Asia (soft drink brand) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Asia

A bottle of Asia Sarsae
Owner	GLIG (an investment vehicle of the Guangzhou Government)
Introduced	1946
Markets	China

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 citizen of Guangzhou, Guangdong.

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 (As Pepsi-Asia Beverage Co. Ltd., incorporated in 1993). However, Pepsi abandoned the "Asia" brand and their products such as sarsaparilla, and the joint venture (now known as Chinese: 广州市亚洲饮料有限公司; literally "Guangzhou Asia Beverage Co., Ltd.") was re-acquired by Guangzhou Municipal People's Government (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 was also acquired by Xiangxue Pharmaceutical via another joint venture (Xiangxue owned 63.00% stake as of 2016; GLIG was a minority shareholder): 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

• Chinese: 金典沙士; literally "Gold classic sarsaparilla"