In the past 20 days, top beverage companies such as Coca Cola (KO. US), Kangshifu Holdings (00322.HK, hereinafter referred to as "Kangshifu"), Uni President China (00220.HK, hereinafter referred to as "Uni President"), and Dongpeng Beverages (605499. SH) have successively submitted their performance reports for the first half of 2026.

Except for a year-on-year decrease in revenue from the unified beverage business, the beverage business revenue of the other three companies increased compared to the same period last year.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the production of beverages above designated size in China was 17.45 million tons in June 2026, a year-on-year decrease of 3.2%; The cumulative production from January to June was 90.273 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5%, marking the first semi annual production decline in the domestic beverage industry in nearly five years. On the sales side, data from third-party organizations showing an immediate win shows that overall beverage sales in the second quarter of 2026 decreased by 11.78% year-on-year, ranking first among multiple retail categories in terms of decline.

The industry is under pressure, and top beverage companies are still maintaining growth. Through the financial report, it can be seen that each growth model has its own choices: Kangshifu, Uni President relies heavily on mature large products such as iced tea and Assam milk tea, and innovative products have not yet taken over; Coca Cola promotes the exchange of price for quantity with small-sized and low-priced products; Dongpeng Beverage relies on new product launches to drive high growth, while also having to bear the reality of rising sales costs.

Three companies grow, but fall behind in unity

In terms of revenue, the performance of the four companies shows a differentiated trend.

Coca Cola delivered impressive financial results in the second quarter: its revenue reached $13.38 billion, an increase of 7%, and its net profit was $4.438 billion, an increase of 17%. Based on the good performance in the second quarter, Coca Cola has raised its annual performance guidance (organic revenue growth) from the previous 4% to 5% to the upper limit of the range of 5%.

Coca Cola specifically mentioned that its global single box sales increased by 5% in the second quarter, mainly driven by the markets of China, India, the United States, and Brazil. Among them, the single box sales in the Asia Pacific market increased by 8%, becoming an important contributing region to global growth.

As a Coca Cola bottling manufacturer, Swire Pacific (0019.HK, 0087. HK) also mentioned the market situation in mainland China in its semi annual report. In the first half of 2026, the revenue of Coca Cola under the company was HKD 14.224 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.16%; The attributable profit was HKD 727 million, an increase of 24% year-on-year.

Kangshifu's beverage business achieved a sales revenue of 26.541 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%, accounting for 65.5% of the company's total revenue. Among them, tea beverages contributed 11.64 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.1%, making it the only category in the beverage sector with positive growth. In addition, the gross profit margin of its beverage business increased by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 38.4%, which Kangshifu attributed to "product structure adjustment" in its financial report.

Among the four beverage companies, Dongpeng Beverage has the largest growth rate, with a revenue of 12.443 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 15.89%, and a net profit of 2.867 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.72%. By product, the revenue of its core single product Dongpeng Special Drink reached 8.937 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.89%. In the first half of 2026, Dongpeng Beverage's energy drink revenue accounted for 71.92%, a decrease from 77.91% in the same period last year; The revenue of electrolyte beverage "hydrating" was 1.672 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.98%; Tea beverages were listed separately for the first time, with revenue of 1.058 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 208.99%.

In contrast to the growth of the three aforementioned companies, Uni President failed to maintain its growth trend. In the first half of 2026, its beverage business revenue reached 10.751 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3%, accounting for 62.1% of the total revenue. This is also the first time since 2021 that the company has experienced negative growth in its mid-term beverage performance. In terms of classification, the only category with positive growth is milk tea, with revenue reaching 3.645 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%. The tea beverage and juice businesses have both declined year-on-year.

What growth does it rely on

Coca Cola, Kangshifu, and Dongpeng Beverages have all achieved performance growth, but through the surface of growth, we can also see the hidden business difficulties behind these industry giants.

Swire Pacific mentioned in its financial report that in mainland China, emerging channels such as e-commerce have driven its beverage sales up by 12%, but some of the growth has been offset by higher pricing discounts. According to Coca Cola's financial report, in the second quarter of 2026, Coca Cola's single box sales in the Asia Pacific region increased by 8% year-on-year, but prices/combinations decreased by 9% year-on-year.

Coca Cola CEO Barry Kay said at the earnings conference, "In the Asia Pacific region, we achieved comprehensive sales growth in almost all beverage categories in the second quarter. However, due to the company's continued efforts to expand its coverage and penetration of a wider consumer group, the comparable operating profit for the quarter declined

According to market analysis, Coca Cola in the Asia Pacific region has adopted a strategy of offering small packages, low-priced products, or a combination of affordable prices, exchanging some short-term profits for the expansion of its user base, exhibiting a "price for volume" characteristic. The Economic Observer sent an interview outline to Coca Cola on how to increase profits, but as of press time, there has been no response.

Kangshifu and Uni President face the problem of relying on old products to sustain themselves.

According to the financial reports of Kangshifu and Uni President, only one category in their multi category beverage layout is growing synchronously: Kangshifu relies on tea beverages to achieve growth, while in the Uni President beverage sector, only milk tea is growing. And these two businesses are Kangshifu and Uni President's "big product business" for many years.

Kangshifu summarized its tea beverage strategy in its financial report as "anchoring core single products+seizing the sugar free tea track+innovating and breaking through the game", stating that the core single product iced black tea maintained a stable growth trend in the first half of the year; In the financial report, Uni President stated that the single product (Assam) original milk tea has steadily grown and established a solid core foundation.

In fact, Kangshifu and Uni President are also adapting to consumer trends and innovating product categories. Taking the sugar free tea track as an example, Kangshifu has already laid out products such as sugar free iced black tea and "the successor of tea". In the first half of 2026, Uni President will launch independent operations and launch new products for its sugar free tea brand "Chunfu". However, in terms of market share, the two companies have not formed an advantage. According to instant data, in the second quarter of 2026, Dongfang Yezi's market share in sugar free ready to drink tea reached 87.8%, while Suntory and Kangshifu ranked second and third with 3.5% and 2.5% respectively.

Dongpeng Beverage's financial report exposed the problem of its single product stalling. The revenue growth rate of its energy drinks has significantly declined, and it is regarded as the "hydrating" of the second growth curve. Its revenue growth rate has also dropped from 280.37% in 2024 and 118.99% in 2025 to 11.98%. At the same time, Dongpeng Beverage's sales expenses in the first half of the year were 2.148 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.75%, with sales expenses growing significantly faster than revenue growth.

The semi annual reports of four companies reveal a similar situation, with growth supported by old products and new products yet to emerge. The industry market is shrinking again, old products are approaching saturation, and new businesses are still in the cultivation stage. Under the pincer attack from both sides, these beverage giants all need to face the same question: where will the next round of growth come from?

(Author Zheng Mingzhu)