---
title: "Coca-Cola Enters Plant-Based Beverage Market for the First Time, Kicking Off a Battle"
description: "Coca-Cola has officially entered China's plant-based beverage market, launching its AdeZ plant-based drinks, including oat-based beverages, through B2B channels and online sales. This move creates channel competition with Swedish oat milk brand Oatly, which entered China in 2018. Industry insiders believe that while China's plant-based beverage market has existed for some time, many brands face bottlenecks, and with the support of major companies like Coca-Cola, the market may see another surge."
author: "李振兴"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2019-12-31"
categories: "Consumer & Categories"
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# Coca-Cola Enters Plant-Based Beverage Market for the First Time, Kicking Off a Battle

> Coca-Cola has officially entered China's plant-based beverage market, launching its AdeZ plant-based drinks, including oat-based beverages, through B2B channels and online sales. This move creates channel competition with Swedish oat milk brand Oatly, which entered China in 2018. Industry insiders believe that while China's plant-based beverage market has existed for some time, many brands face bottlenecks, and with the support of major companies like Coca-Cola, the market may see another surge.

Coca-Cola has officially entered China's plant-based beverage market. Recently, Beijing Business Today reporters noticed that Coca-Cola launched its AdeZ plant-based beverages in China for the first time, including AdeZ Barista Edition Oat Drink, sold through B2B channels and online.

Notably, this creates channel competition with Swedish oat milk brand Oatly, which entered China in 2018. Industry insiders believe that China's plant-based beverage market has existed for a long time, but many brands are facing bottlenecks. With the support of major companies, the market may see another explosion. Both domestic and international brands like Coca-Cola are optimistic about this market, and with similar channels, a channel battle is imminent.

**-01-
AdeZ Enters**

This time, Coca-Cola launched two AdeZ plant-based beverages, both in 1-liter packaging. The initial offerings include AdeZ Barista Edition Oat Drink and AdeZ Barista Edition Soy Drink, designed for professional coffee/tea masters or ordinary consumers to use in daily beverage preparation, or to drink directly. The e-commerce retail prices are 35 yuan per box and 18 yuan per box, respectively, with black packaging design.

Among them, the AdeZ Barista Edition Oat Drink was co-developed by Coca-Cola and coffee master Zhang Yuanyi. It is a plant-based base beverage that enhances coffee aroma. This product is cholesterol-free and suitable for vegetarians and lactose-intolerant individuals. Each box contains 125 grams of oats, and each 100 milliliters contains 1.6 grams of plant protein, suitable for professional techniques like latte art.

Currently, both products are available in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other first-tier cities through professional channels such as coffee shops and tea shops, as well as e-commerce channels, with small-scale exploration of retail channels.

It is understood that the AdeZ brand was born in Argentina in 1988 and has been in the plant-based beverage business for 31 years. Its products are exported to 36 countries. It is a plant-based beverage brand under Coca-Cola, with a wide product line and consumer recognition overseas.

Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting, believes that Coca-Cola has transformed from a carbonated beverage company to a full-category beverage company, with a rich product portfolio.

In recent years, China's coffee market has grown, driving the plant-based beverage market to heat up. Coca-Cola's entry at this time is also to provide supporting products for its acquired Costa Coffee. In 2018, Coca-Cola acquired British coffee brand Costa for $5.1 billion. Currently, Costa has about 400 stores in China.

**-02-
New Growth Point**

A Coca-Cola spokesperson said that the market for coffee, milk tea, and creative mixed beverages is growing in China. Traditional flavored milk uses animal protein, but many Chinese consumers suffer from lactose intolerance. The demand for plant-based base beverages in China is increasing, and more and more merchants are focusing on plant-based beverages, making it a vibrant sub-category.

In Coca-Cola's business, plant-based beverages have become an important driver of growth. In the third quarter of 2019, Coca-Cola achieved revenue of $9.5 billion, an 8% year-on-year increase, with organic revenue growth of 5%. Data shows that while Coca-Cola's carbonated beverages achieved 2% volume growth overall, juices, dairy beverages, and plant-based beverages grew by 1% overall.

In the Chinese market, data shows that the plant-based base beverage category is growing rapidly at a compound annual growth rate of 8%-12%, with an expected market size of 83 billion yuan by 2020.

Globally, plant-based beverages have seen significant growth in recent years. Data shows that in 2018, U.S. traditional milk retail sales fell by 1.2%, while alternatives like oat and almond grew by 3%. In the European market, from April 2017 to March 2018, oat-based plant-based beverages and yogurts accounted for 14.8% of new product launches, compared to 9.8% in the same period last year.

According to Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, as consumers demand higher health and low-fat options, the plant-based beverage market is gradually expanding. Although China has several well-known brands in the plant-based beverage field, including Chengde Lulu and Vivi, these brands have not invested much in plant-based base beverages.

**-03-
Multi-player Competition**

Before AdeZ entered China's plant-based beverage field, Swedish oat milk brand Oatly and Hong Kong soy milk brand Vitasoy had already launched related products in mainland China, seizing the first-mover advantage.

As Coca-Cola positions itself in coffee/tea shops and tests online channels, Oatly has already established a presence in coffee shops like Pacific Coffee, and Vitasoy provides plant-based base products to Starbucks. In the future, competition in the plant-based market, especially in the coffee sector and the entire plant-based beverage field, will become increasingly fierce.

Oatly, which entered China earlier, has seized the first-mover advantage.

In early 2018, Oatly officially entered China through Pacific Coffee. It has now expanded to over 2,000 coffee shops. Moreover, Oatly has also launched original and chocolate flavors suitable for C-end sales. It is understood that before entering China, Oatly had already entered 2,500 boutique or small chain coffee shops in the U.S. and opened two factories there. In 2017, Oatly's sales were 640 million Swedish kronor (approximately 500 million yuan), and in 2018, they reached 1 billion Swedish kronor (approximately 800 million yuan), showing rapid growth.

Notably, a subsidiary of China Resources Group has also invested in Oatly, which is beneficial for Oatly's expansion in China. As for Vitasoy, the brand has been in mainland China for many years, and its main client is Starbucks, which is its biggest advantage. Currently, Starbucks has over 4,000 stores in mainland China. However, Vitasoy has obvious channel weaknesses in the northern market.

Compared to Oatly and Vitasoy, Coca-Cola has clear advantages. Zhu Danpeng believes that AdeZ has over 30 years of history and global influence. In China, Coca-Cola has strong channels and brand influence, and maintains good relations with COFCO, all of which are conducive to Coca-Cola's promotion of AdeZ. "Coca-Cola has acquired Costa, and AdeZ can quickly expand through Costa."

However, in the view of Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting, Costa's store count is relatively small, and Coca-Cola needs to further expand other coffee brands, which will be its biggest challenge. Additionally, Chinese consumer awareness will take time to cultivate.

To get closer to consumers, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said that in 2020, Coca-Cola will launch multiple ready-to-drink plant-based beverages in China, such as oat milk, nut milk, and plant-based yogurt.

Source: Beijing Business Today (ID: BBT_JLHD)
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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 李振兴
- Published: 2019-12-31
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/coca-cola-enters-plant-based-beverage-market-for-the-first-time-kicking-f04c8327/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/tkYHiqJtk8aUX8W4qRuRMA

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