In the past two years, food prices have been rising one after another, and each rise has attracted attention. With the increase of raw materials, transportation and other costs, it is not uncommon for food prices to rise. Recently, it is reported that the price of Wahaha, which is known as the national beverage, is going to rise too. Let's have a look with Xiaobian.
Wahaha denies the price increase
Recently, according to domestic media reports, Wahaha, based on its price advantage in the third and fourth tier and rural markets, will also follow the trend.
The news comes from a price increase notice released by wechat company 'food business observation'. According to the notice, Wahaha will adjust the supply price of its five series products of tea, juice, express, activation and hongpiaoshui from March 1, and stipulate that the lowest zero price of each bottle of product shall not be less than 3 yuan, 3 yuan, 4 yuan, 4 yuan and 2 yuan respectively. From the perspective of market performance, the above products are relatively well sold categories.
Wahaha has yet to respond publicly. However, in the notice, Wahaha said the price rise was due to the 'sustained increase in recent years in food, transportation, non-staple raw materials, etc.'.
Many people find that in 2018, the price of FMCG will rise. Starting from the beer companies such as snowflake and Tsingtao beer, Master Kang and uni president also raised the prices of some drinks in January. And the explanation of the price increase is mostly attributed to the rise of raw materials. In the context of rising raw materials and slowing growth, rising prices of star products is undoubtedly the most direct way to increase profits. Improving performance is also an urgent problem for Wahaha.
In 2013, Wahaha was very proud of its sales volume, which reached 78.2 billion yuan. After that, its sales volume has been declining. According to public information, Wahaha's sales in 2016 was 52.91 billion, which is still the largest beverage company, but it is still a long way from its previous high.
At present, Wahaha has more than 150 beverage items, but the trump brand products are still nutrition express, pure water, etc. The advantages of these products are being overtaken by more and more new products of the same industry.
Take nutrition express as an example. According to the data provided by the media, in 2014-2016, the sales were 15.36 billion yuan, 11.54 billion yuan and 8.42 billion yuan respectively, almost halving.
Wahaha is no doubt the best at three or four lines and rural channels, in today's consumption upgrading, it fails to play an advantage. Zong Qinghou of Wahaha once reflected on the dialogue column of CCTV. In some big cities, Wahaha has no small brand to expand new channels, such as small supermarkets, chain convenience stores, etc.
Zhu danpeng, an analyst with China's food industry, said the price rise was the start of Wahaha's first and second tier layout. In the first-line and second-line convenience stores and other new channels, there are many popular beverage products with relatively high prices but more innovative ones, such as NFC juice, Lactobacillus products, bubble water drinks, whose prices are much higher than those of traditional iced black tea, green tea and other drinks. In addition to promotion, it is almost difficult to see products below 3 yuan.
Now the consumer end is forcing the industrial end to upgrade. With the change of consumption concept and the improvement of consumption level, it is the product itself and brand awareness that determine the purchase of consumers, and the price sensitivity has been greatly reduced, which provides the possibility of product price increase.
This means that enterprises must launch more innovative high value-added products. New product concepts appear in the beverage market every day. The packaging design and marketing methods of products also determine whether they can be recognized by consumers.
For Wahaha today, the product itself is still the key. According to Zhu danpeng's analysis, price hikes will help profits in the short term, but if product innovation fails to keep up, sales fail to improve, channel profits are compressed, and dealers don't get dividends, it won't help enterprises much in the long term.
Wahaha is also making innovations. Last year, Wahaha upgraded its big red date and wolfberry yoghurt, added mango flavor, mainly focused on probiotic fermentation, and advertised soda drinks that had been on the market for many years on CCTV, hoping to catch up with the public's healthy trend. However, it may take time to see the success of nutrition express.