--- title: "After Monster, Coca-Cola Brings Heavyweight 'Ayataka' to China, Aiming to Disrupt Kangshifu and Uni-President's Tea Drink Dominance?" description: "As consumer demand for healthy beverages grows, the carbonated soft drink market is showing weakness, and even Coca-Cola has seen declining sales. However, Coca-Cola's slump in China may change with the introduction of Ayataka green tea, imported from Japan, which is now available on its e-commerce flagship store." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2019-07-18" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/after-monster-coca-cola-brings-heavyweight-ayataka-to-china-aiming-to-di-c6eb3286/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/after-monster-coca-cola-brings-heavyweight-ayataka-to-china-aiming-to-di-c6eb3286.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JXYQQG5o1akYcxrzgkKFSw" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%BB%A7%E9%AD%94%E7%88%AA%E4%B9%8B%E5%90%8E-%E5%8F%AF%E5%8F%A3%E5%86%8D%E6%90%BA%E9%87%8D%E7%A3%85-%E7%BB%AB%E9%B9%B0-%E5%85%A5%E5%8D%8E-%E6%AC%B2%E9%A2%A0%E8%A6%86%E5%BA%B7%E7%BB%9F%E8%8C%B6%E9%A5%AE%E5%9C%B0%E4%BD%8D-c6eb3286.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/after-monster-coca-cola-brings-heavyweight-ayataka-to-china-aiming-to-di-c6eb3286/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # After Monster, Coca-Cola Brings Heavyweight 'Ayataka' to China, Aiming to Disrupt Kangshifu and Uni-President's Tea Drink Dominance? > As consumer demand for healthy beverages grows, the carbonated soft drink market is showing weakness, and even Coca-Cola has seen declining sales. However, Coca-Cola's slump in China may change with the introduction of Ayataka green tea, imported from Japan, which is now available on its e-commerce flagship store. Click to read the original article for details. As consumer demand for healthy beverages continues to grow, the carbonated soft drink market is showing signs of fatigue. Even Coca-Cola, a global beverage giant, has seen declining sales of its carbonated drinks in recent years. Moreover, under the pressure of two major beverage giants, Kangshifu and Uni-President, Coca-Cola's packaged water and juice drinks have also repeatedly hit obstacles. **However, Coca-Cola's downturn in the Chinese market may begin to change with 'Ayataka'.** In July 2019, Ayataka green tea, imported from Japan, quietly entered the Chinese market. It is currently available on Coca-Cola's e-commerce flagship store, with the slogan "Fresh and natural, just good tea," priced at about 10 yuan per bottle, with a capacity of 280ml per bottle. From a price perspective, 'Ayataka' is more expensive than most domestic tea drinks. Ayataka enjoys high popularity in Japan. In 2007, Coca-Cola Japan and the long-established tea manufacturer Uji Kamibayashi Shunhonten jointly developed Ayataka, and in 2012, it reached a milestone of $1 billion in sales, with sales of 50 million cases in 2015. **Now Coca-Cola is introducing Ayataka to China, intending to make a push in the Chinese tea beverage market.** Previously, in addition to its carbonated drink series, Coca-Cola had launched several tea drinks in the Chinese market, such as Nestea Iced Tea, Chá Yan Gong Fang, and Yuanye Tea. However, **in the fiercely competitive market, Coca-Cola did not achieve good results.** Currently, the Chinese tea drink market has long been dominated by brands such as Kangshifu, Uni-President, Nongfu Spring, Wahaha, and Jinmailang. Even though Coca-Cola launched the sugar-free tea 'Chun Cha She' and fruit-flavored tea 'Yo! Tea' in 2018 to cater to consumers' demand for low-sugar and sugar-free drinks, the effect was not obvious. Currently, the tea beverage market size is close to 120 billion yuan, of which about 20 billion yuan is occupied by Kangshifu and Uni-President. In terms of per capita consumption, in 2017, China's per capita retail volume of tea drinks was 10.4 liters, which is one-fifth of Japan's and one-third of Hong Kong's. There is still ample room for market expansion, which is believed to be the confidence behind Coca-Cola's continuous investment. In 2018, Nongfu Spring's sugar-free tea drink 'Oriental Leaf' passed its 'seven-year itch,' and that year also marked the first year of the explosion of sugar-free tea drinks in China. At the beginning of the year, Vitasoy's 'Sugar-Free Tea' entered the mainland market; in April, Coca-Cola also launched its sugar-free tea 'Chun Cha She'. In 2001, Chinese tea drinks entered a period of explosive growth. In 2002, Uni-President's 'Chariwang' was launched in the mainland, using low-temperature extraction technology to enhance the pure tea flavor, but due to difficulties in market sales, it withdrew from the market around 2011. In 2001, Nestlé and Coca-Cola formed a tea beverage joint venture, and in 2010, they launched 'Yuanye' tea brewed from 100% tea leaves. After nearly 13 years of painstaking management, Nestlé's tea beverage business withdrew from the Chinese market in 2014. In 2011, Tianwo Tea House launched three sugar-free teas with the appeal of 'relieving life's greasiness,' but they also quietly faded from the market. In 2012, Kangshifu launched the sugar-free tea drink 'Benwei Tea House,' but it is nowhere to be seen now. In 2011, Nongfu Spring launched 'Oriental Leaf,' focusing on zero calories. After experiencing initial sensation at launch and a controversial dormant period, seven years later, 'Oriental Leaf' has grown steadily and gradually become the number one in the domestic sugar-free tea category. In 2011, Tianwo Tea House launched three sugar-free teas with the appeal of 'relieving life's greasiness,' but they also quietly faded from the market. In 2012, Kangshifu launched the sugar-free tea drink 'Benwei Tea House,' but it is nowhere to be seen now. In 2011, Nongfu Spring launched 'Oriental Leaf,' focusing on zero calories. After experiencing initial sensation at launch and a controversial dormant period, seven years later, 'Oriental Leaf' has grown steadily and gradually become the number one in the domestic sugar-free tea category. **As competition in the tea beverage market intensifies, the trend of consumption upgrading is obvious, and problems such as category aging, concept homogenization, and price erosion have begun to emerge.** In 2014, the development characteristics of the tea beverage market shifted from the past 'both volume and price rising' to 'value competition.' On the one hand, the Chinese tea beverage market has reactivated channels by occupying the 4-5 yuan price band with better profit margins; at the same time, it has highlighted the innovation and fashionability of the products themselves to stimulate the consumption willingness of the post-95s and post-00s new generation consumers. Beverage companies such as Uni-President and Nongfu Spring focus more on product R&D and innovation, launching new flavors or creating functional concepts such as health, de-greasing, and energy-boosting, to expand new-style tea drinks to young consumers. Taking 'Xiaoming Classmate' launched in 2015 as an example, it sparked a wave of cold-brewed tea. The product entered the market strongly with the slogan 'Seriously funny, low-key cold brew,' positioning its consumer group as post-95s. Compared with Uni-President's previous bottle with a single red logo, Xiaoming Classmate's packaging is more cute and interesting. **Currently, in the Chinese tea beverage market, products are mainly priced under 10 yuan, with 3-7 yuan being the main price band. Whether Coca-Cola's Ayataka, priced at 10 yuan, will be accepted by consumers remains to be tested by the market.** From a brand perspective, Coca-Cola is a world-renowned brand, but consumers' perception of Coca-Cola remains stuck on carbonated drinks. Will the launch of Ayataka tea drink this time end up with the same outcome as the tea drinks launched before? Compiled and edited by . --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671