Retail in Asia

In Sectors

China brands beat global rivals with tea toothpaste & pickled plums

With green-tea flavoured toothpaste and pickled plum juice, an army of Chinese retailers is tapping local tastes to whittle away market share from global rivals that are banking their future growth on the world’s second largest consumer market.

Senior executives at companies such as The Coca-Cola Co, Procter & Gamble Co and Colgate-Palmolive Co are being forced to adapt as the challenge posed by local firms intensifies in a slowing economy.

Last year, China’s CNY1.15 billion (USD185.31 million) consumer goods market grew at 7.4 percent annually, half the rate of three years ago, according to a report this month from Bain & Company and Kantar World Panel. In this tougher market, both local and foreign brands are targeting the same customers, and increasingly, the domestic firms are winning: nearly two-thirds of foreign brands surveyed lost market share in China last year, according to the report.

(Source: CNBC)