Interpreting the 'new' trends in international drinks, predicts the SIAL World Food Industry Summit

At the International Beverage Conference of the SIAL World Food Industry Summit held by SIAL International Food Expo (SIAL) on December 7th, business people from BCG, CFB Group, Joyoung Soymilk, Shanghai Aita, and Funha had an in-depth discussion on the development trend, opportunities and challenges of the beverage market at home and abroad.
After the first half of the enclosure type of expansion, beverage market competition is about to enter the second half of the "melee" stage. The boundaries between first - and second-tier brands are constantly being broken down, and the boundaries between national and regional brands no longer seem clear. At the same time, consumption upgrading and the emergence of Generation Z group have spawned more and more new consumer demands. This brings unlimited imagination to the development of beverage market.
At the International Beverage Conference of the SIAL World Food Industry Summit held by SIAL International Food Expo (SIAL) on December 7th, business people from BCG, CFB Group, Joyoung Soymilk, Shanghai Aita, and Funha had an in-depth discussion on the development trend, opportunities and challenges of the beverage market at home and abroad.
1. New consumer demand forces product and brand upgrading

"The new consumption concept is mainly reflected in the word 'new'. Mixing and matching new drinks will generate new taste on the tongue and sales experience, including product packaging, cultural endorsement, etc., which can constitute new consumer demand." Xia Lianyue, chairman of the Casual and simple Food and Beverage Committee of China Cuisine Association, said.

It is worth noting that health has become the core of the new consumption concept, which is sought after by young consumers. In the new tea drinking industry, enterprises are also paying more and more attention to the ecological health of the selection of materials. Xia Lianyue believes that the selection of new tea drinks emphasizes safety, nutrition and health, and pays more attention to thinking about health concepts from an ecological perspective.

"All of our actions are based on changes in consumption, whether it's class segmentation or scene segmentation, health is the key word that consumers are looking for." So says Liu Jianbin, marketing director of Joyoung soymilk.

In the view of Liu Xinliang, public relations director of Shanghai Aunt, fresh and healthy ingredients are the key to good drinking, more able to meet the health needs of young people, and to create healthy drinking, high quality and price ratio of products is the key to the sustainable development of beverage enterprises.

"After Shanghai Auntie transformed from five grain tea to fresh fruit tea, the performance of single store increased by 30% compared with the previous year. The most important factor is that we have built a quality and safety system for fresh fruit tea." Liu Xinliang said, "The people depend on food, in order to make a cup of fresh fruit tea products that consumers love, the most important basis is to a strict system to ensure the health and safety of consumers' food."

In the view of the participants, with the advent of the post-epidemic era, driven by new consumer demand, brand operation and maintenance may become a new growth point in the beverage consumption market.

"Companies need to know their track, and they need to know what kind of people to serve, and consumption growth varies greatly among different groups." Ding Jiachuan, managing director and global partner of BCG and head of BCG consumer product innovation in Asia Pacific Region, believes that after years of growth, Chinese consumers have become more profound and more emphasis on personality, and their attitude towards brands has changed from looking up to looking down or even overlooking. In the future, enterprises need to pay more attention to consumers' attitude towards brands and establish a closer connection with consumers. Build a firm user belief.

Chang Ying, co-founder of Fangha, believes that in order to achieve differentiation, regional tea brands should first be brands with "expression". "Fangha is to make the traditional and new culture collision, combining the new tea drink with the regional characteristics while giving consideration to the taste, combining the century-old snacks in Northwest China with the new tea drink, and making a reasonable interpretation of young people, so as to produce more young consumers like and identify with the products, while enhancing the pride of consumers, successfully build the brand image."

2. Digital enabling enterprise operation

Today, the significance of digitization to the operational efficiency of enterprises is beyond doubt.

"Influenced by product cycle, seasonal effect, regional habits and changes and upgrades of the industry itself, new tea drinks are constantly iterating, product cycle is getting shorter and shorter, and competition is fierce. The scale of new tea drinking stores ushered in the era of ten thousand stores, and franchised brands became the main force in the industry." Xia Lianyue said.

Xia Lianyue believes that the scale expansion of new tea drinks cannot be separated from the support of the supply chain system. "It has been proven that without the support of the supply chain, stores cannot be maintained or sustained. R&d transformation, central kitchen sharing, warehouse matching, shelf life, freshness, tongue feeling, sex price ratio, these series of indicators should be supported by the supply chain system." In this process, the digital support has undoubtedly brought great improvement to the operating efficiency of the supply chain system.

In the era of ten thousand stores, how to manage franchisees is becoming a big problem faced by enterprises. CFB Group's approach is to use the digital standards and systems of its own stores to manage its franchises.

According to Zhang Yiben, Director of IT of CFB Group, the franchise management is to use the standard of the franchise store management, all the system used by the franchise store, the implementation of SOP, including the market activities, are the same as those of the franchise store. "Using the same system for management can also save costs and improve efficiency for franchisees."

In short, the in-depth application of digital technology is becoming a necessary condition for enterprises to cope with market changes, and the ability to apply digital technology has become a key factor for enterprises to form competitive advantages. With the support of digital, the road of innovation will be wider and wider.

Xia Lianyue suggested that all beverage enterprises should use big data to re-do each link, process, node and detailed rules of the enterprise, so as to bid farewell to ambiguity and move towards precision in 2023.

3. Go out and open up overseas markets

In today's increasingly fierce competition in the industry, beverage enterprises represented by new tea drink are slowing down in the domestic market. The "2021 New Tea Drink Research Report" released by China Chain Store Association shows that the growth rate of new tea drink in 2020 will be 26.1%, and the growth rate will decrease to about 19% in 2021~2022. In the next 2~3 years, the growth rate will decrease to 10%~15%.

In this case, tea drink brand as the representative of a number of beverage enterprises to look at the overseas market. "The new tea will let us see the transformation of the value chain of the region, the nation and the world." Xia Lianyue said.

Ding Jiachuan believes that the level of internationalization determines how far an enterprise can go, but the beverage industry is facing great difficulty to go to sea, such as the shipping method is difficult, the cost does not necessarily have an advantage. He also points out that Chinese companies are good at being big, but not good at being standard. "Without standards, there is no value system."

From this point of view, how Chinese beverage enterprises take root overseas is worth thinking about by every beverage person.

The 3rd SIAL World Food Industry Summit is held by SIAL International Food Expo (Shanghai), one of the "three major food exhibitions in the world". It will be live broadcast globally from December 7th to 8th, with 11 special forums, inviting 100+ food and beverage guests from nearly 20 countries and regions to give online lectures. The live broadcast attracted more than 250,000 views online in two days.

2023 SIAL Siya International Food Exhibition

SIAL International Food Exhibition (Shanghai) will be held in Shanghai New International Expo Center (Pudong) on May 18-20, 2023.

SIAL International Food Exhibition (Shenzhen) will be held in Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center (Futian) from August 28 to 30, 2023.

Look forward to your visit.