Shedding restlessness, focusing deeply, Yuanqi Forest builds its core competitiveness through patience and persistence.

Ask AI · Why did Genki Forest choose a heavy-asset model to deeply cultivate the beverage industry?

Produced by | Zhongfang Network

Reviewed by | Li Xiaoyan

As the consumer industry shifts from rapid scale competition to meticulous quality battles, how can emerging brands navigate cycles and achieve transformation from “internet celebrity” to “long-term success”? The answer from Genki Forest is to proactively abandon the quick path of light assets, build a solid foundation with heavy assets, and sediment barriers with slow efforts. In the transformation of becoming heavier, slower, and steadier, they are constructing a core competitiveness for sustainable development. On March 30, the Genki Forest Xianning Innovation Institute was officially unveiled. This beverage industry “wind tunnel laboratory,” built at a cost of 200 million yuan, not only marks the full implementation of their “Beijing + Xianning” dual-core R&D layout but also becomes a vivid symbol of the brand’s deep engagement in industry and return to long-termism.

Building an “aero-dynamic tunnel” in the industry to strengthen product foundation through technological innovation

In Tang Binsen, founder of Genki Forest,’s view, innovation in the beverage industry is never just theoretical in the lab but must break through the entire chain from creativity to mass production. When relying on internet thinking to rise rapidly in earlier years, Genki Forest faced difficulties in implementing innovations: many cutting-edge formulas and process ideas could not be transformed due to the lack of dedicated R&D testing facilities. “Without a small-scale production line serving R&D, even the best ideas can only stay on paper.” This industry pain point became the initial motivation for Genki Forest to build its own innovation base.

After nearly two years of development, the Xianning Innovation Institute is a key move to solve this problem. As China’s first one-stop innovation platform covering “R&D—small trial—pilot—industrialization,” the first phase of the institute covers nearly 20k square meters, integrating a 3,000-square-meter precision laboratory, a 1,000-square-meter mini-tech factory, and an 8,000-square-meter professional pilot factory, equipped with over 200 top-tier devices such as liquid chromatography and atomic absorption spectrometers, forming a unique flexible innovation system in the industry. Here, from product ideas to prototype verification, there is no need for cross-site handoffs. The small trial line can produce 200 bottles per hour, and the pilot line can scale test 11 major categories and 49 subcategories of healthy beverages, making it the most comprehensive and flexible beverage testing platform domestically.

“The capability of the testing line reflects the company’s R&D strength,” Tang Binsen compares the Xianning Innovation Institute to an “aero-dynamic tunnel laboratory” for the beverage industry—similar to how wind tunnels support aircraft development, this provides a pre-test, risk-controlled, and efficient iteration environment for all new product innovations. From antioxidant and immune-boosting formulas to modernized traditional processes, the institute will become the source of core new products for Genki Forest, thoroughly bridging the last mile from “lab formulas” to “industrial mass production,” shifting product innovation from “rapid trial and error” to “precise deep cultivation.”

From heavy assets to full-chain linkages, building an industrial moat with industrial thinking

From an internet startup to an industry deepening player, Genki Forest’s “becoming heavier” extends far beyond R&D investment to the entire supply chain, channels, and products, forming an inimitable core barrier.

Early reliance on OEM and light-asset models for rapid growth made Genki Forest quickly realize the fundamental rule of the fast-moving consumer goods industry: that product quality, supply stability, and cost control must be in their own hands. Starting in 2019, the brand established six self-built factories across Anhui, Guangdong, Tianjin, Hubei, Sichuan, and Jiangsu, investing over 5.5 billion yuan, creating a capacity network covering the five major urban agglomerations in China, with an annual capacity of 6.5 billion bottles. From sterile carbonation lines to liquid nitrogen freshness technology, self-owned factories not only ensure stable quality control but also enable rapid process innovation, completely freeing the company from dependency on OEMs.

Extending upstream, Genki Forest has also penetrated raw material sources. For key products like “Good自在” health water, the brand established dedicated raw material bases, controlling the entire process from red bean planting to traditional brewing, using “direct supply of raw materials + self-developed processes” to strengthen quality foundations. Downstream, the brand has broken out of the limitations of convenience stores and other “new worlds,” fully entering the traditional channel “main battlefield.” By the end of 2025, Genki Forest’s offline terminals will exceed 1 million, covering over 800 cities nationwide, deploying smart vending cabinets and refined terminal operations to deeply penetrate supermarkets, catering, and small shops, building a comprehensive online and offline channel network.

