Red Bull ups tempo in China

THE world's most renowned energy drink brand is the undisputed market leader in China as well as a monolith in less than two decades. Red Bull, which first came to the Mainland 14 years ago, is currently upsizing its canning capacities at its two Chinese production facilities in anticipation of greater demand. In 1995, driven by anticipatory confidence in the nation's future prosperity, China Red Bull Vitamindrink Co. was set up in Shenzhen, under the management of the well-known Thai entrepreneur Dr. Yan Bin. Within just two short years, Red Bull succeeded in impressing itself on the Chinese consumers?brand memory. Red Bull positioned itself as what it is ?the mother of all energy drinks. The company put in place a nationwide distribution network, complementing this with a fullscale marketing campaign, and swiftly became the market leader. In 1997, Red Bull relocated its headquarters to the capital Beijing, invested around €10 million, and was at this juncture one of the biggest joint ventures between Chinese and foreign investors in the beverage industry. Red Bull started off by establishing over 20 branches and more than 50 sales offices, and by 2001, the China National Food Industry Association among the Top Ten foreign food and beverage companies ranked it. Monolith in China In a global context, Red Bull's growth continues to flourish. In 2008, the market leader increased its turnover by almost eight percent. By 2010, Red Bull aims to upsize its sales to nearly six billion cans. Its share of the global market is currently estimated as 70 percent. To put the whole thing in perspective: the market for energy drinks in China is of course marginal; measured against the total beverage market it accounts for a mere fraction. But the sheer size of the Chinese market has to be taken into due account: 230 million liters of Red Bull were sold in 2008 alone, about four-fifths of the market, for a turnover of approximately €430 million. And the firm is determined to maintain the momentum. Red Bull has accordingly channeled massive investment into its filling capacities over the past three years. After at first importing its wares directly from Thailand, in 1996 Red Bull began with contract canning on an Italian line in China's southernmost province of Hainan. Back then, turnover was running at about RMB 150 million RMB (about €15 million). One year later, Red Bull built the production base in Beijing and equipped it with two Italian lines each rated at 36,000 cans an hour. A billion in 10 years In 2005, a decade after its arrival in China, Red Bull had reached the magic cumulative figure of one billion cans sold, and the era of collaboration with Krones began. At its newly built Xian Ning facility in Hubei Province, Red Bull installed two Krones canning lines each rated at 36,000 cans an hour, which started operation in May 2006. Precisely two years later, in May 2008, a much faster line, rated at 72,000 cans an hour, started operation in the Beijing- Huairou plant. And this was followed in the summer of 2009 by the next two Krones lines, this time at the Xian Ning facility again. Complete from the depalletizer to the palletizer Thus Red Bull is now operating a total of five Krones lines in China, producing 70 percent of its entire output, 3,600 cans per minute out of 5,100 cans per minute in all plants put together. The Krones lines are all of them similar in terms of layout. In the 72,000-cph line at the facility in Beijing-Huairou, a Pressant Uni can depalletizer unloads the cans onto a high-level discharge. They are thNike SB Hyperfeel Koston 3