---
title: "The Battle for a 30 Billion Yuan Bottle of Water: New Consumption's Freezer War"
description: "As summer heat drives demand, the bottled water market is becoming a fierce battleground for new and established brands. With the market projected to exceed 300 billion yuan by 2025, companies are competing through source water claims, brand storytelling, and price adjustments to capture market share."
author: "虚渊玄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2022-07-29"
language: "en"
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# The Battle for a 30 Billion Yuan Bottle of Water: New Consumption's Freezer War

> As summer heat drives demand, the bottled water market is becoming a fierce battleground for new and established brands. With the market projected to exceed 300 billion yuan by 2025, companies are competing through source water claims, brand storytelling, and price adjustments to capture market share.

********Click to read the original article for details********
Steady freezers, flowing cold drinks—this summer, the small refrigerated space is becoming a must-win territory for new consumer brands.
From mineral water and beverages to dairy companies and ice cream, from new tea drinks to pre-made dishes, who can adapt to market demand and carve out a place?
Based on this, Caijing Wuji has launched a special feature—**"Summer New Consumption's Freezer War"**—focusing on the above four categories and brands such as Nongfu Spring, Genki Forest, Zhong Xue Gao, Yili, Anjoy Foods, and Qudian, to examine this fiercely competitive battlefield at minus 5 degrees and analyze the growth logic of summer brands.
The summer of 2022 will surely remain in many people's memories, not only for the prolonged high temperatures but also for the "ice cream刺客" (ice cream price shockers).
Alongside ice cream, bottled water, a common commodity, also sees high consumption during summer heat. This seemingly unremarkable bottle of water harbors a market worth hundreds of billions.
According to data from the Zhongyan Industrial Research Institute, **China's bottled water market size grew from 123.7 billion yuan in 2014 to 199.9 billion yuan in 2019, and exceeded 200 billion yuan in 2021. In the coming years, the market is expected to grow at 8%-9% annually, potentially surpassing 300 billion yuan by 2025.**
Given such vast market potential, new bottled water brands have emerged like mushrooms after rain.
New and old brands intertwine, and the bottled water market is fraught with fierce competition.
**01 The Bottled Water Market: Coveted by New and Old Brands**
In 1930, the first Chinese mineral water was born in Qingdao, but the brand competition in China's bottled water market only began in the late 1990s, more than sixty years later.
At that time, the market focused on cultivating consumer habits of drinking bottled water.
In recent years, China's bottled water market has attracted increasing attention from "outsiders," all eager to claim a slice of this huge pie.
Genki Forest, a popular sparkling water brand in recent years, officially launched its mineral water sub-brand "Youkuang" in July last year. **According to public information, Genki Forest's mineral water project was initiated at the end of 2020, and after seven months of preparation, Youkuang began selling through e-commerce channels.**
At the end of 2021, Youkuang piloted offline retail in East China. In April this year, Youkuang fully launched offline sales.
This new bottled water brand, positioned as "soft mineral water," is the result of Genki Forest's "500-day search for China's good water." According to Wang Xuegang, president of Genki Forest Research Institute, the institute and the Youkuang product team inspected nearly 40 water sources across the country. After comprehensive evaluation of water quality, ecological indicators, taste, hardness, and metasilicic acid content, they selected the Cangshan Mountain water source in Dali, Yunnan, a world-class geological park, as the first source.
Initially priced at 5 yuan, Youkuang targeted the mid-to-high-end bottled water market.
**In addition to new tea beverage brands entering the bottled water arena, a traditional liquor company has also set its sights on the bottled water business.**
Last month, Yingjia Mountain Spring, under Anhui Yingjia Gongjiu Group, held a grand brand strategy launch conference. At the event, Yingjia Mountain Spring, which calls itself the "porter of China's good water," announced a brand upgrade, including changes to its advertising slogan and packaging design, aiming to become "one of China's two mountain springs" and targeting the goal of becoming "the second listed company of Yingjia Group," directly challenging the industry leader, Nongfu Spring.
