A new choice for the boss of instant coffee.

The beverage industry is facing a reshuffle period, carbonated drinks, water, fruit juices and other major categories are also experiencing unprecedented challenges, its market is gradually becoming saturated. However, the annual growth rate of China's coffee market has reached 15% Mur20%, with a good momentum of development.

Ready-to-drink coffee, a category of coffee consumption with a compound growth rate of 34.2%. At a time when the scale of China's coffee consumption market is about to break through 150 billion yuan, instant coffee, freshly ground coffee and instant coffee are subdivided categories of coffee, and their market structure seems to be undergoing subtle changes.

Nestle destroys instant drink

In 1975, the Qiaoya ready-to-drink coffee brand was first listed in Japan and became one of Coca-Cola's 17 brands with annual sales of more than $1 billion. The foreign ready-to-drink coffee market has become quite mature. On the contrary, Chinese mainland is just beginning to emerge.

Ten years ago, Coca-Cola and Nestle joined hands to develop China's ready-to-drink coffee market, and soon the two brands parted ways. Last year, Coca-Cola promoted Qiaoya with high profile in the Chinese mainland market. Wu Jingxiang, general manager of Fujian Suka Food Co., Ltd., told our reporter, "the development potential of ready-to-drink coffee must be very good. For example, Qiaoya, launched by Coca-Cola, has a history of 40 years, including places such as South Korea and Japan. The development of the market for ready-to-drink coffee has been quite mature, but it has just begun in China, so the market potential is great. More importantly, the main consumer groups have gradually focused on the younger generation of the post-90s, that is, drinking coffee may also bring a new trend. "

As the leader of Chinese coffee market, Nestl é has led the development of Chinese coffee market and the coffee journey of Chinese people since the 1980s. But at the beginning of this year, the Nestle coffee factory in Dongguan destroyed hundreds of tons of instant coffee for a variety of reasons, and Nestle officials responded, "this destruction is to destroy stocks and keep shelf products fresh." Industry insiders also expressed their views on Nestl é's practice of destroying a large number of coffee. Gao Bei, sales manager of Chengdu Unified Coffee sales Company, said, "at present, Guangdong Nestl é is still in the recovery stage, but Nestl é first ensures the quality of its products, which is worthy of recognition in the industry." Wu Jingxiang also expressed the same view, "because the products destroyed by Nestl é may be temporary products returned by dealers, it is correct to do so, showing the consciousness of Nestle enterprises."

While the industry recognized the Nestle destruction incident itself, it also expressed different views on the impact of the incident on the instant coffee market. Some people said, "this incident does not have much impact on the coffee market. It will not affect the development of the instant coffee industry as a whole." However, some people can not help but express concern about the future market development of instant coffee. Gao Bei believes, "at present, the market has reflected that bagged instant coffee with a positioning of about 2 yuan can no longer match the product demand of consumers. If the product power is not improved, consumers will not pay the bill." On the other hand, Nestle's current destruction is not all inferior or temporary products, but its early warning system is very good, in fact, the most fundamental problem is that there are problems in the production and marketing supply chain, if this batch of products are not destroyed, then the products in the warehouse will still be unsalable. In fact, Nestl é overestimated the turnover capacity of its products when making production plans. "

But on the other hand, the reporter also learned that Nestl é has doubled its combat strength in terms of human resources and channel construction this year, targeting the ready-to-drink market.

With the rapid development of the coffee market as a whole, the market share of instant coffee is slowing down, and the impact of ground coffee and instant coffee is gradually emerging. As a leading global coffee brand, Starbucks joined hands with Master Kang at the beginning of this year to launch a strong offensive on the ready-to-drink coffee market, while in the field of coffee in China, the market share is second only to Nestle's second-largest brand, and has been deeply ploughing the ready-to-drink coffee category, and will vigorously launch new ready-to-drink coffee products this year to segment the consumer market and occupy a more favorable market position.

The threshold of "5 yuan" has been raised from the silky latte launched by Nestl é and the unified Yaha market in China. At the same time, the product positioning of "5 yuan" has also become an entry-level product of ready-to-drink coffee.

In more than a decade of product shaping, and in the rapidly increasing market competition environment in the past two years, the expression of instant coffee products has been newly upgraded, of which the most representative is Starbucks Frappuccino instant coffee. The price positioning of about 22 yuan, selected raw materials and production technology make its price, taste, quality and other products open the gap with the existing products in the domestic market.

With the continuous improvement of consumption level, the emergence of Starbucks "upgraded" ready-to-drink coffee has met the growing consumer demand. Gao Bei, sales manager of Chengdu Unified Coffee, also told reporters, "Unified new products will aim at the middle and high-end market of ready-to-drink coffee." With the substantial increase in consumption power, Unification no longer focuses on the 'entry-level' coffee with a positioning of 5 yuan, but chooses to position the price at about 15 yuan, further subdividing the consumer group of products. "

A person in the industry who has an in-depth understanding of the coffee market also said, "in fact, similar to bottled ready-to-drink coffee such as Nestl é, these low-threshold popular coffees may be more beverages, while Starbucks has launched products that are much higher in price, but still have a broad consumer market, mainly because of their freshly ground technology and differentiated taste."

Ready-to-drink coffee continues to upgrade in product positioning, and the main marketing channels begin to have a new division. After communicating with Chengdu Unified Coffee Co., Ltd., the reporter learned that the new products launched by Unified Coffee this year will initially choose to be sold in local areas and only do convenience store system. According to the distribution of target consumer groups, the current convenience store system has become the main marketing channel of middle and high-end ready-to-drink coffee. The upgrading of products and the improvement of channels are bound to promote the development of the ready-to-drink coffee market.

Two-way combination of supply and demand

The momentum of China's ready-to-drink coffee market is getting better and better, and the participation and promotion of enterprises are gradually strengthened. the most fundamental reason lies in the growth of consumer demand.

In view of the current market development of ready-to-drink coffee, Gao Bei believes that "tea, fruit juice, water and other categories have been in the mature stage, and the market competition is fierce." But now the cost of products is getting higher and higher, so developing categories such as ready-to-drink coffee, which are still in the blue ocean stage, are gradually getting more attention from the market. " Moreover, Chinese people's habit of drinking coffee has been in the cultivation stage, the market is growing rapidly, the product research and development and channel promotion of various enterprises are in the development stage, and the overall upgrading of the consumption structure is also constantly advancing. More and more enterprises want to invest in the coffee market precisely because this category is indispensable.

With the acceleration of the pace of life, the improvement of the quality of coffee products and the transfer of target consumer groups, as a minority area of the coffee market, the coffee market is heating up rapidly. A dealer in Puyang, Henan Province also said, "at present, the market share of instant coffee should be getting bigger and bigger." And the growth rate is very high, the current market competition situation has not yet reached a saturated state. The entry of powerful enterprises will promote the future development of ready-to-drink coffee. "

The strong entry of several FMCG giants and the unified launch of new strategic products will make new adjustments to the product structure of ready-to-drink coffee. Gao Bei told reporters, "the differentiated product positioning of each enterprise meets the multi-level consumer demand." And ready-to-drink coffee accounts for only a few percentage points in the beverage category, so its acceleration is also obvious. It can be seen that the future development trend will be for the better. "