Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola Further Exploiting the Guangxi Market

Coca-Cola, headquartered in Atlanta, America, has gradually become a renowned beverage brand in the world since its inception in 1886. With China’s reform and opening-up launched, Coca-Cola seized the opportunity to gain access to Guangxi in 1993. Now, Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola Beverage Co., Ltd. is the sole bottling plant that is authorized to produce and market all the CocaCola-related beverages in Guangxi.

When it comes to Coca-Cola, people may always think of its cooperative partner — Swire Group. Mr. Zhang Xingbo, managing director of Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola, indicated that Swire Group, founded in Liverpool, England in 1816, had accessed the Chinese market in 1866, with its main business — beverage, real estate, aviation, navigation and trade — extended to six continents in the world; in 1994, Swire Beverages was co-founded by Swire Group and Coca-Cola, after which the revenues of CocaCola in the Chinese and American markets have always been on the rise.

Over the past more than half a century, Swire Beverages has been committed to putting the interests of its clients and employees first. CocaCola finished restructuring its bottling business in the first half of 2017, since when Swire Beverages has obtained the franchise rights from 11 provinces in the Chinese mainland and from 13 states in America, with a total of 17 bottling plants and over 20,000 employees.

Seeking truths from facts; striving for excellence

Not only does Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola keep to the principles of developing business in a matter-of-fact, pragmatic manner and striving for excellence and perfection, but also it places “safety first” as the basic requirement for its working staff and product quality. Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola is pursuing a sustained growth of revenues by establishing a worldclass distribution network and improving its own executive capacity, which is also its core management idea. “We must strive for excellent business so as to satisfy the demands of our consumers. We have to achieve this goal, and should never be complacent,” said Zhang, “We stick to the principle of ‘seeking truths from facts’, which may largely contribute to the longterm cooperation between Coca-Cola and us.”

Mr. Zhang Xingbo, managing director of Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola

Zhang emphasized that “safety production” is the most fundamental requirement for managing enterprises. Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola has been recognized by ISO 9000, FSSC 222000, ISO 14000 and ISO 18000, and its assembly line has been equipped with the automatic online monitoring facility to guarantee the safety and quality of products. In addition, Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola has put into place “unannounced inspection”. Once latent risks were found, the enterprise would stop doing business for internal rectification.

Endeavoring to shoulder its social responsibities

Faced with the current fierce market competitions, Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola makes continuous efforts to improve its marketing network and pre-sale/post-sale services, spurring the growth of industries involved and facilitating local economic development. At present, Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola has installed five advanced Germany-made assembly lines, with an annual production capacity of over 600 thousand tons. The products include Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Ice Dew Mineral Water, etc. Since its accession to Nanning High-tech Development Zone in 2004, Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola has been rated as “The Tax-paying Grade-A Credit Enterprises”; moreover, it has been awarded as “The Big Tax-payer of Industrial Enterprises” each year.

In pursuing economic benefits, Swire (Guangxi) CocaCola has always undertaken the responsibility of engaging in local public welfare programs, including environmental protection, the “Project Hope” and disaster prevention & relief, gaining recognition of the local government and of people from all walks of life.

“We are a major consumer of water. Overall, wastewater generated in the production process had failed to be recycled before 2013, when we invested millions of yuan in introducing the “recycled water system” to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction,” explained Zhang, “Wastewater properly processed by the system can be used as miscellaneous domestic water, which is freely available for the local municipal administration.”

In addition, Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola has built three Hope Primary Schools in Guangxi’s Longsheng, Debao and Rongshui counties, respectively — the oldest of which was established 22 years ago — gradually becoming the central primary schools locally. “We not only offer local students water purification facilities required but also deliver the concept of health to them through health training programs, cultivating them in an equal manner,” said Zhang, “Moreover, we have organized the activity called “Water Purification 24- hour Rescue” to deliver mineral water to those suffering from natural disasters. We have also carried out activities about caring for women on May 20 each year, so as to improve their professional skills in multiple ways.”

Exploiting the Guangxi market by relying on CAEXPO

Zhang quite excels in operating and managing the industries of packaged mass consumption goods and retail, as he once worked for several large foreignfunded enterprises, including Adidas (China) and Kraft Heinz before being recruited by Swire (Guangxi) CocaCola. Due to his efforts, Heinz not only completed the integration of business in China with Kraft but also achieved its internal business restructuring, sustaining the growth of sales revenue and doubling its earned profits within two years.

Zhang stated that data are seen as the most obvious distinction between Cola-Cola and other enterprises. “If you work for Coca-Cola, your everyday work is to process massive data, a significant reference for decision making,” said frankly Zhang, “You must learn to master a lot of data available. Most importantly, you should form your own comprehensive judgment.”

As for the Guangxi market, “Guangxi’s urbanization level remains relatively low, with a comparatively uneven population distribution. The urban people’s frequency of buying Coca-Cola is higher than that of those inhabiting villages and towns. So, we should focus more on stimulating the consumer demands of the rural people and serving the increasing demands of the urban consumers by launching more diversified new products.”

To tap the consumption potential of the Guangxi market, it is worthwhile to participate in CAEXPO, a grand gathering for economic and trade cooperation. Against the background of the Belt and Road construction, Zhang suggested that CAEXPO, a crucial platform for regional cooperation, would attract more resources and boost Guangxi’s economic growth. In Zhang’s view, attending CAEXPO could have more chances to learn about different industries and draw on other enterprises’ sophisticated experience. At the upcoming 14th CAEXPO, Zhang will attend five major theme forums, including China-ASEAN Entrepreneurs High-level Cooperation Dialogue, the 9th China-ASEAN Summit Forum on Financial Cooperation and Development, and the 2nd China-ASEAN Chambers of Commerce Leaders Summit, with a view to seeking business opportunities.

Looking to the future, Zhang pointed out that Swire (Guangxi) Coca-Cola would, as always, give full play to its brand advantages and distinctive corporate culture, and would make high-quality products accessible to the consumers by adopting the most advanced marketing strategies, in order to elevate its brand recognition to a higher level and contribute to achieving its goal of becoming the most respectful and favorable word-class beverage company.