Healthy drinks fight Domestic products came to the fore

Pictured: Sugar-free/low-sugar sparkling water launched by giants at home and abroad refers to the base camp of Yuanqi Forest. / Yu Day

Domestic cuisine has attacked the city at an alarming speed, and even forced international giants to "copy their homework" and launch similar competitors. According to network data, coca-cola took 95 years to reach the top of China's beverage sales, yuanqi forest took 6 years; let business people in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen fall in love with instant coffee, Nestlé took 38 years, three and a half meals took 7 years; cultivating China's high-end ice cream consumer market, Haagen-Dazs took 26 years, Chung Xue Gao spent 4 years... Tang Binsen, founder of Yuanqi Forest, said frankly that Yuanqi Forest has been exported to more than 40 countries and regions, which is a manifestation of the tide of domestic products and the rise of domestic products.

Tang Binsen founded Yuanqi Forest in China in 2016, and its main product "zero sugar, zero fat, zero calorie" sparkling water costs 7 yuan (RMB, the same below) in convenience stores, which is twice the same volume of Coca-Cola, but still captures a group of young people who want to taste healthier.

Erythritol is the secret weapon of the Yuanqi Forest, and its sweetness is about 70% to 80% of sucrose, but the calories are only 10% of sucrose, which is the lowest of all sugar substitute products. Moreover, most erythritol molecules enter the human body and are excreted with urine through blood circulation. But the price of erythritol in the same gram is 5 to 10 times that of sorbitol.

"No preservatives" is a secret weapon

"We chose erythritol, which is more technically difficult and costly, for one reason only, and that is the taste." Tang Binsen admits that "the sweetness of the 'combination of erythritol and sucralose' is closest to sucrose. ”

In Tang Binsen's view, with the upgrading of consumption, China's food and beverage industry has changed from the past "channel is king" to "product is king". Tang Binsen said bluntly: "I often tell the R & D personnel that you must believe that Chinese can afford to drink good drinks, so don't consider the cost, and make a good product that you are really willing to drink, often more opportunities." ”

With the launch of the "zero sugar, zero fat, zero calorie" multi-flavor sparkling water in 2018, it has completely brought the Yuanqi Forest into the fast lane.

According to public data, from 2018 to 2020, the sales of Yuanqi Forest are 160 million yuan, 870 million yuan and 2.7 billion yuan, although it has not been officially announced in 2021, Tang Binsen has set a sales target of 7.5 billion yuan in offline channels, and he is quite confident.

A former Pepsi executive once lamented to the media that every important meeting of the two les (Coca-Cola, Pepsi) in the past two years finally had to go around to the topic of "how to succeed in the Yuanqi Forest".

The popularity of the "sparkling water" and "sugar-free" concepts has led to a strong entry for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, with the former bringing in the "AH!" that has been called the most important new product of the past decade. HA！ Small universe", the latter used "Bubly Smile Fun Bubble" to title the popular variety show "Director Please Advise". In addition to international giants, domestic beverage giants such as Nongfu Spring and Wahaha have also launched similar products.

Genki Forest entered the U.S. best-seller list

Li Bingqian, general manager of Yuanqi Forest Production Center, said: "Yuanqi Forest just wants to tell everyone that carbonated drinks can be more healthy, not only sugar-free, but also without adding preservatives such as sodium benzoate. ”

He said with some pride that with the improvement of the health concept of modern consumer groups, and people drinking various beverages and foods more frequently in multiple scenarios, reducing the addition of preservatives has also become an inevitable trend in the upgrading of the food industry. "This time, we are at the forefront of international giants!"

Once upon a time, the North American beverage market was filled with high-sugar drinks known as "Fat Boy Happy Water", which also made the United States one of the countries with the highest obesity rates in the world. 　　To this end, the yuanqi forest with the concept of "zero sugar, zero fat, zero calories" has become a good thing for many fitness bloggers to share, even the 73-year-old supermodel, Musk's mother Meyer. Musk also placed an aluminum can of sparkling water in the Yuanqi Forest at home. In the sales list of Amazon's website in mid-December 2021, Yuanqi Forest's overseas version of aluminum can sparkling water broke into the top ten of the Amazon sparkling water best-seller list in the United States, and also won the top three of the track's new product list.

Looking forward to the future overseas market, Tang Binsen believes: "Obesity has become a public health problem in the United States, and the American Heart Association has even proposed to impose a sugar tax on sugar-containing products such as soda, so we are very optimistic about the development of zero-sugar beverages in this market." ”