As expected, Genki Forest has launched new products again. Currently, JD.com has listed coffee products co-developed by Genki Forest and Never Coffee, including two products: unsweetened American and low-sugar rich latte. These products are produced at Genki Forest's Zhaoqing factory in Guangdong. They are currently in the pre-sale stage, with a pre-sale price of 119.9 yuan per box (300ml*15), showing 6 units sold. As early as 2020, rumors circulated that Genki Forest was entering the coffee industry, and now the new products have put those rumors to rest. From sparkling water to mineral water to coffee, Genki Forest is not content to stay only in sugar-free beverages; its ambitions go far beyond that. Genki Forest founder Tang Binsen once said in an interview that in a big era, one should not be opportunistic; from freezers to sales channels, to factories and supply chains, nothing can be missing. This statement confirms that Tang Binsen had already prepared well, just waiting for the right time. ****Coffee Layout, Long-Planned At the beginning of 2021, Tianyancha information showed that Never Coffee's affiliated company, Love Me Ka Fei (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., underwent industrial and commercial changes. Tianyancha official website information shows that the company's original shareholders, Beijing Challenger Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Hongtai Qihang Venture Capital Center (Limited Partnership), and Lela, withdrew, and Genki Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. was added as a shareholder. After the change, Genki Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. holds 51% of the shares, becoming the largest shareholder. Xie Danyang, who had appeared as a partner of Genki Forest and deputy general manager of national sales, will serve as chairman of Never Coffee. In addition, after the change, Never Coffee's registered capital increased from 1 million yuan to 1.3572 million yuan. Public data shows that Never Coffee's parent company is Love Me Ka Fei (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., an original boutique coffee brand that uses black coffee as an entry point and is committed to developing a variety of trendy and fun coffee product categories with professional capabilities. It was established on June 17, 2015, and has gone through 4 rounds of financing. With Genki Forest's investment, there was speculation whether Genki Forest was really going to enter the coffee market. However, a Genki Forest spokesperson once said that the investment in Never Coffee was unrelated to Genki Forest, and they had not planned a coffee category. Later, Genki Forest made another move: Ran Hao, former HRD of Luckin Coffee's senior management, joined Genki Forest, and rumors arose again. But Genki Forest still did not confirm, answering: "It depends on business development." Now everything is ready, and the launch of new products is the best official announcement: Genki Forest is really going to make coffee! Why choose Never Coffee? Never Coffee belongs to the bottled ready-to-drink coffee category, with products including cold-brew black coffee, cold-brew lime coffee, cold-brew latte, boutique drip coffee, boutique coffee beans, and coffee-related products. In terms of price, Never Coffee's bottled series is priced at 9.9 yuan per bottle, and the affordable coffee price has brought considerable sales to the brand. As a startup coffee brand, Never Coffee positions itself as a boutique canned coffee, with its ready-to-drink American coffee featuring 0 sugar, 0 calories, and 0 additives, and flavored with smoked wood, hazelnut, and dark plum. In 2017, Never Coffee began to lay out offline channels, deploying 3,000 terminals in Beijing, East China, and South China, with overall sales growing to hundreds of thousands of bottles per month. It is worth mentioning that its low-sugar/sugar-free strategy coincides with Genki Forest's "sugar-free strategy." Perhaps this is the most important reason Genki Forest chose to cooperate with it. It can be seen that two years of layout have fully prepared Genki Forest to enter the coffee track. At the same time, it further expanded Genki Forest's grand investment map. In fact, Genki Forest has been expanding its investment map. This includes investing in Hangzhou Light Food Health Technology Co., Ltd., which produces light meals and low-fat foods, and later testing the launch of chicken breast sausage products; participating in the investment in a simple meal brand called "Shangui," which mainly sells chicken soup, ramen, and other products. Tang Binsen has also invested through Challenger Capital in new consumer companies with potential, such as Lamian Shuo, Haowangshui, and Panda Brewing. For Genki Forest, diversified layout is key to becoming a true beverage giant with scale effects, so it is not surprising to seize the ready-to-drink coffee track. Then one might wonder: Genki Forest made sparkling water, and it became popular; made milk tea, and it also became popular; can it make coffee popular too? Entering Ready-to-Drink Coffee: Old Track or New Concept? Let's first analyze why Genki Forest's sparkling water became popular. Looking at Genki Forest's success, on the surface it opened up the sugar-free category, but from a competitive perspective, it redefined the competitive space. Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff once said: "Success comes from the right way of competing." What does that mean? For example, the outcome of a fight between a bear and a crocodile depends on the terrain. Both animals are fierce on their own turf, but a bear struggles in a swamp, and a crocodile has no advantage on land. Therefore, in a battle, evenly matched opponents can only win on their own favorable turf. For challengers, the rules are clear: use mobile strategy to move the battle away from competitors' turf, force them to compete under new rules, implement new standards, find new customers, open new sales channels, introduce new partners, define a competitive space where you take the initiative, and strive for success before strong opponents enter. Most champions succeed by performing better than anyone else in key aspects. If you compete in an area where a strong opponent excels, you are destined to lose. In sparkling water beverages, Genki Forest is the pioneer, so in this competitive space, Genki Forest is the rule-maker. It achieved success at the fastest speed before strong opponents entered, gaining the greatest voice in the sparkling water category. Later competitors are mostly followers. But ready-to-drink coffee is different; it has undergone a period of development and iteration. Since 2018, ready-to-drink coffee has experienced explosive growth in China. A 2018 report by market research firm Mintel showed that the sales growth rate of China's ready-to-drink coffee retail market will exceed that of non-liquid coffee (instant and freshly brewed). This more portable packaged coffee product meets the growing coffee demand of young people, and sugar-free and low-sugar have gradually become new trends in the ready-to-drink coffee segment. Since 2019, major manufacturers such as Mengniu, Yili, and Nongfu Spring have also entered the ready-to-drink coffee category one after another. Nongfu Spring launched a carbonated coffee product "Tanbing"; in 2020, Coca-Cola officially began selling COSTA's ready-to-drink coffee product line in China. In addition to big brands, some new consumer brands and boutique coffee brands have also begun to occupy ready-to-drink coffee, such as Never Coffee, which cuts into the sugar-free and low-sugar ready-to-drink coffee field. Moreover, its price range of 5-10 yuan is more friendly compared to brands like Starbucks. Although Genki Forest has become the largest shareholder of Never Coffee, how will it break the situation next? In an existing competitive space, how to differentiate? Can it create a second "sparkling water" in the ready-to-drink coffee world? In the eyes of outsiders, there are many uncertainties. However, Tang Binsen once shared an interesting story: "In the era of the four major portals, it was considered unchallengeable, but within a few years, the monopoly of the four major portals was broken by BAT, and later innovative companies like ByteDance, Meituan, and Pinduoduo emerged." Judging by Tang Binsen's style, two years of layout plus Genki Forest's confidence in "strengthening sparkling water" may mean that ready-to-drink coffee will be redone. Like the "Youkuang" launched at the end of last year. It mainly targets urban young people who advocate health and individuality, and it is also a new brand in the domestic bottled water market that first proposed the concept of "soft mineral water." It should be noted that most mineral water is not soft water. The concept of "soft water" was first popular in developed countries such as Europe, America, and Japan, referring to water that does not contain or contains less soluble calcium and magnesium compounds. Because soft water does not easily form scale after boiling and does not affect ingredients, it is more suitable for making tea, brewing coffee, and making soup. In terms of taste, soft water is smoother and has a better mouthfeel. The introduction of this new concept, in a sense, also means that Genki Forest has redefined the competitive space, and it is still the rule-maker of competition. When Tang Binsen was once asked by the media whether there were "categories as big as sparkling water," he replied that mineral water was one of them. Genki, which has always been confident, what new concept will it propose for this entry into coffee? Final Thoughts: Tang Binsen once said at a distributor conference that Genki Forest still has 95% of its products not yet launched, and 2021 would be Genki Forest's "big product year," with R&D expenses and R&D personnel tripling compared to 2020. Now we have entered 2022, and the increasingly rich product line has fulfilled Tang Binsen's words. In Tang Binsen's view, Chinese entrepreneurs should always see new possibilities. Therefore, when making investments, Tang Binsen has four principles: Chinese people can achieve, challenge giants, invest in good products, and believe in young people. As long as three principles are met, he can invest, and Genki Forest meets all four principles. With the support of these four principles, Genki Forest's blueprint for a full-category product line is becoming clearer. From the initial "disruptor" besieged by the industry to now becoming an influential "radiator" in the industry, Genki Forest's role is changing. When talking about Genki Forest's internet celebrity label, Tang Binsen said: "All great companies were initially internet celebrities, like Google, Facebook, and Tencent in their early days. Being an internet celebrity is not important; what matters is whether you are a strong player and can survive to the end." This is the long-termism that Genki Forest has always adhered to, and it is also the basic logic of Genki Forest. -END-