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Bottled Water Market Quickly Turning Chinese
http://www.economist.com/news/business/216452...pring-tide
China bottled water market to overtake the U.S. this year, industry expert Canadean says.
The world’s water demand is heading to China. And faster than many industry insiders expected.
According to beverage industry market research firm Canadean, when it comes to bottled water, the Chinese are drinking their way ahead of the United States. By Canadean’s estimates, they’ll surpass water drinking Americans by the end of this year.
Over the last seven years, China has doubled its share of the global bottled water market. They had around a two billion liter difference between them and the U.S. last year, but now China is forecast to be one billion liters ahead of us, a Canadean report partially released to the media on Tuesday shows. The report, titled “China Soft Drinks Market Insight”, was published in June.
In per capita terms, however, the picture is very different. China is running below the global, per capita bottled water consumption average of 30 liters per person. With over a billion people to count for, China’s per capita consumption is just around one-fifth of that of the U.S. That means there’s plenty of room to grow this segment out in the future. Poland Spring and Bling H20 have a future on the mainland!
Most of the big brands are local, with the exception of one American name.
The top three water brands leading the charge in China now are Kangshifu (Tingyi Holding TINGYP +% Corp.), Nongfushanquan (Zhejiang Nongfushanquan Water Co Ltd), Ice Dew (Coca-Cola KO -0.17%) and Yibao (China Resources Enterprises).
The focus of these brands is likely to be on value-added mineral water products (think flavored water, for instance).
Continued investment in production expansion and improvement of distribution networks can be expected to fuel the competitive energy in the packaged water market, Canadean said in a press release about the report today. Canadean also said that the main business for the soft drink players was in mineral water (table water with added minerals) and other, smaller, mineral water segments.
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Increasing consumer health consciousness has seen mineralized water accelerate over the decade to claim a 42% market share in the China soft drink space. More recently, a notable shift to mineral water is emerging as Chinese consumers become aware of the health benefits of drinking water, Canadean said. Beverage companies like Coca-Cola are increasingly mindful of this new trend in China, too, and are on the hunt for high quality, natural, mineral water sources as healthy alternatives to their roster of carbonated drinks.
Some China beverage companies are looking overseas for growth. Shenzhen Jingtian Food and Beverage invested in a production base in Scotland last year.