Soft Drink Sales Surge Past £9bn Thanks To Take Home Sales

by kamcity.com - 24/03/2011

"Soft drinks have once again demonstrated their resilience in spite of tough economic conditions, growing to £9.4bn, according to the 2011 Britvic Soft Drinks Report published yesterday. "

Top line headlines from the report, based on independent Nielsen and CGA market data, include:

* Take-home sales total £6.6bn and growing by 6.6% in value
* Impulse sales growth overtook the Grocery Multiples, as more consumers took advantage of ‘top up shops’ and single serve formats became more popular
* The Impulse channel grew by 7% in value, reversing a -3% decline last year
* Sales of soft drinks in on-premise held, growing by 1% in value to £2.8bn
* The foodservice channel reversed its 2009 decline, up 9.4% in value to £284m
* Largest sub-category in total market, Cola grew substantially across all channels

Overall, soft drinks sales in the on-premise channel were affected due to wider issues impacting on the industry, including the number of pubs closing and the cold weather at the start and end of the year. Despite these challenges, the report found that soft drinks managed to stay afloat thanks to the increase of family and food led outlets.

The Hotel, Restaurant and Catering (HORECA) channel returned to growth after being in decline in 2009. The workplace catering channel’s 9% growth particularly stood out, suggesting that more people were buying lunches in canteens rather than bringing food from home.

Meanwhile, sales of take-home soft drinks grew by 6.6% in value to £6.6bn and 2.5% in volume. In terms of sub-category performance, Cola remained by far the largest in take-home, recording 9% growth to take sales to £1.46bn. The Pepsi brand was responsible for the highest value growth within the Cola sub-category at 13%, with Pepsi Max the star performer as sales increased by 19%.

The report highlights that another big success story in take-home was the Glucose/Stimulant sub-category, which grew by 19% in value to £674m as consumers looked for an energy boost to help manage their increasingly busy lives. Fruit Flavoured Carbonates also continued to be extremely popular with consumers, up 9% in value to £485m. Within this category, Tango outperformed the market, growing at 15% in value - four times that of its nearest category rival.

Although the second largest sub-category at £1.18bn, Pure Juice recorded a modest value growth of 2% as some consumers switched to other sub-categories. On the other hand, Squash was up 5% in value to break the £500m barrier for the first time and Smoothies enjoyed a resurgence following a downward spiral due to the recession, bouncing back to grow by 9% in value and 7% in volume.

Interestingly, the title of top performing sub-category last year went to Cold Hot Drinks, which grew by a massive 93% in value. Reversing an 8% decline in 2009, the growth was in part driven by sales of Lipton Ice Tea, which were up by 102% in value.

Murray Harris, Customer Management Director, commented: "2010 was another a tough year for UK consumers, but soft drinks remained resilient. Although people were watching their pounds, they were still willing to spend a comparatively small amount on a soft drink, whether it’s at the train station on the way to work or at their local retailer on the way home from school.

“The increase in ‘top up’ shopping and single serve soft drinks sales has been great news for convenience retailers after they endured a difficult 2009, but we’ve yet to see a similar turn-around in the on-premise channel.

“Soft drinks continued go from strength-to-strength in the take-home channel, in spite of economic uncertainty. Although people continued to be extremely careful about where and how they spent their money, they clearly saw soft drinks as an affordable treat, especially for those big nights in. The Impulse channel has had a fantastic year, reflecting the success of Britvic’s 600ml format, which added £9.8m to the on-the-go carbonates sub-category within five months of launch”.

More Details: http://www.kamcity.com/namnews/asp/newsarticle.asp?newsid=58869