Asia (soft drink brand)


Asia is a brand of Chinese soft drink that are produced by Chinese civilian-run enterprise Xiangxue Pharmaceutical via a subsidiary Xiangxue–Asian Beverage. However, the brand was still owned by Guangzhou Municipal People's Government.
Asia's sarsaparilla was considered as a collective memory of the citizen of Guangzhou.

History

The "Asia" brand soft drinks were started to produce in Guangzhou in 1946 and survived after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. However, the brand and the factory, were nationalized. Along with its sister brand "Pearl", they also exported to the nearby British colony Hong Kong since 1960s, in various kind of favour, such as Apple.
It even formed a joint venture with PepsiCo after the marketization of China. However, Pepsi abandoned the "Asia" brand and their products such as sarsaparilla, and the joint venture was re-acquired by Guangzhou Municipal People's Government. The rights to use the brand was also acquired by Xiangxue Pharmaceutical via another joint venture : 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.

Sub-brand