--- title: "Can the Pre-mixed Cocktail Business Still Be Profitable?" description: "Zhang, who started a pre-mixed cocktail business at the end of 2014, was forced to switch to other markets within a year: \"The performance targets I set for myself during the good times two years ago are now impossible to achieve. A large amount of pre-mixed cocktail products that were bottled in advance are piling up in the warehouse, and the market is a mess.\" In 2013, the two major brands, Rio and Bacardi Breezer, pushed the entire pre-mixed cocktail industry to its peak, but within just two or three years, the industry rapidly declined. Overly high market expectations led to severe product overstock, and some believe the pre-mixed cocktail market has already slid into a dead end. According to a report by Mintel..." author: "宿志红" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-12-11" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-the-pre-mixed-cocktail-business-still-be-profitable-45c8b312/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-the-pre-mixed-cocktail-business-still-be-profitable-45c8b312.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/t9J1__WMC1S0xdaKS9BRfg" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E9%A2%84%E8%B0%83%E9%85%92%E7%9A%84%E7%94%9F%E6%84%8F%E8%BF%98%E8%83%BD%E5%81%9A%E4%B8%8B%E5%8E%BB%E5%90%97-45c8b312.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-the-pre-mixed-cocktail-business-still-be-profitable-45c8b312/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Can the Pre-mixed Cocktail Business Still Be Profitable? > Zhang, who started a pre-mixed cocktail business at the end of 2014, was forced to switch to other markets within a year: "The performance targets I set for myself during the good times two years ago are now impossible to achieve. A large amount of pre-mixed cocktail products that were bottled in advance are piling up in the warehouse, and the market is a mess." In 2013, the two major brands, Rio and Bacardi Breezer, pushed the entire pre-mixed cocktail industry to its peak, but within just two or three years, the industry rapidly declined. Overly high market expectations led to severe product overstock, and some believe the pre-mixed cocktail market has already slid into a dead end. According to a report by Mintel... Zhang, who started a pre-mixed cocktail business at the end of 2014, was forced to switch to other markets within a year: "The performance targets I set for myself during the good times two years ago are now impossible to achieve. A large amount of pre-mixed cocktail products that were bottled in advance are piling up in the warehouse, and the market is a mess." In 2013, the two major brands, Rio and Bacardi Breezer, pushed the entire pre-mixed cocktail industry to its peak, but within just two or three years, the industry rapidly declined. Overly high market expectations led to severe product overstock, and some believe the pre-mixed cocktail market has already slid into a dead end. According to the Mintel report "Pre-mixed Alcoholic Beverages, June 2017," although the total sales volume of China's pre-mixed alcoholic beverage market showed significant growth from 2013 to 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.5%, the estimated sales volume of 125 million liters in 2017 was a sharp decline from 179 million liters in 2015. Compared with 2013, overall market growth has slowed. Market Suddenly Turns Cold Pre-mixed cocktails are mixed alcoholic beverages with 3% to 7% alcohol content, made with rum or vodka as the base and mixed with fruit juice. Their alcohol content is slightly stronger than beer. In the 1970s, the world's first pre-mixed cocktail was born in the UK and became popular worldwide within a few years, creating sales miracles in several European countries and Japan. Pre-mixed cocktails appeared in China in 2002, but the market remained in a cultivation stage until 2012, when the confrontation between the two giants, Rio and Bacardi Breezer, shifted from channels to marketing, pulling pre-mixed cocktails from "nightlife venues" into the public eye. Celebrity endorsements, product placements in hit TV dramas, reality show sponsorships, and overwhelming advertising quickly captured consumers' attention, prompting a wave of industry imitation and explosive growth. In just two years, the pre-mixed cocktail market went from new birth to peak, then rapidly declined. The most direct manifestation is the slowdown in product updates on supermarket beverage shelves. A reporter visited major supermarkets in Beijing and found that although pre-mixed cocktails are still on sale, the situation is not ideal. In a Carrefour supermarket near Beijing South Railway Station, Rio and TCS bottled cocktails were uniformly placed in the most inconspicuous position on the inner side of the beverage shelf. Rio had a relatively larger quantity, while TCS was scattered. A supermarket staff member said that during the market boom, more than a dozen brands, including Rio, Bacardi Breezer, Budweiser's Midnight, and Di Shi, once dominated the beverage shelves. "Recent sales have been sluggish; other brands were removed long ago, and product updates are not fast." The product placement in this supermarket also reflects the sales dilemma of pre-mixed cocktails. Brands that did not appear on the shelves, including Bacardi Breezer and Budweiser, have also performed poorly in the past two years. Industry insiders say that pre-mixed cocktail brands have faced