As consumers grow sweeter on sugar-free and aspartame-free sodas, one upstart is trying to build a big head start on beverage behemoths Coca-Cola KO 0.38% and PepsiCo PEP 0.17% in the growing market for naturally sweetened soft drinks.
无糖苏打水越来越受到消费者青睐，阿斯巴甜甜味剂渐遭冷遇。于是，一家小型饮料公司抓住时机，先于饮料巨擘可口可乐（Coca-Cola）和百事可乐（PepsiCo），开发出了满足消费者对纯天然甜味软饮要求的新型饮料。
Zevia, based in Culver City, Calif., produces the only zero or low-calorie carbonated soft drink with rising U.S. sales among the top 20 brands. Its secret? It uses stevia, a leaf, to sweeten its soft drinks naturally at a time when leading diet soda brands such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are getting slammed by a backlash against the use of artificial sweeteners.
零卡公司（Zevia）位于加州卡尔佛市，专注生产零卡路里或低卡路里碳酸软饮。它近期销量持续增长，已经跻身前全美销售排名前20名。零卡为什么有这么大的吸引力？它的秘诀是在饮料中加入甜叶菊。这种植物的叶子可用于增加软饮中的甜味，属于纯天然食品，而此时著名的减肥苏打水品牌“健怡可乐”与“健怡百事”因为使用人工甜味剂正惨遭舆论质疑。
In the first half of 2014, U.S. sales of diet carbonated soft drinks fell 7.5%, according to Beverage Digest. In contrast, according to SPINS/IR data, Zevia saw sales rise 67% in the three months ending on May 18 compared to the previous year, despite being more expensive than leading diet soda brands.
据《饮料文摘》（Beverage Digest）报道，2014年上半年，减肥碳酸软饮在全美的销量下降了7.5%。与此相反，根据SPINS/IR的数据显示，尽管零卡的售价比其它著名苏打水品牌高，但截至5月18日的前三个月中，零卡的销量比去年还上升了67%。
Zevia, which offers 15 soft drinks, including cola, root beer, and ginger ale, had sales of about $90 million in the last 12 months, making it a tiny player compared to Pepsi, Coke, and Dr Pepper Snapple DPS -0.60% . But that performance has underscored how slowly the industry’s giants have been to adapt to changing tastes.
零卡旗下有可乐、根汁汽水、姜汁汽水等15种不同口味的软饮，去年一年的销量高达9,000万美元，虽然与百事、可口可乐、Dr Pepper Snapple等巨擘相比还有很大差距，但零卡在饮料界已经算得上小有名气了。
“As big and as powerful as the big beverage companies are, a lot of the innovation has been by the smaller companies,” Beverage Digest editor and publisher John Sicher told Fortune.
《饮料文摘》编辑兼出版人约翰o西歇尔在接受《财富》采访时说：“虽然大型饮料公司规模大、业务强，但这个领域内的很多创新是由小公司主导的。”
The industry’s giants are taking notice, developing their own similar, though not directly competing, products.
这些饮料业巨擘也开始警醒起来，开发旗下类似产品，但并没有与零卡直接竞争。
Coke is introducing Coca-Cola Life, a mid-calorie cola sweetened with a blend of stevia leaf extract and sugar, in the United States in September, according to a Beverage Digest report. Meanwhile, PepsiCo is reformulating Sierra Mist with stevia this fall, lowering the sugar content by 20%. And Dr Pepper Snapple is currently testing three naturally sweetened versions of Dr Pepper, 7up, and Canada Dry, with stevia and sugar, in three markets. Food companies are also getting in on the action: this week General Mills GIS 0.54% said it would reformulate its Yoplait yogurt with stevia.
据《饮料文摘》报道，可口可乐公司九月份在美国推出了“Coca-Cola Life”系列。这是一种“中卡路里”可乐，混合了甜叶菊叶子提取物和糖。同时，百事公司秋季时节更新了Sierra Mist青檬系列的配方，添加了甜叶菊，减少了20%的含糖量。而且，Dr Pepper Snapple眼下正在三大市场中试验营销Dr Pepper、七喜和Canada Dry三种混合了甜叶菊和糖的纯天然甜味饮料。食品公司也紧赶潮流：本周，通用磨坊（General Mills）宣布升级优诺酸奶（Yoplait yogurt）的配方，往原配方中添加了甜叶菊。说句公道话，大型公司之所以犹豫不决，主要是因为担心影响旗下其它热销的减肥饮料，或者害怕顾客形成对新型饮料的偏好。
To be fair, much of the big companies’ hesitation comes from the risk of hurting their still high volume diet brands, or fear of customers by reformulating a favorite drink.
