Evergrande set to score again with bottled water

Guangzhou Evergrande players celebrated on Nov 10, 2013 after winning the Asian Football Confederation's Champions League in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The real estate group took the opportunity for a high-profile launch of its bottled water business, Evergrande Spring.[Photo/China Daily]

Guangzhou Evergrande Real Estate Group has set up an ambitious goal, on the back of the group's soccer team's continental success, to make it's newly-launched bottled water a household brand in the next few years as the Hong Kong-listed company seeks to broaden its business portfolio.

Sales of the bottled water will exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.65 billion) in 2014 and will triple by 2016, according to Xu Jiayin, the group's board chairman.

"Launching the bottled water is part of our long-term strategy," Xu said on Sunday at a meeting in Qingyuan, Guangdong province.

As of Sunday, the value of orders for the company's bottled water reached more than 5.7 billion yuan, the company source said.

The bottled water, Evergrande Spring, was launched on Nov 10, a day after the group-owned soccer team, Guangzhou Evergrande, won the AFC Champions League.

"Winning the Asian title has helped greatly enhance the company's name. We are confident of making the bottled water another business miracle in the company's history," Xu said.

To meet increased market demand, the company has put two waterworks in Jilin province into operation.

One will have an annual capacity of 400,000 tons of water, the other twice that, sources with the company said.

After entering the bottled water market, the Guangzhou-based group has expanded it's business to the property, hotel, consumer goods, sport and cultural sectors.

Evergrande's liquid assets