The ranking of the top three soft drinks brands has remained unchanged over the last decade. However, behind these major international carbonates brands there is lots of movement led by the burgeoning Asia market. The key difference between these Asian products and Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s brands is that they are mainly sold in just one country.
Unsurprisingly, China is the country that is seeing the biggest year on year increase of soft drinks sales, with some local brands seeing explosive growth over the last decade. Kangshifu, also known as Master Kong, is now the fourth best-selling brand globally, behind Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and Sprite. The brand has seen amazing growth in recent years, rising from below 30, ten years ago, to fifth position five years ago. Over the last five years, sales of Kangshifu have risen by over 6,000m litres with its iced tea drinks and packaged water products being particularly successful. Consumption of Kangshifu is now higher than the entire Russian soft drinks market.
Wahaha, Nongfushanquan and Uni-President are three other Chinese brands that have seen strong growth. Nongfushanquan has registered stunning growth over the last few years, growing 30% a year since 2008 and now ranks sixteenth in the top 20 global soft drinks line up. In its local market, Nongfushanquan is perceived as being a good quality product, with a strong brand image for its packaged water.
Uni-President is seeing robust growth year on year with its milk iced tea product currently very popular with younger consumers. Wahaha is also developing rapidly helped by the company’s strong distribution network; brand volume is now greater than the total UK carbonates market.
Nestlé Pure Life packaged water is another brand to watch. The major country for Nestlé Pure Life is still the US, where it heads up the packaged water market due to its affordable price and national availability. However, Nestlé Pure Life is also benefitting from the expansion of its coverage in emerging markets including China and Indonesia.
Source: Canadean
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