Jacobs Douwe Egberts will sell its coffee and tea brands in China through Tmall Global, Alibaba Group’s dedicated cross-border e-commerce platform, making the Dutch beverage giant the latest company from the Netherlands to leverage Alibaba’s platforms to reach Chinese consumers.
The new flagship store, which launched Friday, will host Jacobs Douwe Egberts’ Moccona, L’OR, Kenco and Maxwell House brands, with more brands expected to onboard in the coming months.
The company’s move to Tmall Global coincides with a shift for China, as the tea-drinking nation increasingly turns to coffee. Over the past decade, coffee-consumption growth in China grew an average of 16% a year versus the 2% annual average for the rest of the world, according to the intergovernmental International Coffee Organization.
“We believe that the range of JDE’s high-quality coffee products and their iconic brands will become very popular amongst Chinese consumers.”
– David Lloyd, General manager for the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands and Nordics, Alibaba
Jacobs Douwe Egberts launch on the Tmall Global marks three years of on-the-ground operations in the Netherlands for Alibaba, since opening an Amsterdam office in 2016. Alibaba has used the base to help Dutch companies, such as G-Star Raw, Heineken and Philips, better target and enter the China market. That “gateway to China” offering has become increasingly beneficial in the wake of trade tensions between China and the US, said attendees at “The China Opportunity,” a conference in Utrecht, Netherlands, last week put on by Alibaba and Dutch banking and financial-services company Rabobank.
One Response
So the tea is gathered in China, sent to Europe, packaged, then sent back to China?