富国银行（Wells Fargo）分析师邦妮o荷佐格在研究报告笔记中说：“为了保护现有品牌的销售，大型生产商是否能有效地参与不断增长的新型饮料市场，这点值得怀疑”
But that hesitation has given Zevia, which was founded in 2007 and is held by Long Island-based private equity firm Northwood Ventures, time to build an edge.
零卡创建于2007年，由长岛的私人股本公司诺斯伍德风投公司（Northwood Ventures）掌管。零卡抓住大公司犹豫不决的时机，在边缘化的饮料市场分得了一杯羹。
The brand, which got a big break when Whole Foods WFM -0.54% started selling it a few years ago, is among the five best- selling soft drink brands on AMZN -0.34% and is available in about half of all U.S. supermarkets, according to Zevia CEO Paddy Spence. It is also a draw among more affluent consumers; the average household income of a Zevia drinker is $60,000, compared to a U.S. average of about $52,000, Spence said.
据零卡CEO派迪o斯彭思说，几年前零卡在全食有机食品超市（Whole Foods ）上架后销量激增，现在已经是亚马逊网上销量前五的软饮品牌，进驻了全美一半以上的超市。而且饮用零卡的消费者属于较富裕阶层，家庭平均收入在六万美元左右，而全美国的家庭平均收入水平则为5.2万美元。
Despite that success, there is still a lot of work to do before Zevia can really say it has cornered the market. For one thing, it doesn’t sell its products at major retailers like Wal-Mart Stores WMT 0.57% or restaurant chains like McDonald’s MCD -0.05% , and it has minimal presence in chains like Target TGT 0.43% .
尽管取得了很大成功，但零卡还有很多工作要做。在这之前，它还没有足够底气自称已经占据了一片市场。零卡还没有在大型零售商沃尔玛百货（Wal-Mart Stores）上架，也没有在麦当劳（McDonald’s）等连锁快餐店出售，而且它在塔吉特零售店（Target）的存在感也很弱，这些都是亟需解决的问题。
Zevia has begun selling its beverage outside of grocery stores. Its products are sold in the cafeterias of a few Silicon Valley companies and Zevia is a sponsor of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics. But consumers buy 8 to 10 cans of Zevia soda at a time in a supermarket, so retail is its main focus for now, rather than the so-called “single-serve” market at places like movie theaters and sports venues.
零卡已不再局限于食品杂货店，开始走进硅谷一些公司的自助餐厅，同时开始赞助美国职业棒球大联盟奥特兰运动家队（Oakland Athletics）。超市里消费者一次能购买8到10罐零卡，所以零卡公司主要的营销渠道仍然为零售商，而不是像电影院和体育馆等所谓的“单次服务”市场。
“We built the business at the grocery shelf because, frankly, that’s where a lot of the volume purchasing happens,” Spence said. “You have to earn your shelf space and retailers are not willing to take risks—they’re not going to put a product on the shelf unless it has proven demand.”
“我们在食品店的货架上开展业务。坦率讲，在这些地方的销量最大，”斯彭思说。“你需要争取属于自己的货架空间，因为零售商不愿承担风险——除非存在市场需求，否则他们不会随便把哪种产品摆上货架。”
Zevia’s strong position in the zero-calorie soda area could eventually make the company an acquisition target by one of the big guys, Beverage Digest’s Sicher said. He pointed to how PepsiCo bought SoBe in 2000 and Coke bought Vitaminwater maker Glaceau in 2007 to gain a foothold in beverage growth areas.
《饮料文摘》的西歇尔说，零卡在零卡路里苏打饮料的强势地位最终会让它成为巨擘的收购目标。他举例说，为了赢得在新兴市场中的份额，2000年百事公司收购了SoBe，2007年可口可乐公司收购了酷乐仕维他命水等。
Spence declined to say whether Zevia is up for sale but did say he fields inquiries regularly. He also hinted that it would be too soon, anyway.
斯彭思虽拒绝透露未来是否会出售零卡，但也提到，他时常回应有收购意向的询价。他还暗示记者说，现在就把零卡卖掉也未免太快了。
“We’ve had a phenomenal run so far, but I feel like I am only part way up the mountain,” Spence said, noting that being independent gives Zevia more room to innovate.
“迄今为止，我们的表现非常优异，但我觉得还有很多潜力有待开发，”斯彭思说，他认为零卡作为一个独立企业，会有更大的创新空间。