The Jianlibao Group -- one of China's largest beverage companies -- is going to sell the land of its old production base to a local company for property development, according to a South China newspaper.

A spokesman from the Guangdong-based Jianlibao Group Tuesday refused to comment.

"The group has nothing to say at the current stage. We will make an announcement if there is any new development,'' the spokesman said.

A report in Tuesday's Guangdong-Hong Kong Information Daily quoted group sources as saying that the land will be sold to a buyer for between 700 million yuan (US$84.6 million) and 1.1 billion yuan (US$132.9 million).

Jianlibao used the 100 mu (6.67 hectares) of land as its production base for 19 years.

The base produces the Jianlibao brand of carbonated drink known as China Magic Water.

Jianlibao has another 26-hectare production base for juice and mineral water.

Last year, the East China-based Zhejiang International Trust and Investment Co paid 338 million yuan (US$40.9 million) for 75 per cent of the Jianlibao shares from the Sanshui city government of South China's Guangdong Province.

Zhejiang International also agreed to take over Jianlibao's debts of 1.5 billion yuan (US$181 million).

Jianlibao's heyday was in the early 1990s, when its drinks were best-sellers on a par with Coca-Cola and Pepsi in China.

However, poor management, bad investment choices and fierce competition dragged the company into heavy debt.

Zhang Hai, the new president of Jianlibao, has vowed that the new shareholders will spend 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) to rebuild Jianlibao's reputation.

In April last year, the company changed its single-brand strategy by offering a series of new beverages called Fifth Season to target young people.

"We expect sales of the new beverages to be on the same level as the Jianlibao brand of products this year,'' Zhang said.

According to industry experts, consumption of the types of beverage produced by Jianlibao is very low at present. The average annual consumption of fruit juice in China is less than 1 kilogram per capita, compared with the world average of 7 kilograms.

Competition in China's beverage market has been heating up as more producers release more new products to seize a share of the growing market.

China's average annual per capita consumption of soft drinks is set to jump from the current 10 kilograms to 20 kilograms by 2005, the National Association of the Beverage Industry has predicted.

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