China Focus: Alcohol trends, Kraft Heinz’s local strategies, Nestle’s growth shift, and more

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This edition explores the latest alcohol trends in China, Kraft Heinz’s localised approach to condiments, Nestlé’s renewed growth focus, and more.

Alcohol tales: How storytelling is driving China market trends

A recent survey conducted by the China Trading Desk revealed key trends driving consumer behaviour in the alcohol space.

For brands looking to make their mark, telling a compelling story both online and offline is becoming the ultimate differentiator.

“The product’s quality matters, but in today’s market, it’s the story that will keep customers coming back,” Subramania Bhatt, CEO and founder of the China Trading Desk.

Taking a ‘dip’ dive: Kraft Heinz China highlights convenience and multi-level localisation as crucial condiment market drivers

Condiments such as ketchup and mayonnaise tend to be closely associated with ‘dipping’ in most markets, but China poses a particular challenge in the 'at home' setting – they don’t really dip their food in ketchup or chilli when at home.

“For us, this meant a very clear need to develop new consumption occasions for our condiments, and that these needed to be adapted to local culture,” said Kraft Heinz China CMO Allen Cai.

U-turn ahead: Nestle reunites Greater China management with rest of Asia as new CEO pledges ‘core’ growth focus

Nestle is making a significant U-turn on its 2021 decision to ‘sharpen’ focus on more individual regions when it segregated out two of its major regions - Greater China and North America – to take a more localised approach. This was officially implemented in January 2022.

Three years on, the firm has now decided to reverse this by reintegrating Zone Greater China back into Zone Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA), and combining Zones North and South America to form Zone Americas, to take place starting January 1 2025.

Water-soluble tomato concentrate’s efficacy in reducing blood pressure shows promise for novel CVD-preventive approaches – BYHEALTH-funded study

Epidemiological evidence has linked increased consumption of tomatoes to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

In particular, WSTC, extracted from ripe tomatoes and often intended for use in fruit juices, fruit-flavoured beverages and yoghurt drinks, has garnered significant interest among researchers due to its composition of adenosine, flavonoids and chlorogenic acid.

Sweet move? China may allow chocolates, candies, jellies, beverages for health foods filing

The aim is to introduce a greater variety of health foods, especially those in the food formats, into the market, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has announced.

It explained that the move was “to further promote the management of health foods through the filing process, ensure the quality and safety of health food, invigorate the special foods industry, and promote high standards of development.”