaining weight and overnutrition every day. Nowadays, many consumers are pursuing zero-sugar, zero-calorie beverages, and are trying to reduce the nutritional burden in every way, so they have no obvious consumption boundaries for water categories.
Therefore, in the past 24 years, Nongfu Spring's rhetoric about natural water may be a bit outdated for some consumers, and it is difficult to poke the hearts of consumers.
Times have changed, the market environment has changed, and consumer demand has changed. It's time for Nongfu Spring to consider expanding its product range.
Second, the industry landscape has changed.
When Nongfu Spring first started making water, Zhong was still the younger brother in the drinking water industry, and at that time, Wahaha and Cestbon were the big brothers in the industry.
Therefore, if the younger brother wanted to become bigger, he couldn't always chase after the eldest brother's buttocks, find another way, and choose a new track to achieve a counterattack.
Many years later, when Zhong was interviewed, he admitted that if Zong Qinghou had discovered natural water at that time, it was estimated that there would be no Nongfu Spring in this industry.
This is also the core reason why Nongfu Spring stopped producing pure water 24 years ago and devoted itself to the production of natural water. The only purpose that Zhong considered at that time was to change to a new track and be the boss.
With the sudden rise of Nongfu Spring in the natural water track, Zhong Sui successfully stood on the throne of China's richest man, and Nongfu Spring firmly occupied the leader of the drinking water industry.
Now, if you stick to the natural water track, there will be no strong opponent in ten years or twenty years. It has a high-quality water source in the country, and this resource is not available to others.
However, with the IPO of Nongfu Spring, Zhong Sui can not only consider himself, but must also consider the interests of shareholders, who are interested in dividends and hope to see the growth of Nongfu Spring. If you want to find new growth points, it is certainly unrealistic to stick to saturated natural water.
In 2023, Nongfu Spring's total revenue will be 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.
Entering pure water can expand a new growth point in the drinking water market, which is a strategic consideration that Zhong does not hesitate to slap in the face.
Third, the competitive landscape has changed.
After Zong Qinghou left, the society set off a wave of remembrance, and in front of the great entrepreneurs, the Chinese people began to disbelieve in advertising and chose "no longer rationally".
After all, it's all water, which one to drink, depending on the mood.
Therefore, since March this year, Wahaha pure water has been sold out for a time, and a bottle is hard to find.
Since then, pure water has become "popular" because of Zong Qinghou. If Nongfu Spring doesn't think about countermeasures, Wahaha will definitely become bigger and stronger this year, next year and even longer.
According to Euromonitor International data, from 2017 to 2022, the top five bottled water market shares by sales volume are: Nongfu Spring (12.2%), Cestbon (8.3%), Jingtian (5.3%), Master Kong (3.2%), and Wahaha (2.2%).
Obviously, although Wahaha ushered in a wave of retaliatory consumption after Zong Lao left, as consumer sentiment returns to normal, Wahaha's competitive threat to Nongfu Spring should be lifted.
What made Zhong the most restless was Cestbon.
On April 23, the official website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed that China Resources Beverage (Holdings) Co., Ltd. had submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 22. If CR Beverage's impact on the Hong Kong stock market is successful, the company will become the second domestic packaged drinking water company to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after Nongfu Spring.
According to the CIC report, CR Beverage is the second largest packaged drinking water company in China and the largest purified 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.
If China Resources Beverage is successfully listed, Cestbon will definitely get bigger and bigger. Zhong Sui is well aware of the pull of listing on the brand and the market, so Cestbon's listing plan makes farmers feel panicked.
If you don't make a move, you may not be able to stop Cestbon.
The decision to return to pure water is also a decisive decision made by Zhong after careful consideration in the past two months.