可樂巨頭遭遇挑戰 軟飲新寵零卡汽水

As consumers grow sweeter on sugar-free and aspartame-free sodas, one upstart is trying to build a big head start on beverage behemoths Coca-Cola KO 0.38% and PepsiCo PEP 0.17% in the growing market for naturally sweetened soft drinks.
無糖蘇打水越來越受到消費者青睞，阿斯巴甜甜味劑漸遭冷遇。於是，一家小型飲料公司抓住時機，先於飲料巨擘可口可樂（Coca-Cola）和百事可樂（PepsiCo），開發出了滿足消費者對純天然甜味軟飲要求的新型飲料。

Zevia, based in Culver City, Calif., produces the only zero or low-calorie carbonated soft drink with rising U.S. sales among the top 20 brands. Its secret? It uses stevia, a leaf, to sweeten its soft drinks naturally at a time when leading diet soda brands such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are getting slammed by a backlash against the use of artificial sweeteners.
零卡公司（Zevia）位於加州卡爾佛市，專注生產零卡路里或低卡路里碳痠軟飲。它近期銷量持續增長，已經躋身前全美銷售排名前20名。零卡爲什麼有這麼大的吸引力？它的祕訣是在飲料中加入甜葉菊。這種植物的葉子可用於增加軟飲中的甜味，屬於純天然食品，而此時著名的減肥蘇打水品牌“健怡可樂”與“健怡百事”因爲使用人工甜味劑正慘遭輿論質疑。

In the first half of 2014, U.S. sales of diet carbonated soft drinks fell 7.5%, according to Beverage Digest. In contrast, according to SPINS/IR data, Zevia saw sales rise 67% in the three months ending on May 18 compared to the previous year, despite being more expensive than leading diet soda brands.
據《飲料文摘》（Beverage Digest）報道，2014年上半年，減肥碳痠軟飲在全美的銷量下降了7.5%。與此相反，根據SPINS/IR的數據顯示，儘管零卡的售價比其它著名蘇打水品牌高，但截至5月18日的前三個月中，零卡的銷量比去年還上升了67%。

Zevia, which offers 15 soft drinks, including cola, root beer, and ginger ale, had sales of about $90 million in the last 12 months, making it a tiny player compared to Pepsi, Coke, and Dr Pepper Snapple DPS -0.60% . But that performance has underscored how slowly the industry’s giants have been to adapt to changing tastes.
零卡旗下有可樂、根汁汽水、薑汁汽水等15種不同口味的軟飲，去年一年的銷量高達9,000萬美元，雖然與百事、可口可樂、Dr Pepper Snapple等巨擘相比還有很大差距，但零卡在飲料界已經算得上小有名氣了。

“As big and as powerful as the big beverage companies are, a lot of the innovation has been by the smaller companies,” Beverage Digest editor and publisher John Sicher told Fortune.
《飲料文摘》編輯兼出版人約翰o西歇爾在接受《財富》採訪時說：“雖然大型飲料公司規模大、業務強，但這個領域內的很多創新是由小公司主導的。”

The industry’s giants are taking notice, developing their own similar, though not directly competing, products.
這些飲料業巨擘也開始警醒起來，開發旗下類似產品，但並沒有與零卡直接競爭。

Coke is introducing Coca-Cola Life, a mid-calorie cola sweetened with a blend of stevia leaf extract and sugar, in the United States in September, according to a Beverage Digest report. Meanwhile, PepsiCo is reformulating Sierra Mist with stevia this fall, lowering the sugar content by 20%. And Dr Pepper Snapple is currently testing three naturally sweetened versions of Dr Pepper, 7up, and Canada Dry, with stevia and sugar, in three markets. Food companies are also getting in on the action: this week General Mills GIS 0.54% said it would reformulate its Yoplait yogurt with stevia.
據《飲料文摘》報道，可口可樂公司九月份在美國推出了“Coca-Cola Life”系列。這是一種“中卡路里”可樂，混合了甜葉菊葉子提取物和糖。同時，百事公司秋季時節更新了Sierra Mist青檬系列的配方，添加了甜葉菊，減少了20%的含糖量。而且，Dr Pepper Snapple眼下正在三大市場中試驗營銷Dr Pepper、七喜和Canada Dry三種混合了甜葉菊和糖的純天然甜味飲料。食品公司也緊趕潮流：本週，通用磨坊（General Mills）宣佈升級優諾酸奶（Yoplait yogurt）的配方，往原配方中添加了甜葉菊。說句公道話，大型公司之所以猶豫不決，主要是因爲擔心影響旗下其它熱銷的減肥飲料，或者害怕顧客形成對新型飲料的偏好。

