"Teabags" rises again, Lipton is "abandoned", new brands are vying for a piece of the pie

　　A few days ago, Unilever announced the sale of its tea company Ekaterra for 4.5 billion euros, and Ekaterra is Lipton’s parent company.

For many years, Lipton tea bags have been seen everywhere in major supermarkets in China, occupying a very high market share.

However, in recent years, as new local tea brands such as Chali, Chaxiaokong, Xicha, and Naixue's tea have gradually entered the market, teabags have made a comeback.

When visiting Nanjing, a reporter from the Yangtze Evening News found that Lipton's teabags could not be found in the two convenience stores, but there were many new brands and new products.

In a Suguo community store, Lipton teabags filled a shelf with a variety of uncommon new flavors.

　　Intern Zhan Yuhan

　　Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News trainee reporter Wang Can

Lipton, which is a pack of a few cents, is out of date?

　　When I came to the office, I opened the drawer and took out a packet of tea bags (also called tea bags). I went to the tea and poured hot water. The whole room was filled with the aroma of flowers, fruits and tea.

Perhaps every office worker is familiar with such a scene.

In the fast-paced work environment, urban white-collar workers find it difficult to have the energy and time to make tea. Teabag has become a portable and fast choice.

　　In the past decade or so, when it comes to teabags, perhaps only Lipton and Twinings can be thought of by the public.

A reporter from the Yangtze Evening News found at Lipton’s flagship store on Tmall that the price of 100 packs of black tea is now 44.9 yuan, and the price of 25 packs of black tea is 15.9 yuan, which is only a few cents per packet.

Once, this relaxed and fashionable tea bag was quickly accepted by the young people at the time, and it “occupied” the company’s pantry and school desks for a long time, and also occupied a very high market share.

But after many years, they seem to have become slightly outdated choices in terms of product packaging and taste.

　　On the afternoon of November 25th, a reporter from the Yangtze Evening News came to a Suguo LIFE convenience store in Jianye District, Nanjing. The only teabags sold in the store were chrysanthemum cassia tea and warm perilla tea from Jiangzhong food therapy. The price was 29.9 yuan apiece. box.

Later, the reporter came to a convenience bee located on Yurun Street, where brands such as Skarlu, Royal Lailai, and Chali were sold.

Lipton is not in the two convenience stores.

However, in the Suguo community store on Yurun Street, boxed teabags, mainly Lipton, are neatly stacked on the shelves.

In addition to black tea, green tea, and jasmine tea, there are also some less common new flavors appearing on the shelves.

Where is the new brand of teabag "new"?

　　A reporter from the Yangtze Evening News searched for "tea bags" on a shopping platform and sorted by sales. The first place was a red jujube, longan, wolfberry tea with a monthly sales volume of more than 200,000, and the second to fifth places were green code brand white peach oolong tea. , Chali brand peach oolong tea, Naixue's tea brand "One Week Good Tea", Lele Tea brand "Sunday Tea".

Regardless of whether you search by keywords of "tea bag" or "tea bag", Lipton is not among the top ten.

　　The reporter noticed that many of the teabags launched by more well-known new brands such as Chali, Chaxiaokong, and Naixue's tea are sold as "combinations".

For example, there are 21 flavors of "Daily Tea" gift boxes in the tea, and more than 3 million packs of the "Nine Small Boxes for Early Access" containing 9 flavors have been sold on a certain platform.

Naixue's tea has launched the "One Week Good Tea", which is divided into classic tea, fruit tea, scented tea, traditional tea and other series, each series has 7 flavors.

Hey Tea also launched the boxed "One Week Tea", which contains seven flavors of tea including Jinfeng Tea King and Sijichun.

Consumers’ evaluations after purchase show that they like this kind of assembly.

　　7 kinds, 9 kinds, 21 kinds...It can be seen from the quantity that the flavors of these teabags are very diverse.

The combination of various flowers, fruits, medicinal materials and traditional tea leaves, first of all, makes people's eyes shine.

Secondly, the packaging design of new teabag brands also caters to the aesthetic tendency of young people. The styles of candy color, national fashion, retro style, and animation style are very different. Consumers may be willing to take photos and post them on social platforms. It is also a good choice to give them as gifts to relatives and friends.

In addition, the gameplay of the product is also in line with the preferences of young people, and has introduced scenes such as "breakfast vitality, relieving fatigue after a meal, and refreshing afternoon".

News watch

New teabag brands usher in opportunities to break the game

　　The "In-Depth Research Report on the Catering Industry" issued by Huachuang Securities: What kind of business is new tea?

"The report shows that China's tea market is expected to reach 478.9 billion in 2021, of which the market for ready-made tea drinks will reach 145.2 billion, and the market for tea, tea bags and tea powder will reach 205.3 billion.

In addition, as of February 2021, the size of China's tea consumer group is 490 million.

According to the research data of iiMedia Consulting, 51.0% of the users who drink tea will choose teabags, and the growth potential of teabag consumption users is relatively large.

　　In addition to the continuous enlargement of the scale of the industry, the number of tea-related companies has also grown surprisingly in recent years.

According to data from the professional version of Tianyancha, as of November 25, 2021, there are 1.438 million "tea"-related enterprises in my country.

Looking back at the number of registrations in the past ten years, it can be found that in 2010, the number of "tea"-related companies was only 21,000; by 2020, this number has soared to 276,000.

　　Therefore, the increasingly popular teabag industry has also ushered in more and more entrants.

In the drastically changing Chinese consumer market, young people have completed rounds of consumption upgrades.

The packaging design and product category of "Liptons" appear to be a bit single.

Today, more and more emerging players are competing for the teabag market.

The leading tea-beverages such as Heycha and Naixue's tea are also taking advantage of their own brands and stores to deploy tea bags.