Xiao Guan Tea joins hands with Prince Kung’s Palace Museum to tap younger customers

The Beijing-based tea maker Xiao Guan Tea has partnered with Prince Kung's Palace Museum to introduce Spring Festival gift tea package on Jan 7, as part of the company's efforts to attract younger Chinese consumers back to tea consumptions.

The gift tea package themed Good Fortune is a joint work with one of the most renowned museums, a move showing that Xiao Guan Tea aims to integrate intangible cultural heritage with modern Chinese people's lives, Mei Jiang, general manager of marketing center of Xiao Guan Tea, said.

In 2019, the company has plans to develop more products for younger consumers, such as convenient tea package and colorful wrapping, Mei said.

The age of consumers buying Xiao Guan Tea online is between 18 and 35, lower than the average age of consumers of the traditional tea products, Mei said.

More than half of its consumers are female and 70 percent are younger than 40-years-old.

Launched in 2012, Xiao Guan Tea, which sells small-sized and convenient tea package, has expanded quickly to more than 600 franchised stores and is available at 5,000 other retail stores in the country.

Its ecommerce distribution has expanded to Tmall and JD. In 2018, Xiao Guan Tea's retail sales reached 2 billion yuan ($295 million), ranking No 1 tea brand in the country.

One out of five products are sold online. Its 1.5 billion yuan manufacturing plant in Huangshan Mountain is expected to go into production this year.