Yingjia Mountain Spring sources its water from Huoshan County, Anhui Province. As a core area of the first batch of national ecological protection and construction demonstration zones, Huoshan is renowned as an "excellent water source in China," a "natural oxygen bar," and the "hometown of bamboo in China," with forest coverage exceeding 76% and excellent air quality for over 97% of the year.
Huoshan is also one of the sources for Yingjia Mountain Spring's other main product, "Zhugen Gua Shui" (bamboo root water).
**Besides new tea drinks and traditional liquor companies, dairy giant Yili also launched its mineral water brand, inikin, in 2019. Yike Living Spring, positioned as "volcanic low-temperature living spring," targets the high-end market.**
Additionally, Renhe Pharmacy, Tsingtao Beer, and Junyao Health have announced entry into the already crowded bottled water market through self-building or acquisition.
**02 How to Compete for a Bottle of Water?**
**Playing the Water Source Card is Common Knowledge**
From a market classification perspective, bottled water can be broadly divided into four product categories: natural mineral water (e.g., Ganten), natural water (e.g., Nongfu Spring), purified water (e.g., C'estbon), and other drinking water (e.g., Master Kong).
If ranked by health benefits, the order would follow the same sequence.
**In a consumer market increasingly focused on health, the positive impact of a product on human health naturally becomes the primary consideration when buying water.** Undoubtedly, natural mineral water and natural water are preferred, so brands often package their water source as a key value proposition in marketing.
The well-known slogan "We don't produce water; we're just nature's porters" perfectly aligns with consumers' perception of natural water.
Nongfu Spring, the leader in bottled water, has also done extensive homework on water source selection. On its official website, Nongfu Spring lists eleven water sources: Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang, Wanlv Lake in Guangdong, Danjiangkou in Hubei, Manas in Tianshan, Xinjiang, Mount Emei in Sichuan, Taibai Mountain in Shaanxi, Changbai Mountain in Jilin, Wuling Mountain in Guizhou, Daxing'anling in Heilongjiang, Wuling Mountain in Hebei, and Wuyi Mountain in Fujian.
To fully showcase the naturalness of its water sources, Nongfu Spring has produced several documentaries with a strong humanistic touch, recording the natural ecology of its sources.
In these picturesque scenes with adorable animals, the brand philosophy "What kind of water source nurtures what kind of life" is repeatedly emphasized.
Evergrande Spring, a former high-end bottled water brand, used the slogan "One source supplies the world" at its inception, referring to Changbai Mountain.
Changbai Mountain is also among Nongfu Spring's sources, and for this source, Nongfu Spring launched a high-end product line, Changbai Snow Natural Mineral Water.
Due to its remote location and sparse population, Changbai Mountain is considered one of the world's three major water sources, alongside the Alps in Europe and the Caucasus in Russia. Besides Nongfu Spring and Evergrande Spring, Changbai Mountain is also a source for C'estbon and Master Kong.
Among imported brands, Evian sources from the Alps, Perrier from the Vosges Mountains in France, and Fiji Water from the Nakauvadra Mountains on Viti Levu island in Fiji.
**Both domestic and international bottled water brands use their water sources as the most important symbol and representation of their products, attracting consumers with "natural," "pure," and "healthy" attributes.**
**Storytelling Can Also Win a Place**
Besides water sources, what else can add value to bottled water brands? While researching the development history of various bottled water brands online, Caijing Wuji found that storytelling can also imbue bottled water with value and drive conversions.
The most touching and appealing stories are love stories. Coincidentally, Ganten has told this love story well.
In Ganten's most iconic TV commercial, an aged man and a pure princess together create a moving scene. Based on the love story of Descartes and the Swedish princess, the Ganten ad made people instantly remember this "aristocrat of water," helping Ganten stand out.
In 2017, Ganten signed a sponsorship deal with Italian football club Juventus. A year later, Juventus welcomed football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, instantly boosting Ganten's sponsorship effect. On the training ground, the "football aristocrat" holding Ganten solidified its "aristocrat of water" status.
