Red Bull and Mengniu Seize the Vegetable Protein Beverage Market
date:2015-03-03
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Keyword:
 
Income Structure of Soft Beverage Industry in the First Half of 2014:
Tea beverage and other beverages: 19%; apple juice: 20%; solid beverage: 9%; beverageing water: 20%; beverage containing milk and vegetable protein: 17%; refined tea processing: 29%; carbonated beverage: 15%



Lolo     90%
Coconut Palm   50%
Yangyuan    78%
Yinlu    82%
 


         Net Assets Income Rate Comparison of Soft Beverage Industry in 2013
28.70%  Beverage containing milk and vegetable protein
16.20%  Carbonated beverage
24.70%  Beverageing water
11.80%  Fruit and vegetable juice
16.80%  Tea beverage
 
According to the definition of the General Standard for Beverage, the vegetable protein beverage refers to the milky beverage which takes the plant kernel, pulp and soybean as the raw materials and is obtained through the high pressure sterilization and aseptic packaging after processing and blending. According to the introduction of industry insiders, the vegetable protein beverage belongs to the vegetative beverage in protein beverages for the classification. As the vegetable protein beverage generally uses the plant with native characteristics as the raw materials, it is classified as the “Asian characteristic beverage” together with Wanglaoji, Jiaduobao and other herbal tea beverages, which is corresponding to the coffee, cola and other beverages originating from Europe and America.
 
However, in the statistical method and caliber of the National Bureau of Statistics, the output values of vegetable protein beverages and milk beverages are classified as the same category for statistics. According the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the industry income of China’s beverages containing milk and vegetable protein in 2013 is RMB 89.5 billion with a year-on-year growth of 19.54%.
 
Lower industry proportion
 
According to the data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics in the first half of 2014, the beverages containing milk and vegetable protein accounts for 17% of the whole beverage industry. Chen Tianyu, the researcher of ASKCI Industry Research Institute, said, “Benefiting from consumers’ increasing growth demand on healthy beverages, the domestic vegetable protein beverage industry maintains a situation of rapid growth but its proportion is still lower in the industry at present.”
 
The Research Report on Business Mode and Investment Opportunity of China’s Vegetable Protein Beverage Industry during 2014 to 2018 issued by ASKCI Industry Research Institute points out that the market sales volume of China’s vegetable protein beverages in 2013 is RMB 89.5 billion with a year-on-year growth of 23.5%. Through the statistics of the proportion of beverages containing milk and vegetable protein in the overall beverage structure in recent years, it is found that the proportion of beverages containing milk and vegetable protein in the whole beverage market is increasing year by year but the increase speed has a sluggish trend.
 
According to the data provided through the investigation of the data analysis institution (Euromonitor) on China’s vegetable protein beverages, the terminal retail sales volume of China’s vegetable protein beverages in 2013 is RMB 25.3 billion and the terminal retail sales volume of China’s milk beverages is RMB 83.3 billion.
 
According to this data, assuming that the channel profitability between production and terminal is the same, namely the profitability ratio of middlemen and retailers for vegetable protein beverages and milk beverages is equivalent (the gross profit rate); the added values caused by the channel are consistent for vegetable protein beverages and milk beverages due to the same category of statistics. Therefore, the proportion of China’s vegetable protein beverages in the whole soft beverage industry roughly ranges from 3% to 4% (significantly lower).
 
Industry magnates seize the market one after another
 
At present, the domestic vegetable protein beverage industry pattern is still unclear, and the vegetable protein beverage leading enterprises in the segmenting field strategically develop towards the comprehensive leading enterprises so as to build national brands. On the other hand, the beverage enterprises in other fields successively march into the vegetable protein beverage industry and therefore the industry competition is increasingly fierce.
 
An acquisition case message issued by Red Bull China (functional beverage magnate) provokes the industry nerve. In the mid July of 2015, the distributor (Reignwood Group) of Red Bull China will invest US$ 166 million (about RMB 1 billion) in purchasing 25% of the equity of Vita Coco which is the largest coconut juice dealer in the United States. It is reported that Reignwood Group will carry out the distribution of Vita Coco products in China after this transaction is completed. It is regarded by the industry that Reignwood Group feels optimistic about the market potential of vegetable beverages.  
 
In the 2014 semiyearly report published a few days ago, Mengniu Milk Industry said, “We will plan to launch vegetable protein beverages at the end of 2015 so as to fill in the blank of the domestic high-end vegetable protein beverage market and enrich the production line of Mengniu.” In January of this year, Yashily and Mengniu issued the joint announcement in Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the morning of January 6 and announced that Yashily would sell its factory in Zhengzhou to the joint venture company established jointly by Mengniu and White Wave (a food and beverage dealer in United States) at a price of RMB 370 million. According to the information of Center Daily News, the joint venture company has carried out the production layout and technical innovation of Yashily’s factory in Zhengzhou and started the product R & D, brand positioning and marketing strategy formulation since the beginning of April.
 
