Beverage battle in China goes beyond colas

After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the US in 1979, Coca-Cola became one of the first international brands to re-enter the Chinese market.

PepsiCo Inc followed two years later, bringing the cola wars to the world's most populous country.

Fast-forward more than 30 years, and the two soft-drink giants are still battling for market share. But now there are plenty of other soft drinks for Chinese consumers, according to Suzanna Clarke, head of beverages for Canadean, a market research firm focused on consumer goods.

"Historically, the carbonates market has been extremely pivotal to the Chinese soft drinks market, accounting for more than one-third of soft drinks consumption in 2000," Clarke said. "Nearly 20 years later, Chinese carbonates' share of the soft drinks market is anticipated to have fallen 10 percent.

"When considering Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's presence in the Chinese soft drinks market, their overall share has battled to remain at the same level compared to 10 years ago as domestic production has increased," Clarke wrote in an email to China Daily. "But the per capita consumption of carbonates is still increasing as their reach is tapping in to more urban areas of China,"

Global soft drinks volumes expanded more than 3 percent in 2014, with the value of sales climbing by more than 6 percent to $867.4 billion, data from Euromonitor showed.

The US is the world's largest soft drinks market, in both value and volume, but markets such as China, Brazil and Mexico have grown in recent years, Euromonitor said in January.

Energy drinks (9.8 percent) and bottled water (6.1 percent) saw the largest year-over-year increase, while carbonates and juice lagged due to "growing consumer concerns" about sugar content, price and artificial flavoring.

"It is [these] other soft drinks categories that are set to outpace carbonates consumption - notably packaged water, still drinks, iced tea and energy drinks," Clarke said.

The Coca-Cola Co maintains an edge over PepsiCo in the China carbonated soft drinks (CSD) market, with a share of 63 percent in 2014, according to Euromonitor. PepsiCo's share was nearly 30 percent, according to an April 22 research note from Bill Schmitz, an analyst who covers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola for Deutsche Bank.

"Today China is already one of the largest liquid refreshment beverage (LRB) markets in the world and will be a key contributor to the growth of the global beverage sector," a spokesman with PepsiCo Greater China Region said in an e-mail to China Daily. "China remains an attractive consumer market; total consumption has grown four times in the last decade, well above the rest of the world."

Reuters contributed to this report.

jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com