Through these successful marketing moves, Ganten gradually expanded its market share. According to the latest Nielsen data, in August 2019, Ganten overtook Master Kong to rank third in the bottled water market with a 9.6% share, forming the first tier with Nongfu Spring and China Resources C'estbon.
**Ganten is not the only brand with a story. Laoshan Mineral Water, which produced China's first mineral water, has embedded "long history" into its brand DNA.**
The ancient Laoshan glacier, with a history of 2.58 million years, provides Laoshan Mineral Water with exceptional quality. As early as 1900, German businessman Ma Ya accidentally discovered the Laoshan Hedgehog Well, marking the beginning of Laoshan Mineral Water's history.
In 1930, the Laoshan Mineral Water Factory, headed by German chemistry doctor Rodewig, was completed and began producing bottled mineral water. In 1934, Laoshan Mineral Water was transferred to Chinese management. After the founding of New China in 1949, Laoshan Mineral Water was nationalized and renamed Qingdao Soda Water Factory.
After nearly a century of development, Laoshan Mineral Water, now under Qingdao Beverage Group, has a brand value of 35.375 billion yuan.
Having witnessed China's modern history, Laoshan Mineral Water has supplied water for numerous national conferences and events, thanks to its long history and high-quality sources.
**After All the Competition, Price Still Matters**
However, whether it's Nongfu Spring and Evergrande Spring touting their premium sources, or Ganten and Laoshan Mineral Water telling compelling stories, in today's era where "ice cream刺客" like Zhong Xue Gao are being criticized, the bottled water summer still requires price adjustments to secure market position.
According to the "2022-2027 China Bottled Water Industry Deep Development Research and '14th Five-Year' Enterprise Investment Strategic Planning Report" by Zhongyan Puhua Industrial Research Institute, China's bottled water industry can be divided into four tiers.
The first tier, priced above 5 yuan per 500ml, includes high-end natural mineral waters such as Evian, Perrier, Tibet 5100, and Kunlun Mountain. The second tier, priced between 3-5 yuan, includes mass-market natural mineral water brands like Ganten. The third and fourth tiers, priced at 1-3 yuan for purified and natural water, and below 1 yuan for mineral water, include brands like C'estbon, Nongfu Spring, Master Kong, and Wahaha.
**In terms of market share, there is an inverse relationship with price: the top six brands—Nongfu Spring, C'estbon, Ganten, Master Kong, Binglu, and Wahaha—hold about 80% of the market.**
Nongfu Spring's 2021 annual report shows revenue of 29.696 billion yuan, up 29.8% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders at 7.162 billion yuan, up 35.7%. Revenue from packaged drinking water products reached 17.058 billion yuan, up 22.1%.
According to Nongfu Spring's pre-IPO prospectus, the gross margin for bottled water is as high as 60.2%.
No matter how high-end the brand positioning or flashy the marketing, they still can't outsell the 2-yuan Nongfu Spring.
**Facing intense summer competition, high-end brands have lowered their prices and joined the fray.**
In May, Evergrande Spring, which started high and fell low, launched a new packaging, announcing a 2-yuan (500ml) price strategy for its natural metasilicic acid "deep mineral water."
Caijing Wuji observed that Evergrande Spring, once priced at 5 yuan per bottle, is now sold at 45.9 yuan per 24-bottle case on Tmall Supermarket, averaging 1.91 yuan per bottle, and even lower at 1.72 yuan per bottle when buying two cases. Evergrande Spring has completely exited the high-end market.
Kunlun Mountain Snow Mountain Mineral Water, after repackaging, reduced its price from 5 yuan to 4 yuan per bottle in its early 2022 investment brochure.
Similarly, on Tmall Supermarket, buying two cases of 24 bottles each averages 3.5 yuan per bottle, also below its market price.
Genki Forest's Youkuang high-end mineral water, mentioned earlier, is priced at 96 yuan per case on Tmall Supermarket, averaging 4 yuan per bottle.
Interestingly, at a recent market communication meeting, Youkuang announced another price cut, with a new suggested retail price of 3 yuan.
Yingjia Mountain Spring, targeting Nongfu Spring, is sold at 48 yuan per case on its official flagship store, Yeling Food Flagship Store, clearly aiming for 2 yuan per bottle.
