RTD Tea in Serbia

PROSPECTS

RTD tea finally returns to positive volume growth in 2019

After six years of declining off-trade volume sales, resulting in a negative review period CAGR, RTD tea finally returned to positive growth in 2019. RTD tea had been suffering from strong competition from other product types, primarily carbonates and energy drinks, which are popular among young consumers.

Only still RTD tea has visible sales and not many flavours are available

In terms of flavours, RTD tea remains fairly conservative in Serbia, with peach and lemon being by far the most popular and often the only available options. However, some innovations have been seen in the last few years, for example the forest fruits flavour under the Chai Ice tea brand, Mint and Lime from Jana Ice Tea and Fuze Tea’s combination of peach and hibiscus.

Fuze Tea’s low sugar levels helping RTD tea move back into positive growth

RTD tea sales have been hampered in Serbia by the nascent health and wellness trend. This is because most of these products traditionally contained very high sugar levels of 10g per 100ml and above.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Coca-Cola’s Fuze Tea leads after the end of its collaboration with Nestlé on the Nestea brand

In January 2018, Coca-Cola and Nestlé ended their 16-year collaboration with the Nestea RTD tea brand. Coca-Cola immediately launched its own brand in RTD tea under the name Fuze Tea and it quickly took over most of Nestea’s sales thanks to Coca-Cola’s mass marketing campaign for the new brand as well as the company’s excellent distribution network.

Coca-Cola is active in marketing of its Fuze Tea brand

Coca-Cola continued to be one of the most active companies in Serbia in terms of social responsibility and communication with consumers. The company is very active on social media, primarily Instagram and Facebook, and it also organised and/or supported several events in an attempt to improve its image.

Jamnica runs the “just chill” campaign for its Jana Ice Tea brand

In 2018 and 2019 Jamnica was running an innovative marketing campaign targeted at young people. The campaign introduced a hashtag for the Jana Ice Tea brand: #samoopusteno (“samo opušteno” means “just chill”).

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