To be fair, much of the big companies’ hesitation comes from the risk of hurting their still high volume diet brands, or fear of customers by reformulating a favorite drink.
富國銀行（Wells Fargo）分析師邦妮o荷佐格在研究報告筆記中說：“爲了保護現有品牌的銷售，大型生產商是否能有效地參與不斷增長的新型飲料市場，這點值得懷疑”

But that hesitation has given Zevia, which was founded in 2007 and is held by Long Island-based private equity firm Northwood Ventures, time to build an edge.
零卡創建於2007年，由長島的私人股本公司諾斯伍德風投公司（Northwood Ventures）掌管。零卡抓住大公司猶豫不決的時機，在邊緣化的飲料市場分得了一杯羹。

The brand, which got a big break when Whole Foods WFM -0.54% started selling it a few years ago, is among the five best- selling soft drink brands on AMZN -0.34% and is available in about half of all U.S. supermarkets, according to Zevia CEO Paddy Spence. It is also a draw among more affluent consumers; the average household income of a Zevia drinker is $60,000, compared to a U.S. average of about $52,000, Spence said.
據零卡CEO派迪o斯彭思說，幾年前零卡在全食有機食品超市（Whole Foods ）上架後銷量激增，現在已經是亞馬遜網上銷量前五的軟飲品牌，進駐了全美一半以上的超市。而且飲用零卡的消費者屬於較富裕階層，家庭平均收入在六萬美元左右，而全美國的家庭平均收入水平則爲5.2萬美元。

Despite that success, there is still a lot of work to do before Zevia can really say it has cornered the market. For one thing, it doesn’t sell its products at major retailers like Wal-Mart Stores WMT 0.57% or restaurant chains like McDonald’s MCD -0.05% , and it has minimal presence in chains like Target TGT 0.43% .
儘管取得了很大成功，但零卡還有很多工作要做。在這之前，它還沒有足夠底氣自稱已經佔據了一片市場。零卡還沒有在大型零售商沃爾瑪百貨（Wal-Mart Stores）上架，也沒有在麥當勞（McDonald’s）等連鎖快餐店出售，而且它在塔吉特零售店（Target）的存在感也很弱，這些都是亟需解決的問題。

Zevia has begun selling its beverage outside of grocery stores. Its products are sold in the cafeterias of a few Silicon Valley companies and Zevia is a sponsor of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics. But consumers buy 8 to 10 cans of Zevia soda at a time in a supermarket, so retail is its main focus for now, rather than the so-called “single-serve” market at places like movie theaters and sports venues.
零卡已不再侷限於食品雜貨店，開始走進硅谷一些公司的自助餐廳，同時開始贊助美國職業棒球大聯盟奧特蘭運動家隊（Oakland Athletics）。超市裏消費者一次能購買8到10罐零卡，所以零卡公司主要的營銷渠道仍然爲零售商，而不是像電影院和體育館等所謂的“單次服務”市場。

“We built the business at the grocery shelf because, frankly, that’s where a lot of the volume purchasing happens,” Spence said. “You have to earn your shelf space and retailers are not willing to take risks—they’re not going to put a product on the shelf unless it has proven demand.”
“我們在食品店的貨架上開展業務。坦率講，在這些地方的銷量最大，”斯彭思說。“你需要爭取屬於自己的貨架空間，因爲零售商不願承擔風險——除非存在市場需求，否則他們不會隨便把哪種產品擺上貨架。”

Zevia’s strong position in the zero-calorie soda area could eventually make the company an acquisition target by one of the big guys, Beverage Digest’s Sicher said. He pointed to how PepsiCo bought SoBe in 2000 and Coke bought Vitaminwater maker Glaceau in 2007 to gain a foothold in beverage growth areas.
《飲料文摘》的西歇爾說，零卡在零卡路里蘇打飲料的強勢地位最終會讓它成爲巨擘的收購目標。他舉例說，爲了贏得在新興市場中的份額，2000年百事公司收購了SoBe，2007年可口可樂公司收購了酷樂仕維他命水等。

Spence declined to say whether Zevia is up for sale but did say he fields inquiries regularly. He also hinted that it would be too soon, anyway.
斯彭思雖拒絕透露未來是否會出售零卡，但也提到，他時常回應有收購意向的詢價。他還暗示記者說，現在就把零卡賣掉也未免太快了。

“We’ve had a phenomenal run so far, but I feel like I am only part way up the mountain,” Spence said, noting that being independent gives Zevia more room to innovate.
“迄今爲止，我們的表現非常優異，但我覺得還有很多潛力有待開發，”斯彭思說，他認爲零卡作爲一個獨立企業，會有更大的創新空間。