**03 Have Foreign Bottled Water Brands Also Lowered Their Prices?**
On Tmall, Caijing Wuji found that Evian has reduced its price, with 500ml bottles selling at 85 yuan per case, averaging 3.54 yuan per bottle, making it more affordable.
Perrier, the recognized "aristocrat of water," frequently runs promotions on e-commerce platforms like Tmall and JD.com. On Tmall, 330ml Perrier is priced at 159 yuan per case during promotional events, dropping to 6.42 yuan per bottle, a "rock-bottom price" compared to the original price of dozens of yuan per bottle.
Another brand popular in China in recent years, Norwegian high-end bottled water VOSS, after developing a domestic water source in Danxia Mountain, quickly reduced its price. On Tmall Supermarket, a case of 500ml VOSS is priced at 139 yuan, averaging 5.79 yuan per bottle.
**It's evident that both domestic and international bottled water brands are offering discounts to consumers during peak sales periods to quickly boost sales and expand market share.**
As young people start drinking more water, the competition in bottled water intensifies.
**Engaging in "price wars" is one way for brands to capture market share.** However, in the long run, with rising costs of raw materials, labor, and transportation, the trend of bottled water price increases is clear.
According to the China Packaged Water Industry Association, the price structure of packaged drinking water in China has shifted from a triangle to a spindle shape: around 2010, low-priced purified water, natural water, and mineral water at 1-2 yuan dominated the market; after more than a decade, 2-yuan natural water and mid-to-high-end purified water have become more prominent; in the future, with consumption upgrades, the 1-yuan market will shrink, and 3-yuan products will rise.
Source: Hedgehog Commune
**The increase in unit price is not only due to rising industry costs but, more importantly, to consumer demand for higher quality bottled water.**
Compared to new tea drinks, coffee, and carbonated beverages, the younger generation—post-95s and post-00s—seems more focused on "needs" when purchasing bottled water than the post-80s and post-90s.
On Douban, there is a group called "Drink More Water Every Day, Ton Ton Ton Ton Ton," whose description reads: "Drinking more water is always good. Among honey water, light salt water, milk, soy milk, coffee, tea, plain water, etc., plain water is always the best choice."
After browsing nearly 200 posts in this group, Caijing Wuji found that young people have more "objective" demands for drinking water.
In a post titled "Kids and Kittens Who Don't Like Drinking Water Will Inevitably Get Kidney Stones," Caijing Wuji discovered that the poster, still in college, had already suffered from kidney stones four times. In the hospital diagnosis she shared, the "treatment advice" clearly stated "recommend drinking more water."
In the group discussions, besides "fellow patients" exchanging "conditions," many posts involve topics like "how to remind yourself to drink more water," "what apps can remind you to drink water," and the popular "which brand of bottled water is better."
**Drinking more water is no longer just a "straight-man's" concern but a real need for Generation Z.**
Looking back at China's 40-plus years of reform and opening up, we find an interesting fact: only three industries have produced more than two domestic richest persons: real estate, the internet—both "big industries"—and bottled water, a "small industry."
With a market size of 300 billion yuan, China's bottled water market is set to face another round of fierce competition.
In round after round of competition, what interesting stories will emerge from China's bottled water market, where "new bottles hold 'old' water"?
The waves wash away the sand, and the battle is in full swing.
-References-
The 3-yuan Bottled Water Battlefield: Making All Water Factories Roll Up Their Sleeves? - FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
Summer of Bottled Water - Jiemian News
A "War" Triggered by a Bottle of Water - Hedgehog Commune
Drink More Water Every Day Douban Group
Benchmarking Leading Drinking Water Brands, Yingjia Mountain Spring Releases New Strategy, Will It Become Yingjia Group's Second Listed Company? - Tangjiu Kuaixun
Understanding the New Trend in Water Drinks in One Article - China Beverage Industry Network
"Nongfu Spring 2021 Annual Report"
"Nongfu Spring Global Offering Prospectus"
Source: Caijing Wuji
(ID: caijwj)
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