Uni-President's beverages seem to have hit their own 'mid-life crisis.' Recently the company released its 2026 first-half interim report: overall revenue reached 17.321 billion yuan, up a slight 1.4% year on year, and net profit attributable to parent 1.402 billion yuan, up 9%. But the beverage business, over 60% of revenue, posted 10.751 billion yuan, down 0.3% year on year — the first interim decline in the segment in five years.
Specifically, the pillar tea-drink segment revenue was 4.889 billion yuan, down 3.5%; the juice segment 1.721 billion yuan, down 5.5%. The only bright spot was the milk-tea segment at 3.645 billion yuan, up 7.3%.
Uni-President's beverage decline is tied to an overall shift in the industry environment. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of 2026 domestic output of above-scale beverages fell 0.5% year on year — the first first-half output decline in five years — as the whole beverage market enters a stock-competition phase. Data from third-party agency MaShangYing shows that in Q2 2026 beverage-category sales fell 11.78% year on year, the steepest drop among all fast-moving categories. By sales-growth, sugar-free ready-to-drink tea was almost the lone standout, up 16.1%; all other categories turned negative — sweetened ready-to-drink tea down 11.17%, ready-to-drink juice down 14.84%, energy and sports drinks down 8.4% and 8.84% respectively.
Rising health awareness and a nationwide trend of sugar control are the triggers for sugary drinks hitting a growth ceiling. The 2025 Interesting Lifestyle Report shows nearly 60% of respondents say when choosing food and drinks they care first about ingredient health (such as low sugar), and checking the ingredient list when buying drinks has become a habit for most consumers. Jiang Han, senior researcher at Pangoal Institution, notes the beverage industry's logic has been completely changed. 'Sugary sweet water' is undergoing irreversible contraction, while health-oriented, low-sugar trends will be long-term. When the industry makes an overall turn, Uni-President appears less composed.
Beyond product issues, Uni-President's channels are also under pressure. Jiang notes that while the company's roots in traditional channels run deep, its investment and operation in emerging convenience-store and online e-commerce channels are clearly insufficient, limiting reach. Interesting Report visited five FamilyMart and seven-Eleven stores in Beijing's Chaoyang District and found two carried no Uni-President products at all; in the remaining three, beverage coolers were almost occupied by Nongfu Spring, Pepsi, Guozi Shule, Genki Forest, and Suntory, with Uni-President drinks given just one shelf layer and limited varieties — only iced black tea, iced green tea, and Assam milk tea. A 7-Eleven clerk revealed the store only stocked a small amount when Uni-President's Chunfu sugar-free tea ran a promotion, and after those sold out never restocked; the existing Uni-President drinks in the cooler are all that's left. At another community supermarket, only Assam milk tea was placed on a prominent shelf, with other products pushed to deep or edge shelves. The operator revealed, 'That's because only Assam milk tea sells well.'
Meanwhile, Uni-President's online-channel weakness is also clear. Its Tmall flagship has 2.95 million followers; its best-seller Assam milk tea has sold over 30,000 units, green tea over 20,000. By comparison, Genki Forest's official flagship has over 8.11 million followers, its sparkling water over 100,000 units, Haozizai over 90,000. Nongfu Spring's official flagship shows Oriental Leaf sales also over 100,000. Additionally, the rise of membership warehouses like Sam's and Hema is squeezing traditional channels. Huafu Securities' chief consumer analyst Liu Chang says that through private labels, the de-branding trend formed by membership warehouses is changing consumer purchasing decisions. Jiang admits, 'In emerging channels, Uni-President is being continuously squeezed out and replaced.'
In this beverage ordeal, the milk-tea business growing 7.3% is Uni-President's only bright spot, but its low-sugar anxiety cannot be eased by Assam milk tea alone. For Uni-President, fine-tuning is not enough; it must thoroughly 'change its blood' across product, channel, and strategy.