From R&D and production to raw materials and channels, Genki Forest invests heavily to enhance “hard strength,” completing its transformation from a “brand operator” to a “full-industry chain industrialist.” This seemingly “clumsy” layout actually constructs an industry moat that is difficult for competitors to cross—while others still rely on OEMs and channel distribution, Genki Forest has achieved full chain control with “independent innovation, self-controlled capacity, self-supplied raw materials, and channel ownership,” laying a solid foundation for long-term development.

From seeking speed to seeking stability, anchoring high-quality growth with the “Three Controls” strategy

If heavy-asset deployment is about “hard strength,” then the shift in business strategy reflects the maturing of Genki Forest’s “soft strength.” Moving away from the early “scale-first” internet mindset, the brand clarified a “stability-first” core strategy in 2022, implementing the “Three Controls”: controlling SKUs, controlling expenses, and controlling pricing, to achieve a profound transformation from “rapid expansion” to “high-quality growth.”

Controlling SKUs involves proactive reduction and focusing on main tracks. At its peak, over 300 SKUs were scattered across various categories, diluting resources. Now, Genki Forest decisively divests non-core businesses, cuts low-efficiency products, and concentrates resources on four core tracks: sparkling water, Alien Electrolyte Water, reduced-sugar tea, and Good自在 health water, using these flagship products to drive overall growth. Controlling expenses means moving away from indiscriminate marketing and subsidies toward precise, efficient investments, directing every cost toward product R&D, channel deepening, and user service to optimize return on investment. Controlling pricing involves safeguarding the channel ecosystem and stabilizing cooperative foundations. By standardizing pricing systems and ensuring distributor profits, the brand builds a community of shared interests with channels, avoiding price wars and internal friction, thus laying a trust foundation for long-term development.

“Making beverages is a slow game; you need the focus of a turtle,” Tang Binsen’s insight reveals the brand’s strategic evolution. Once a sharp, speed-driven startup, now Genki Forest has settled into learning from traditional FMCG, abandoning the trend-following mentality of “doing whatever’s hot,” and sticking to the original intention of “based on user needs and deepening in the health track.” This “slowness” is not stagnation but a conscious effort to shed superficiality and return to essentials—under the new normal of rational consumption and industry low growth, “lasting” is more important than “running fast,” and a healthy structure is more critical than scale expansion.

Upholding dual main lines, using health and user-centricity to navigate industry cycles

Amid the heavy, slow, and steady transformation, Genki Forest always adheres to two unchanging main lines: the health track and user-centered thinking, which are the core secrets to the brand’s cycle resilience.

Rooted in the “Healthy China” consumption wave, Genki Forest has been committed from the start to sugar reduction, natural ingredients, and functionalization. From “zero sugar, zero fat, zero calories” sparkling water to Alien Electrolyte Water for sports hydration, and Good自在 health water aligned with Chinese health trends, it continues to build a multi-scenario, full-category health product matrix. The core mission of the Xianning Innovation Institute also focuses on health innovation—accelerating the development of functional products such as antioxidants, immune-boosting, and weight management formulas, using formula IP and process specialization to upgrade health drinks from “reducing burden” to “adding value.”

Meanwhile, user-centricity runs through every innovation step. Unlike the industry’s “follow-the-trend” R&D inertia, the brand insists on “creating products based on deep user insights.” In activities like “Creative Camp 2044,” users are directly invited to participate in tasting and feedback, shifting product development from “enterprise-oriented” to “user co-creation.” From over 500 iterations to refine the bubble texture of sparkling water to -196°C liquid nitrogen locking in real tea flavor in iced teas, every blockbuster product is a precise response to user needs and ultimate satisfaction. As Tang Binsen states, “We don’t follow trends; we satisfy user needs.”

From the internet’s “dimensionality reduction attack” to heavy-asset industry return, from speed-focused “scale expansion” to long-term “quality growth,” Genki Forest’s transformation is a microcosm of the maturing of new consumer brands. In the machinery hum of the Xianning Innovation Institute, in the orderly operation of six factories nationwide, and in the display of products in millions of terminals, we see not only a strategic shift of a brand but also a profound understanding of the essence of the fast-moving consumer goods industry—beverages are never a quick-profit track but a long-distance race that tests endurance, depth, and long-termism.

Currently, the consumer industry is at a critical stage of structural adjustment. As the noise subsides, value returns. Genki Forest is “reinforcing” its foundation, “growing long-term” through “slowness,” and “seeking steady growth” by leveraging technological innovation, full-chain layout, and user-centricity to build core capabilities that can withstand industry cycles. In the future, with Xianning Innovation Institute’s full deployment and the continued deepening of the “Three Controls” strategy, this industry brand emerging from the internet will walk more steadily and further in the health beverage track, writing a new chapter of high-quality development for China’s new consumer brands with long-term commitment.