On February 25 this year, Zong Qing, founder and chairperson of Wahaha Group, passed away, and Zong Fuli took over as the new head of Wahaha. At the same time, Wahaha’s product sales exploded, and there was a shortage of goods.
But after three months, with the advent of summer, the temperature gradually rose, and beverages and drinking water gradually entered the peak sales season, Wahaha failed to continue the previous trend of explosive sales. In addition, with the launch of purified water products by Farmer Spring and the return of Robust’s classic product "Granular Fruit AD Calcium Milk", Wahaha is currently under attack.
Wahaha heat fades
Since February 25, Wahaha has become the focus of public attention, and its products have also become the target of many consumers, but Wahaha’s popularity has not lasted long.
Data show that Wahaha products in the Douyin platform sales began to soar from February 25th, rose to the peak on March 4th, sales reached 5 million – 7.50 million yuan, compared with February 25th before the increase of more than 10 times.
But since mid-March, Wahaha’s sales in Douyin have dropped to about 200,000 and have continued to this day, with a year-on-year decline of 90% at the peak.
Recent data show that Douyin platform Wahaha official flagship store live sales only reached 500,000 – 750,000 scale on June 1, and the rest remained at 100,000 – 200,000.
In order to catch this wave of skyrocketing traffic, Wahaha started the progress of the 2024 laboratory water support plan in March this year. On May 31, Wahaha disclosed through its WeChat official account that the Wahaha laboratory water support plan has supported more than 150 scientific research units.
On the other hand, Wahaha is also vigorously expanding the offline market. In addition to putting its own freezers, it has also sent its spring tea series, coffee series, and new products, such as KellyOne, to supermarket shelves.
But at present, it seems that the effect is mediocre. Some beverage merchants said that most of them will take the first-tier products, such as Wahaha’s AD calcium milk, purified water, and eight-treasure porridge, because of their low popularity. Therefore, these new products of Wahaha have great resistance in the promotion of channels.
Track competition is getting more intense
New products are struggling to support performance, and the competitive pressure on classic ace products is also increasing.
In terms of drinking water, the top five bottled water markets by volume from 2017 to 2022 were Nongfu Spring (12.2%), Yibao (8.3%), Jingtian (5.3%), Master Kong (3.2%), and Wahaha (2.2%).
Among them, Yibao and Wahaha are both deeply cultivated in the field of pure water. In 2023, Yibao’s retail sales reached 39.50 billion yuan, making it the first brand in China’s drinking pure water market.
And in April this year, Nongfu Spring, which originally only made natural water, also launched "green bottle" purified water.
In other words, in the pure water track Wahaha already has a larger and stronger opponent like Yibao, and now Nongfu Spring is also going to get a share of the market, making Wahaha’s drinking water days even more difficult.
On the other hand, Wahaha AD calcium milk is one of Wahaha’s largest single products with revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan, but Wahaha AD calcium milk has also ushered in its former rivals.
On December 28, 2023, Robust’s green bottle of bifid factor AD calcium milk and red bottle of strawberry-flavored AD calcium milk announced their return. On May 16 this year, Robust once again announced the return of "granular fruit AD calcium milk". Founded in 1989, Robust was once Wahaha’s old rival. Although it could not catch up with Wahaha’s pace in a short period of time, it would inevitably cause some pressure on Wahaha.
In addition, it is worth noting that in terms of product quality, Wahaha has received many complaints from consumers.
The black cat complaint platform shows that some consumers reported that foreign objects were found in Wahaha AD calcium milk and Wahaha nutrition express, and some consumers reported that the inner wall of Wahaha eight-treasure porridge jars was rusted. (Jia Geng)