difficulties in sales and underutilized production lines in recent years. Since last year, Bacardi China has implemented a market contraction strategy, with new product development this year targeting Thailand rather than China. Heavy Marketing, Light Quality Bacardi Breezer is a brand under Bacardi, the world's largest privately held spirits producer. It entered the Chinese market around 2000, initially focusing on bars and KTVs, and later expanded into supermarkets. Before being overtaken by Rio, Bacardi Breezer was the industry leader. Regarding the industry challenges faced by Bacardi Breezer, industry insiders believe it is the result of a "rush" driven by high profits. "The market developed too rapidly in previous years. Many small and medium-sized enterprises saw high profits and flocked to produce, resulting in a proliferation of product categories and uneven quality, and even small companies counterfeiting major brands. This behavior seems too impetuous in today's market where consumers place great importance on quality." "Pre-mixed cocktails originated in 'nightlife venues' and only require mixing various fruit juices with a base spirit, without large investments in processing and brewing equipment. The technical threshold and entry barriers are low," said Wu Jianhua. The fast-paced lifestyle and consumption patterns have driven the rapid development of the pre-mixed cocktail industry, but they have also laid hidden dangers. First, under the premise of low technical barriers, small initial investment, and high returns, many enterprises blindly increase investment, leading to disorderly market competition. Second, in the absence of industry standards, enterprises rely on "enterprise standards" for production, leading to rampant counterfeiting and imitation of famous brands. Third, the brand chaos and market disorder make it difficult for consumers to choose quality brands. "Follow-the-trend marketing and rapid development have caused product homogenization and uneven quality, making the entire industry oversupplied, ultimately leading to price wars," said Zhu Danpeng, a researcher at the China Brand Research Institute's Food and Beverage Industry. Companies and brands rely too much on marketing while neglecting the product itself. Follow-the-trend entertainment marketing investments have brought a certain inflationary effect to the market, but most products are identical and lack essential innovation, causing the industry to enter a decline phase without going through growth and maturity. Gu Jing, food and beverage analysis director at Mintel Information Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that 2014-2015 was a period of rapid growth for the pre-mixed cocktail category, mainly driven by the huge development investments of the two major brands, Rio and Bacardi Breezer, as well as the entry of various new brands. The market peaked in 2015 and then quickly fell, mainly because a large number of substandard products emerged, with abuses of pigments, additives, and sugar. "After trying the products, consumers were disappointed in quality and lost the desire to buy, leading to a significant decline in sales for leading brands, and many follow-the-trend brands subsequently exited the market." Return to Rational Development "No product can sustain explosive growth forever, and the market cannot expand indefinitely. After the ups and downs and the survival of the fittest, enterprises that truly conform to market laws will remain. After 2017, the cocktail market will return to rational development," Gu Jing said. Currently, the domestic pre-mixed cocktail market has formed a pattern where Rio dominates, holding about 80% of the market share, and it is actively upgrading its products and taking expansion measures. Gu Jing pointed out that improving product quality is very important. For example, to better attract female consumers, manufacturers can add more exotic fruit flavors (such as passion fruit) in flavor innovation, use interesting flavor combinations (such as yogurt and fruit juice), or launch more products with health and beauty benefits (such as collagen). They can also consider developing new products that are currently lacking in the Chinese market but needed by consumers. To improve the quality and safety of cocktail products and regulate orderly market development, the Shanghai Wine Industry Association, together with Shanghai Bacchus Wine Co., Ltd., Bacardi China, and AB InBev Investment (China) Co., Ltd., jointly drafted a group standard for pre-mixed cocktails. Wu Jianhua revealed that the draft group standard has been completed and is currently in the review stage, with an expected official release in December. "The introduction of the standard will be more conducive to the formulation of enterprise production norms and guide market competition order back to rationality." The reporter learned that this group standard applies to blended wines made with distilled wine, fermented wine, prepared wine, or edible alcohol as the base, adding edible raw materials or medicinal and edible (or compliant) auxiliary materials and/or food additives, and then blending and mixing. The standard will provide detailed regulations on the terminology and definitions, technical requirements, inspection methods, inspection rules, and labeling, packaging, transportation, and storage requirements for pre-mixed cocktails. Source: China Pharmaceutical News -END- --- ## 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