Why Wahaha Bet on Arabica Beans in a Crowded Coffee Market

Wahaha launched Kawei, a ready-to-drink coffee, on February 6, 2023, marking its return to the category six years after Maoyuan Coffee was discontinued in 2017. The line comes in Fresh Brewed Latte and Raw Coconut Latte, promoted on imported milk, selected Arabica beans, and a Probat roasting line. It enters a market already held by Nestle, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Nongfu Spring.

Wahaha's sales peaked at 78.3 billion yuan in 2013 and declined afterward, largely because the company depended on offline supermarket channels and moved late online, with only a partial rebound from 2021. Category expansion is now a strategic priority, so the coffee launch also tests whether a familiar Chinese beverage brand can win shelf space in a crowded Arabica coffees segment.

On February 6, 2023, Wahaha launched a new ready-to-drink coffee product called "Kawei," offering two flavors: Fresh Brewed Latte and Raw Coconut Latte, highlighting imported milk sources and Arabica beans as its main selling points. This marks Wahaha's re-entry into the ready-to-drink coffee sector after the failure of Maoyuan Coffee in 2016. However, the ready-to-drink coffee market is currently crowded with giants like Nestlé, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Nongfu Spring, and product competition is intense. Wahaha's entry at this time comes years later than its competitors, and the market landscape has long changed. This article reviews Wahaha's coffee attempts, the company's sales background, and the competitive situation in the ready-to-drink coffee market to explore the prospects of "Kawei."

On February 6, Wahaha officially launched its ready-to-drink coffee product "Kawei," marking its renewed effort to make a foray into the ready-to-drink coffee market.

According to information disclosed by Wahaha, the newly launched "Kawei" includes two flavors: Fresh Brewed Latte and Raw Coconut Latte. In terms of promotion, the product features imported milk sources, selected Arabica coffee beans, and a Probat roasting production line (Probat is a well-known German roasting equipment brand) as its core selling points.

In fact, this is not Wahaha's first venture into the ready-to-drink coffee sector. In 2016, Wahaha collaborated with Wumart Group to launch Maoyuan Coffee. This product, which took three years to develop and was highly anticipated, was quietly discontinued in 2017, ending in a hasty failure.

Public data shows that in the sales records of the past 14 years, Wahaha's peak performance occurred in 2013, reaching 78.3 billion yuan, after which sales declined year by year. This situation is closely related to Wahaha's long-term reliance on offline supermarket channels and its failure to timely layout online sales. It was not until 2021 that sales showed a more noticeable rebound, but there is still a considerable gap from the peak period. Therefore, expanding product categories and exploring broader markets has become a strategic focus for Wahaha.

Now, as Wahaha re-enters the ready-to-drink coffee market, it faces challenges far more severe than six years ago. In recent years, the coffee market has grown exponentially, with a large influx of capital. In the ready-to-drink coffee segment, Nestlé has long been the leader, coffee giants like Starbucks have also launched ready-to-drink products, and even fast-moving consumer goods giants like Coca-Cola and Nongfu Spring launched their own ready-to-drink coffee brands in 2019. Wahaha's entry this time is four years later than its competitors.

In recent years, competition in the ready-to-drink coffee market has intensified. For example, Nongfu Spring's ready-to-drink coffee brand Tanbing has launched bottled coffees such as "Yirgacheffe" and "Brazil Monte Alegre Estate," introducing the concept of specialty coffee to the ready-to-drink sector and directly elevating competition to another level.

Currently, on Wahaha's innovation flagship store, the earliest-launched "Kawei" shows a payment count of 53. Considering the product was only listed on February 6, more time is needed to reflect the actual sales situation.

Facing such fierce market competition, can Wahaha's newly launched "Kawei" secure a share in the ready-to-drink coffee market? From the current situation, it is quite difficult.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.