Industry experts believe that Mengniu aims to expand from its familiar animal protein market to the vegetable protein beverage market. Song Liang, the domestic well-known dairy expert said to the reporter of the New Express, “At present, several domestic vegetable protein beverage enterprises do a great job. Mengniu can reduce the difficulty of entering the market and also bring its existing brands and technologies to China through the cooperation with the largest vegetable protein beverage company in the United States so as to stir the domestic vegetable protein beverage market pattern.”
 
Nanfang Foodstuff which has launched black sesame juice but failed finally announces that it will invest RMB 2 billion in returning to the vegetable beverage market and build its black sesame milk into its second core product in August of this year. Huiyuan (juice magnate) has launched the new vegetable beverage product “Love Little Time” series this year, including three tastes of vegetable beverages (walnut, almond and coconut) with larger sales volume in the market. Wahaha will launch greengage & orange peel vegetable beverages in May of this year. In an interview of the reporter of the New Express, the relevant leader of Huiyuan Juice said, “The Company will carry out the diversified development under the premise of unification to expand the non-concentrated fruit and vegetable juice business to enrich the production line.”
 
It will be expected to maintain the annual growth rate of 20% in next few years
 
According to the performance of the vegetable protein beverage market in recent years, the retail sales volume of vegetable protein beverages has risen year by year. On the other hand, according to the industry data, its net assets growth rate is higher that of other categories through the comparison between vegetable protein beverages and other categories of soft beverages; the net assets growth rate will be taken as the important index of considering the fund utilization efficiency of the industry and obtaining the follow-up fund investment.
 
According to the understanding of Herbridge Media, the vegetable protein beverage mainly belongs to the daily consumer goods and therefore the expansion of its output value is more dependent on the expansion of sales volume but not the price increase; for the current relatively low inflation rate, it is believed that the average price of vegetable protein beverages shall be stably kept at a price of about RMB 10. Therefore, it is conservatively estimated that the output value will reach or be close to RMB 50 billion by 2020.
 
Many securities traders also feel optimistic about this beverage segmenting field. The research report issued by Shenyin Wanguo Securities shows that the scale of American vegetable protein beverage market is about US$ 30 billion at present with an annual growth rate of 7%, which is the sub-industry with the fastest growth rate in American beverage industry. Compared with American vegetable protein beverages, China's vegetable protein beverages are still in the early stage of development; under the background of allowing a second child, urbanization and aging, the consumption amount per capita and product upgrade space will be huge in the future; it is estimated that the industry will still maintain a growth rate of about 20% in the next three years.
 
Compared with American vegetable protein beverage products, China's vegetable protein beverage products are still in the early stage of development; the category quantity of products is less and the taste is single. Compared with the consumption upgrade of American vegetable protein beverages and China’s milk products and drinking water, the large-scale high-end vegetable protein beverage products still do not occur in China and therefore the consumption upgrade space is larger.
 
The limitation of different types of areas is stronger
 
At present, the categories with the outstanding market performance in the vegetable beverage industry mainly include almond juice, walnut juice, coconut juice, etc. According to the industry pattern, Chengde Lolo occupies the absolute advantage in almond juice products. The sales revenue of almond juice in 2013 is RMB 2.48 billion and its market share has exceeded 90%. The walnut juice leading company is Hebei Yangyuan Zhihui Beverage Co., Ltd., and its market share has reached about 80%. The coconut juice industry leading company is Coconut Palm Group.
 
According the introduction, the domestic vegetable protein beverage industry has been involved by some enterprises since 1998, and the involved beverages mainly include peanut milk, walnut milk, coconut juice, etc. As of 2000, there were some breakthroughs; the real development and take-off of the domestic vegetable protein beverage industry occurred after 2008. Milk has been doubted and concerned by some consumers and therefore vegetable protein beverages have obtained a very large development space.
 
According to the understanding of Herbridge Media, the market concentration of the vegetable protein beverage industry of coconut juice, soybean milk, walnut milk, etc. is not high at present; regional brands still prevail, and the national leading brand enterprises still do not occur. In the aspect of product marketing, the sale of vegetable protein beverages has regional and seasonal characteristics. At present, supermarkets are taken as the main retail channels, and enterprises carry out more fierce competition in the catering and supermarket channels. 
 
In the current domestic vegetable protein beverages, the regional development limitation of different categories is still stronger; soybean milk and coconut juice are mainly concentrated in the south market, and almond juice and walnut juice are mainly concentrated in the north market. The market segmentation hinders the development and growth of vegetable protein beverages to a certain extent.
 
In addition to the market expansion, the development of most vegetable protein beverages has the deficiencies of too single product and sale channels, etc. In vegetable protein beverages, the performance of Vitasoy is relatively good and it is also the vegetable protein beverage enterprise with development potential, which not only uses the supermarkets and other channels but also expands the catering channel and actively seizes the market.  
 
In addition, the rapid development of vegetable protein beverage market in recent years has also brought some problems to this industry, such as illegal addition, shoddy goods for quality goods, forged and fake commodities, etc. In 2013, the China Beverage Industry Association pointed out that nearly half of vegetable protein beverages in the market are unqualified.
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