Tea in Singapore

PROSPECTS

Healthy living trend boosts green tea

Green tea recorded strong retail volume and value growth in 2018, boosted by the healthy living trend among tea consumers. Green tea is valued as a healthier alternative to sweetened beverages and as a stimulant for mental functions, and is believed to minimise certain health issues.

Competition to intensify in green tea

A continued focus on green tea in the forecast period due to the healthy living trend will likely lead to greater competition, with more players expected to enter this growing category. Price promotions and product development focusing on the latest trending flavours, such as matcha, will likely become more frequent.

Bubble tea poses a challenge to packaged tea

Despite the overall growth of packaged tea due to increasing health-consciousness among traditional drinkers, tea faces a threat from the excitement generated by bubble tea. Bubble tea has grown in popularity over the years despite its higher price point when compared to packaged tea, with beverage foodservice outlets such as Koi, Gong Cha and LiHO enjoying a strong following among their millennial target group.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Lipton remains consumers’ cup of tea

Unilever Singapore’s Lipton remained the leading brand in tea in 2018, due to its strong positions in black tea and instant tea. Lipton’s strengths lie in its strong branding and outreach across retail channels.

Lipton set to focus more on green tea

Lipton is expected to leverage its strong branding and active product development to sustain its growth over the forecast period. With black tea expected to witness volume declines over the forecast period due to the heathy living trend encouraging consumers to switch to healthier alternatives such as green tea, Lipton is expected to follow suit and focus its future efforts on gaining share in the highly competitive green tea category.

Interstates Marketing (2007) pursues aggressive growth

Interstates Marketing (2007) achieved strong retail value growth in green tea with its Harada Yabukita Blend Green Tea in 2018. As it is relatively new to green tea in Singapore, the player compensates for this through active marketing and promotions to grow its brand.

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