[식품]중국의 안전하지 않은 물은 네슬레의 기회다

Beverages

China's Unsafe Water Is Nestlé's Opportunity

By Dermot Doherty on January 24, 2013

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-24/chinas-unsafe-water-is-nestl-s-opportunity#r=hp-ls

A television ad in China for Nestlé’s (NESN) Pure Life brand of bottled water shows children making unhappy faces after tasting water. One child pours his glass into a fish tank instead of drinking it; his face lights up when his mother offers Pure Life instead. Water quality is a big concern for Chinese consumers. They’re turning to bottled water as a safer alternative, and that’s bolstering Nestlé’s bottled-water sales. “You don’t dare drink the tap water in China,” says Hope Lee, a Euromonitor International analyst in London. Sales are also up because “so many people are moving from rural areas to work in the cities,” where bottled water is more common, she says.

The Swiss company, which Euromonitor says is the world’s No. 3 producer of bottled water, has seen growth in its business in parts of the West slow because budget-conscious shoppers are turning to tap water and environment-conscious consumers are concerned about the growing number of plastic bottles entering the waste stream. In China, where industrial and agricultural expansion have polluted water supplies, environmental concerns of a different kind are driving Nestlé’s growth. Sales of bottled water in the country will climb to $16 billion by 2017, up from $9 billion in 2012 and $1 billion in 2000, according to Euromonitor. The market in Western Europe will remain flat at $21 billion, while North America will increase 18 percent by 2017, to $26 billion, Euromonitor predicts.

Nestlé’s water business in China climbed 27 percent last year, reports Euromonitor. The Swiss company was China’s ninth-biggest seller of water in 2012, with 1.7 percent of the market by value, up from 0.7 percent in 2009. Local rival Hangzhou Wahaha Group is the leader with 14 percent. Says Gilles Duc, the head of Nestlé Waters in China, “China is a key priority for us. The market is increasing a lot, and we want to participate in that growth.”

Nestlé owns more than 60 water brands, including Vittel, Poland Spring, and Pure Life, the world’s best-selling label. In Europe, the U.S., and Australia, Nestlé’s share of the water business by retail sales fell to about 10 percent in 2011 from more than 12 percent in 2006, says Euromonitor. While Nestlé continues to rely on developed countries for the bulk of its water business, “it recognizes that emerging markets are high-growth and profitable and that it has to increase its presence,” says Richard Withagen, an analyst at SNS Securities in Amsterdam.

About half of the water Nestlé sells in China is delivered in five-gallon jugs. In Shanghai, Nestlé has opened 12 water stores where customers can phone in orders. Tucked between a pharmacy and a beauty salon, a store in the affluent Lujiazui district sells 400 to 500 containers daily. On the busy street outside, workers stack about two dozen bottles onto electric tricycles for delivery to homes and offices. “People would have considered it OK to just boil tap water a few years ago, but consumption is changing because of environmental concerns,” Duc says. About 70 percent of China’s lakes and rivers have been polluted by power plants and chemical, paper, and textile factories, reports Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group. In Shanghai, the city’s Water Authority says “almost all” surface water has been polluted and doesn’t meet drinking standards.

Even water that’s been purified at treatment plants is often recontaminated en route to homes. About half of tap water suppliers provide substandard water because deteriorating pipes harbor contaminants, sediment, and bacteria, according to China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Nestlé, which has been selling water in China since the 1980s, has opened two water facilities there since 1998. One close to Beijing extracts water from a spring; another near Shanghai taps an aquifer. The Swiss company also bought Yunnan Dashan Drinks, a natural spring water producer in southwest China, in 2010.

One key to Nestlé’s success: middle-of-the-pack pricing. Nestlé charges about 16 yuan ($2.57) for a five-gallon container of purified water and 18 yuan for natural mineral water. A container of Coca-Cola’s (KO) Ice Dew water brand costs 16 yuan, and Nongfu Spring charges 20 yuan. “Chinese consumers tend not to be very confident about some local products in terms of quality and safety,” Duc says. “We want consumers to understand that for the same price they get European technology and Nestlé quality, and if that’s something they value, they go for our brand.”

The bottom line: Nestlé’s bottled-water sales growth has slowed in the West. But it’s booming in China, where 70 percent of lakes and rivers are polluted.

요약

 중국에서 방영되는 네슬레의 생수 브랜드 Pure Life의 광고는 물 맛을 보고 불행해 보이는 아이들의 모습을 보여준다. 중국 소비자들에게 수질은 큰 관심사다. 생수가 더 안전한 물의 대안이 되었으며, 네슬레의 생수 판매량을 북돋우고 있다.

 

 세계에서 3 번째 생수 제조업체인 스위스 기업은 서양에서 천천히 성장하고 있다. 왜냐하면 예산에 민감한 소비자들은 수돗물로 바꾸고 있고, 환경에 민감한 소비자들은 플라스틱 병의 낭비를 우려하고 있기 때문이다. 산업과 농업의 확장이 물 공급망을 오염시킨 중국에서는 환경에 대한 우려가 네슬레의 성장을 이끌었다. 중국에서 생수 매출액은 2017년까지 1600억 달러까지 상승할 것으로 보인다. 그에 비해 서유럽 시장에서는 210억 달러로 유지되며, 북미에서는 18% 증가할 것으로 Euromonitor는 전망한다. 중국 시장에서 네슬레의 생수 사업은 지난 해 27% 증가했다고 한다. 중국에서 9번째로 큰 생수 판매업체 스위스 기업은 2009년에 비해 2012년에 1.7% 증가했으며, 중국의 Hangzhou Wahaha Group은 14%인 업계 리더다.

 네슬레는 60개 이상의 생수 브랜드를 소유하고 있다. 유럽, 미국, 호주에서는 네슬레의 판매량이 줄어 개발도상국가에 의존하고 있다고 한다. 상하이에 네슬레는 12개의 물 상점을 오픈했고, 소비자들은 전화로 주문을 할 수 있다. 부유한 Lujiazui 구역에 있는 한 상점에서는 하루에 400~500 콘테이너가 팔린다고 한다.

중국의 호수와 강의 약 70%는 오염이 되었고, 식수 기준에 미치지 못한다고 한다. 중국주방도시농촌건설부에 따르면, 수돗물 공급업체의 약 절반이 수준 이하의 물을 제공하고 있다고 한다.

네슬레는 베이징의 한 가까운 온천에서 물을 추출하고, 상하이 그처 대수층에서 물을 추출하고 있고, 스위스 기업은 남서부의 천연 온천수제조업체인 Yunnan Dashan Drinks를 인수했다. 네슬레의 성공 요인 중 하나는 중간 수준의 가격이다. 중국 소비자들은 지역 제품의 질과 안정에 대해 신뢰를 하지 않는 경향이 있는데, 같은 가격으로 유럽의 기술과 네슬레의 질을 구매하도록 유도하고 있다고 한다.