Chinese bottled water company Nongfu Spring has entered the skin care market for the first time with a range of products named Yoseido,which use birch sap as the main ingredient.

Creating facial masks and two types of toners, the company has launched the skin care products as a new arm under the YST group,trialling them on its Tmall store, with the facial care products priced at 168 yuan a pack.

The company is said to be using 400 metric tonnes of birch sap as the base ingredient for the products, which is derived from Finland. Zhong Shanshan, Founder and Chairman of Nongfu Spring, is said to have been developing the product for more than three years.

He said, “It may sound like a crossover for Nongfu Spring, but it is actually a back-to-basics approach for my business.”

While there is no official launch date for the products, Shanshan is said to have future plans to export them to the Japanese market.

Speaking of his aim to become a top five seller in the domestic skin care market in five years, he said, “There is no such thing as brand loyalty. It took a little time for all the once die-hard Nokia followers to shift to iPhones when (Steve) Jobs created it.”