Alcoholic beverages on the market Coca-Cola to promote the "all-category beverage" strategy

Entering the summer, the beverage industry is in full swing, and Coca-Cola has launched the alcoholic beverage "Topo Chico" hard soda sparkling wine for the first time, which means that China's alcoholic beverage market has entered a new army, which is also a breakthrough attempt by Coca-Cola to comprehensively promote the "all-category beverage" strategy.

As one of the sub-categories of low-grade wine, hard soda sparkling wine is still in an emerging stage in China, and the market expansion potential is huge. As an entry-level alcoholic beverage, its low-sugar, zero-fat, low-alcohol and other attributes cater to the modern young people's pursuit of a light-burden lifestyle. According to the "2020 Low-grade Wine Industry Market Prospects and Status Quo Analysis" released by the China Research Institute, in 2019, the market size of the domestic fruit wine industry was about 231.5 billion yuan. In the past two years, the consumption amount of China's low-alcohol market has grown by more than 50%, and during last year's 618 period, the growth rate of low-alcohol alcohol once exceeded 80%. During this year's JD.com 618 promotion, Coca-Cola China explored a new growth model and also won the first place in the sales volume of the beverage category.

Beiqing-Beijing headline reporter noted that on July 21, Coca-Cola released the second quarter of 2021 financial report. According to the earnings report, Coca-Cola's second-quarter revenue was $10.13 billion, up 42% year-on-year, exceeding market expectations of $9.4 billion; operating profit was $3.02 billion, up 52% year-on-year; earnings per share were $0.68, up 61% year-on-year, higher than market expectations of $0.56; global single-box sales increased 18% year-on-year, and Asia-Pacific single-box sales increased 16% year-on-year.

"The second quarter results show that our business is recovering faster than the global economy, driven by the company's accelerated transformation. Although the recovery of the local market has not yet been synchronized, we are confident of raising the full-year performance guidance. James Quincey, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola, said that in the Asia-Pacific region, as the epidemic stabilized and the market continued to recover, single-box sales in the second quarter increased by 16% year-on-year, driven by growth in all of the company's operating divisions. By category, global single-carton sales in the nutritional drinks, juices, dairy and plant beverage categories increased by 25%. In the Chinese market, overall sales growth exceeded the same period in 2019. Zhan Kunjie said on the same day's conference call: "Thanks to the growth of Coca-Cola sales and the optimization of the product portfolio, all categories in the Chinese market still maintain a strong growth momentum. The performance of outdoor consumer channels and e-commerce channels is very strong. ”

While making breakthrough innovations in categories, Coca-Cola China continues to promote digital transformation, strengthen the layout of online and offline channels, and increase market penetration to promote business growth.

According to the "Brand Footprint in The Asian Market 2021" report released by Kantar Consumer Index in June, Coca-Cola ranked the fastest growing brand in the Chinese market in 2020 with a consumer touch index growth rate of 14.9%, with more than 269 million consumer touches in the whole year and a penetration rate of 51.1%.

Digital transformation has also driven the expansion of online and offline channels. Online, Coca-Cola China System has partnered with JD.com's community group buying platform Jingxi Pinpin to capture the new consumption opportunities brought about by live streaming and the community group buying boom. In terms of offline channels that have been deeply cultivated for a long time, Coca-Cola China and Convenience Bee will upgrade their partnership, and the two sides will cooperate in data, marketing and new products to jointly explore the digital operation innovation model of offline channels.

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Li Jia

Editor/Peng Xiaofei