China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd expects sales to rise at least 10 percent in the second half of the year as it expands in the domestic and overseas markets, and seeks to supply China's 1.5 million-strong military.
"The meals of our vast Chinese army are very important. We need to supply our soldiers with nutritious drinks," Executive Vice-President Yu Hongli, who takes over as chief executive officer next month, said in an interview. "We have salespeople expanding into this channel."
Huiyuan, China's largest producer of pure juice, is competing with Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo Inc and Tingyi Cayman Islands Holding Corp for Asia's beverage market by widening its sales footprint. The company, which acquired Suntory Holdings Ltd's China assets in May, plans to add a production line in Malaysia, Yu said, declining to give details on either its investment budget or production capacity.
The executive is expecting "double-digit" sales growth in the second half of the year after revenue rose 20 percent in May and June, climbing further in the past two months, Yu said in a Sept 1 interview in Hong Kong.
The juice-maker has stepped up its distribution network and is now selling in places in southern China that its distributors didn't cover in the past, Yu said. The company also plans to sell products outside the Chinese mainland, starting with Hong Kong and Macao at the end of this month and later in Southeast Asia, she said, without naming specific countries.
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