饮料行业生存法则

    如果你曾经在便利店的汽水售卖机尝试过混搭饮料，你就会知道它有多美。uFlavor公司是一家位于印第安纳波利斯的初创企业。该公司希望利用这一理念，推出灌装混搭饮料产品。该公司在网站上为消费者提供了42种口味选择，供消费者随意混搭，根据自身喜好定制饮料的甜度、碳酸饱和度以至咖啡因浓度。uFlavor公司还有一个雄心勃勃的计划：让消费者从商店里的冷饮机也能买到这种混搭饮料。这个创业点子很妙，但是从点子发展为实业可能会很困难。

    一定程度上来说，可口可乐（Coca-Cola）和百事可乐（Pepsi）两大巨头之间的较量主导着价值742亿美元的饮料市场。可口可乐的市场份额约为42%，而百事可乐为29%。密歇根州立大学（Michigan State University）助理教授、食品零售专家菲尔•霍华德称：“从本质上来讲，这个市场就是可口可乐和百事可乐两大公司的双头垄断市场。因此，初创企业想在这个市场分一杯羹难度相当大。”对饮料业的初创企业来说，要想获得发展，与这两大巨头的其中一家进行合作似乎是唯一的稳妥路径。

    目前，uFlavor公司仍在为自力更生而努力。公司董事长迈克尔•克劳然说：“我们的梦想是为消费者提供一种与众不同的全新口味如果我们把公司出售给大企业，我们的梦想可能随之破灭，这是我不愿意看到的。”克劳然及其团队于去年12月正式成立该公司。他们号称将于2012年底实现消费者个性化定制饮料口味和包装设计。公司还表示，在接下来的一年半之内，他们还会推出一种饮料定制自动贩卖机，能够根据需求混搭、灌装饮料。该公司自筹资金，由位于印第安纳波利斯的总部负责在线订单的配送。

    但据罐装有机茶公司Honest Tea共同创始人赛斯•戈德曼表示，饮料公司（走到这一步之后），要想继续发展壮大会很艰难。1998年的Honest Tea公司和当下的uFlavor公司处境类似。戈德曼的妻子需要利用上班途中的时间来为全食食品超市（Whole Foods）送货。他的业务合伙人巴瑞•纳尔巴夫则把自己的车库改成了分销中心。戈德曼称：“如果你看过我们最早期的业务方案，你会发现很明显的纰漏，我们当时根本没有意识到分销有多重要。公司的发展因分销问题而受阻，这一点也是很多饮料企业面临的难题。”

    公司后来找到了一个权宜之计。因为没有大型饮料分销商愿意接单，迫不得以，戈德曼和纳尔巴夫只得转向天然食品分销商，寻求他们的合作，以获得产品上架机会。戈德曼说：“当时，我们已经在这行做了十年，我们的目标不是要成为一家饮料销售商，我们希望做的是打造品牌。”他主动接触可口可乐公司洽谈收购问题，希望以少数股权换取可口可乐的分销人力资源。可口可乐公司于2011年全盘收购了该品牌，但并未披露收购金额。当时，Honest Tea的零售客户数量已经从三年前的15,000跳涨至75,000多。戈德曼表示，到今年年底，公司的规模将达到与可口可乐合作前的五倍。

    If you've ever played mix master at the convenience store soda fountain, you know just how rewarding it can be. Indianapolis-based startup uFlavor wants to take that concept and bottle it. The company offers 42 flavors on its website, which consumers can mix and match, customizing sweetness, carbonation and even caffeine levels. uFlavor's ambition is to make its product available in soda fountain machines as well. The idea is clever, but helping it take off may be difficult.

    The $74.2 billion soda industry is more or less dominated by the Manichean struggle between Coca-Cola Co. (COKE) and PepsiCo (PEP). Coca-Cola holds about 42% of the market share and Pepsi 29%. "What you have is essentially a duopoly between Coke and Pepsi. So, it's a real challenge for startups to get any sort of shelf space," says Michigan State University Assistant Professor and food retail specialist Phil Howard. For a beverage startup, partnering with one of the two inevitably starts to look like the only guaranteed way to grow.

    For now, uFlavor is trying to make it on its own. "For us, the dream is to make this an entirely different flavor experience. I would hate to see that not come to fruition because we sold to a large company," says uFlavor Chairman Michael Cloran. Cloran and his team officially launched the company in December. The company says it plans to allow consumers to personalize their soda flavor and bottle design by the end of 2012. And within the next 18 months, the company says it will have a soda personalization vending machine available that can combine and bottle beverages on demand. The firm is self-funded and distribution of online orders occurs from its Indianapolis headquarters.

    Growing beyond there may be difficult, according to Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman. In 1998, Honest Tea was in a similar predicament. Goldman's wife was delivering the product to Whole Foods (WFM) stores on her way to work. And his business partner Barry Nalebuff operated a distribution center out of his garage. "If you read our original business plan, what [is] glaringly missing is any discussion of the importance of distribution. We were just stuck. And this is where so many beverage companies have a challenge," Goldman says.

    The company had put together a patchwork distribution method. Not quite successful enough to be picked up by any major beverage distributors, Goldman and Nalebuff turned to natural and gourmet food distributors to get their products on store shelves. "At that point, we'd been at it for 10 years, and our goal wasn't to be a beverage distributor, it was to be a brand," he says. So Goldman approached Coca-Cola with a proposition: invest in a minority stake of the company and allow Honest Tea to use the beverage giant's distribution manpower. By the time Coke fully acquired the brand in 2011 for an undisclosed amount, Honest Tea had jumped to more than 75,000 retail accounts, up from 15,000 three years earlier. By the end of this year, Goldman says the company will be five times its size before partnering with Coke.