Asia (soft drink brand)

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Asia
A bottle of Asia Sarsae
Product typesoft drink
Owner
  • GLIG
  • (an investment vehicle of the Guangzhou Government)
Produced byXiangxue–Asian Beverage (Xiangxue Group)
CountryChina
Introduced1946
MarketsChina
Asia
Simplified Chinese亚洲
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese亚洲汽水
Literal meaningAsia soft drink
Asia Sarsae
Simplified Chinese亚洲沙士
Literal meaningAsia sarsaparilla

Asia is a brand of sarsaparilla produced by Chinese private corporation Xiangxue Pharmaceutical via its subsidiary Xiangxue–Asian Beverage. However, the brand was still owned by Guangzhou Municipal People's Government (via GLIG).

Asia's sarsaparilla was considered as a collective memory of the citizens of Guangzhou, Guangdong.[1]

History

The "Asia" brand soft drinks began to be produced in Guangzhou in 1946. The brand and factory became nationalized after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Along with its sister brand "Pearl",[nb 1] they also exported to the nearby British colony Hong Kong since 1960s, in various kind of favour, such as Apple.[2]

It formed a joint venture (Pepsi-Asia Beverage Co. Ltd.) with PepsiCo in 1993. Pepsi abandoned the "Asia" brand and its products such as sarsaparilla. The joint venture became known as Guangzhou Asia Beverage Co., Ltd. in 2017 after being re-acquired by Guangzhou Municipal People's Government[3] (via Guangzhou Light Industrial And Trade Group (GLIG), Chinese: 广州轻工工贸集团有限公司).

The rights to use the brand[nb 2] was also acquired by Xiangxue Pharmaceutical via another joint venture (Xiangxue owned 63.00% stake as of 2016;[4] GLIG was a minority shareholder[5]): Xiangxue Asian Beverage, which was incorporated in 2009. The new joint venture also rented the factory from the government which was owned by Guangzhou Asia Beverage.[4]: 64 

Sub-brand

  • Chinese: 金典沙士; lit. 'Gold classic sarsaparilla'

Footnotes

  1. ^ Named after the Pearl River, also known as Pearl River Bridge [zh] (Chinese: 珠江橋牌)
  2. ^ According to the trademark database (http://wsjs.saic.gov.cn), the brand was still owned by GLIG.

References

  1. ^ 范文瑶 [Fan Wenyao] (15 June 2013). 喝一口沙士打个幸福的嗝. Southern Metropolis Daily (in Chinese (China)). Guangzhou: Nanfang Media Group. Retrieved 2 November 2017 – via oeeee.com.
  2. ^ 童年現在一般可愛 我要>o<汽水！【消失了，但忘不了！】. Eat and Travel Weekly (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Hong Kong: Next Media. 6 April 2012. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  3. ^ 广州最老汽水厂能否重振雄风. 新快报 (in Chinese (China)). Guangzhou. 26 June 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017 – via china.com.
  4. ^ a b 2016年年度报告 [2016 Annual Report] (PDF) (in Chinese (China)). Xiangxue Pharmaceutical. 25 March 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017 – via Shenzhen Stock Exchange.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ Filing in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System

Further reading

  • 杨, 志强. "亚洲"添翼正翱翔. Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Guangzhou Committee. 61 (in Chinese (China)). Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
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