Green Cola is a Greek soft drink brand that produces cola products with natural ingredients, containing fewer calories while maintaining the cola taste.
In the late 2014, Green Cola was introduced to the Chinese food and beverage market with the support from the importing company Fortune Park (Beijing) Trading Co. During the next few months, Green Cola conducted a series of market research on Chinese consumers’ preferences in soft drinks and found out that the country has a growing number of consumers seeking healthier and fashionable products with great flavors from other countries. In 2015, Green Cola began to export a few containers to different ports in China and to sell directly in the imported commodity centers mostly located within Free Trade Zone areas and high-end super markets.
In November 2015, Green Cola exhibited for the first time at the World of Food Fair in Beijing within the Centre’s European SME Pavilion. The World of Food is one of the largest international food & beverage trade fairs in Northern China.
During the exhibition, the Centre introduced Green Cola to Emmanuel Stantzos, Minister Plenipotentiary for Economic and Commercial Affaires at the Greek Embassy in Beijing, and arranged a series of individual business meetings with Chinese distributors, retailers and buyers.
“Attending the exhibition and the Centre’s European SME Pavilion provided us with a good opportunity for the brand to get direct feedback from consumers in terms of flavor preference and price elasticity. It also helped us gain more valuable contacts and expand Green Cola’s sales channels in China”, said Mr. Jay Xu, Managing Director of Fortune Park Trading Co,.
Jay stressed that logistics is often the primary challenge for imported fast-moving consumer goods in China. In addition, the speed to market and fast delivery to consumers are the key to success.
“There is no doubt that the China market is one of the most attractive for all prospective exporters. But it has to be approached with a long term perspective and with respect to the culture and to the consumer habits. For us, this means that it is significant to present a selling proposition that will bring an added value to the Chinese consumers. But no matter how good this proposition is, no exporter can succeed without the right associate from the China side”, said Antonis Terzis, Export Manager Green Cola Hellas S.A.
The next step for Green Cola is to make the products available for more consumers by distributing through different sales channels. To achieve this, Green Cola is working to have the Chinese label printed directly on the bottle to comply with China’s new food labeling regulations. (Find further instructions for China’s food and beverage labelling requirements in the Centre’s Guideline.)
