(Yicai Global) March 30 -- Coca-Cola Co. has increased the cost of drinking its iconic beverage at restaurants in China's capital for the first time in two decades.
Suppliers have quietly raised Coca-Cola's sales price by CNY2 to CNY3 (USD0.31 to USD0.47) a pack, Beijing Youth Daily reported sources at Beijing restaurants as saying. Before the hike, a 24 pack of 330-milliliter cans cost CNY42.9.
The increase only applies to three types of Coca-Cola cans supplied to restaurants and is part of a marketing strategy to assess responses to prices across selected products in specific sales channels, according to a statement from Cofco Coca-Cola Beverages Co., the joint venture between China's state-owned food processing firm Cofco Corp. and Coca-Cola. Cofco has a 65 percent stake in the JV, which is a top five Coca-Cola bottling-partner.
Since restaurants are not sensitive about product prices, Coca-Cola is testing the market by raising them slightly for restaurants to help it better evaluate market feedback, said Zhu Danpeng, a food and beverages researcher at China Brand Research Institute.
Unlike Chinese beverage makers, which often attribute price hikes to increases in the cost of raw materials, labor, transport and warehousing, Coca-Cola said the latest price increase is part of its marketing strategy.