Chinese Beverage Brand Genki Forest Lowers 2022 Growth Forecast

Chinese low-calorie beverage brand Genki Forest is expecting to slow down its growth in 2022 after several years of high speed development, domestic media outlet LatePost reported on Wednesday.

The total sales return that Genki Forest took in from secondary dealers in 2021 reached 7.3 billion yuan ($1.15 billion).

In 2020, the sales return was 2.7 billion yuan, which increased by about 2.7 times in 2021, slightly lower than its target of 7.5 billion yuan. For 2022, the company has set a sales return target of 10 billion yuan, with a growth rate of only 37%, which is obviously slower than before.

Recently, due to the rising costs of raw materials, logistics and labor, the price of sparkling water products made by Genki Forest has been raised by 4 yuan for every 15 bottles sold to dealers since April 1, while the retail price for consumers remained the same.

Last year, some well-known firms in the beverage industry entered the sparkling water field in which Genki Forest has excelled. In April of last year, Coca-Cola brought sugarless sparkling water into the Chinese market. From May to July, Wahaha, Nongfu Spring and Pepsi all launched their own similar products one after another. Fresh-made beverage brands such as HeyTea have also launched bottled sparkling water.

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In response, Genki Forest has also increased its investment in developing new products internally. The growth rate for its energy drinks was outstanding in the first quarter of this year, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 300%. The company’s sales target for energy drinks in 2022 is 2.2 billion yuan. In addition, since the end of last year, two new products by Genki Forest – tea for consumers on a diet and alkaline mineral water – have become new focus, and will reportedly be fully introduced to domestic offline channels this month.