--FILE--Yunnan Baiyao toothpaste are for sale at a supermarket in Nantong city, east Chinas Jiangsu province, 28 March 2013. With green-tea flavored toothpaste and pickled plum juice, an army of Chinese retailers is tapping local tastes to whittle away market share from global rivals that are banking their future growth on the worlds second-largest consumer market. Understanding the needs of Chinese consumers has given local companies an edge. Privately owned Jiaduobao Group (JDB) makes canned herbal tea which it says can put out internal fires, playing on a concept in traditional Chinese medicine. Hawley & Hazel, a joint venture owned by Colgate-Palmolive and its Hong Kong-based founders, makes Darlie toothpaste which leads the domestic market according to Kantar and Bain, playing to Chinese tastes with green tea and jasmine flavours. Another popular toothpaste brand is made by Yunnan Baiyao Group Co Ltd, which uses its history as one of the biggest and oldest traditional Chinese medicine makers in the country as a selling point. Taiwan-based drinks maker Tingyi Cayman Islands Holding Corp, which bottles and distributes PepsiCo Inc products in China, also says it makes a point of developing traditional Chinese flavours such as snow pear and pickled plum.
