Swire Coca-Cola pops with more plants across nation

So said the company will speed up the digitalization push and enrich its product portfolio to satisfy the diversified demand of consumers and achieve the sustained growth of the business.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales of consumer goods, a significant indicator of China's consumption strength, stood at 17.17 trillion yuan, down 1.5 percent year-on-year in the first five months of this year. In May alone, retail sales decreased 6.7 percent from a year ago to 3.35 trillion yuan mainly due to the resurgence of domestic COVID-19 cases.

The company also released its 2021 sustainable development report, saying it has made significant progress in reducing carbon emissions, investing in photovoltaic installations and increasing the proportion of energy from renewable sources.

The efforts are expected to help achieve the nation's goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, it added.

As the fifth-largest bottling group in the Coca-Cola system globally, Swire Coca-Cola has partnered with The Coca-Cola Company for more than 50 years. It manufactures and distributes soda, tea, coffee, energy drinks and other beverages across the nation.

With the ongoing sugar-free revolution in non-alcoholic drinks, natural ingredients are playing sugar's role in catering to consumer needs, said Roolee Lu, senior research analyst at Mintel.

China's huge consumption market is attracting an enormous volume of foreign investment, said Zhang Jianping, director-general of the Beijing-based China Center for Regional Economic Cooperation.

The implementation of a new round of opening-up measures, such as the Foreign Investment Law, the shortened negative list for market entry and pilot free trade zones have created favorable conditions for foreign businesses to invest in the world's second-largest economy, he added.

The Ministry of Commerce said the actual use of foreign capital expanded 17.3 percent year-on-year to 564.2 billion yuan in the first five months of the year.