Rosy beverage sales eyed

Source: Xinhua | 2017-12-08

SWIRE Beverages Holding Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific Ltd, expects sales on the Chinese mainland to grow by a high single-digit percentage over the next couple of years.

The company, one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the world, is confident of the growth because of rosy prospects in the country’s non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage market as well as a strengthened manufacturing, distribution and sales network following a realignment of the Coca-Cola bottling system in the Chinese mainland.

“The Chinese mainland is the third-largest market for Coca-Cola globally by volume and the long term growth potential in the country's non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverage market remains enormous, mainly due to population growth, urbanization and relatively low consumption per capita compared with developed markets,” said Karen So, executive director of Swire Beverages’ China operations.

In the first nine months of this year, sales of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages climbed 5.9 percent annually in the Chinese mainland.