Earlier this year, in April, Nestlé launched EveryDay Lite – a low-fat, no added sugar variant of their popular tea whitener EveryDay. The product is aimed at urban, health conscious consumers who are looking for the same taste and consistency that regular dairy whiteners like EveryDay provide, but with fewer calories to help them stay in shape.

“Pakistan is a tea loving nation and tea is consumed on most occasions. On average, approximately two cups of tea are consumed every day by an adult . We saw an opportunity in a substantial segment of tea lovers who want to consume tea with whiteners that are low-fat and have no added sugar, but no such options were available,” says Muhammad Fahad, Marketing Manager, Nestlé Pakistan.

EveryDay Lite is currently distributed in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, in addition to a few select stores in smaller cities. Two SKUs are available: a 250 gram box (which can make 30 cups of tea), priced at Rs. 350, and individual sachets which can be purchased at Rs. 20 each.

In 2018, the global coffee/tea whitener market was valued at $5,350 million and this figure is expected to reach $6,870 million by the end of 2025, with an expected CAGR of 3.2% between 2019 and 2025. Closer to home, Pakistan’s tea whitener industry is valued at approximately $458 million and is believed to have grown by 35% in the last five years – the highest in the dairy segment.

This sales spurt in what was once considered a niche product segment is not surprising; ease of storage and use, a longer shelf life than regular milk and a consistent taste offered by the tea-whiteners are some of the key reasons behind the growth of this industry.

To connect with their target market, Nestlé primarily used TV advertisements and a strong presence on digital media, in addition to a variety of BTL activities. For instance they recently organised an event on October 24, at an upscale restaurant in Karachi, for social media influencers, bloggers and fitness enthusiasts. Fitness experts such as Nusrat Hidayatullah, who endorses the brand on her Instagram handle, were present at the event as well.

Although Nestlé’s attempts at launching similar products in the past – like EveryDay Slim in India in the early 2000s - did not achieve the desired results, Nestlé Pakistan states that EveryDay Lite has so far garnered a significant amount of attention on social media by health conscious tea lovers, and the brand is expected to be a trendsetter in its category in the country.

According to statistics quoted by Nestle, Nestle Everyday's Market share in the third quarter of 2019 was 41%, while Tarang was at 16.1% and Qudrat at 16%, followed by other brands such as TeaMax, CupShup and Chika.