Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand) Company Limited, the manufacturer and distributor of products under Suntory and PepsiCo brands in Thailand, is extending their portfolio on the healthy drink trend with one of its newest products TEA+, a ready-to-drink oolong tea from Suntory Japan with 2 formula: Tasty and No Sugar. This product is aimed to meet the modern lifestyle of young consumers who look to enjoy tastiness, freshness, and healthiness in one drink, with the same product quality as its Japanese counterpart. The company has a more than 200-million-baht budget for a comprehensive range of marketing activities to increase its market share from the RTD Tea market - which is worth around 11,000 million baht¹.

 Mr. Ashish Joshi, Chief Executive Officer of Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand) Company Limited, said “Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand) is operating under the vision ‘Growing for Good’ to establish business sustainability. We aim to fully commit into expanding our beverage portfolio, and one of the strategies that we put into implementation is to keep growing with our healthy drink products, spearheaded by TEA+, a ready-to-drink oolong tea that is manufactured using the standard of Suntory Japan. Suntory has more than 40 years of experience in oolong tea manufacturing², we are now introducing TEA+ that reflects our unmatched expertise in the industry as a globally leading beverage brand with the best-selling oolong tea in Japan³.  

 In 2020, Thailand’s Liquid Refreshment Beverage* (LRB) market value around 145,515 million baht, and Thailand’s Ready-To-Drink tea (RTD) market was value around 11,000 million baht, or 7.6%⁴ of the LRB market. To be specific, the market size of ready to drink tea with low or no sugar has doubled over the past four years - an increase to about 8.8%⁵ of Thai’s ready-to-drink tea market. This market is expected to continue growing, as consumers tend to become more health conscious and change their behaviors, leaning more towards healthy tea than trendy tea. About 99% of ready-to-drink tea consumers are already familiar with oolong tea⁶ which making ready-to-drink tea with low or no sugar an interesting market. With our expertise and potential in developing products that are attractive and satisfying to the consumers, this is a good opportunity for us.”    

 Mr. Somchai Ketchaikosol, Chief Marketing Officer of Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand), added “For the new product TEA+, we are spending as much as 200 million baht on marketing, with a focus on the distribution of more than 1.6 million bottles under free trial campaigns. At the same time, we are running a 360-degree strategy to advertise our products across digital media, TV media, and out-of-home media, to increase our share in the ready-to-drink tea market. Our targeted consumers are the people aged between 25 and 35, who are health conscious and are looking for healthy products. We believe that it will not take long for TEA+ to win and take top spot in their hearts as it stands out with a distinguished flavor, a healthy choice for consumers, and is manufactured with great attention into detail to ensure that its quality meets the standard that has been set by Suntory Japan. In addition, with the marketing strategy that fully addresses all the needs and lifestyles of our targeted consumers, we will soon be able to become a leader in the market and reach the sales goal in the first year of product launch as we have set.”  

 The ready-to-drink oolong tea, TEA+, is manufactured with great attention into detail at every step and with Suntory’s unique techniques in preparing the best oolong tea - from the plucking of tea leaves in the early morning light, fermentation processing (semi-fermentation), to pan firing and rolling. This new product is set to deliver the quality of fresh oolong tea, mellow taste and flowery fragrance on top of its refreshing nature with natural substances OTPP from Oolong tea, which making an ideal drink to relax and light up your day. TEA+ comes with two flavors for consumers to choose from: Tasty (low sugar) and No Sugar - now available at convenience stores, retail and wholesale stores, supermarkets, and leading department stores nationwide.

For additional information on TEA+, please visit our Facebook: TEA+ Thailand.

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* Liquid Refreshment Beverage included Drinking Water, Energy Drink, Mixer and Carbonated Soft Drink, Ready to Drink Tea and Coffee, Sport Drink
¹Nielsen Retail Audit, Dec 2020; RTD Tea Market Value FY 2020
²https://www.suntory.com/brands/suntoryoolongtea/ 
³SRI Intage Retail Panel, 2011-2020
⁴Nielsen Retail Audit, Dec 2020; LRB Market value FY 2020 and RTD Tea value share FY 2020
⁵Nielsen Retail Audit, Dec 2020; No/Low sugar RTD Tea 2017-2020. No/Low sugar RTD Tea included RTD Tea specifying No and Low sugar on the product label.
⁶MetrixLab, Feb 2020