Soft drinks mean big business, with the ‘super category’ worth £12.bn a year when everything from concentrates and smoothies, to carbonates and yoghurt drinks are taken into consideration.
Data from market research firm Circana shows the sector has grown by 2.1% over the last 12 months, while the recent spate of warmer weather has seen sales increase by 5.3% year-on-year.
Some categories within soft drinks are doing better than others, though, with still water showing strong growth, and carbonates down slightly. Shots, and ginger, and turmeric based shots in particular, are showing strong growth and helping still and juice volumes grow.
Symbol shops and independent retailers make up 20.6% of the soft drinks market, a greater proportion than they hold in food, but sales of still water are lagging behind with these retailers, indicating forecourt operators could find growth opportunities here.
Symbols and independents have also lost 0.4% of value share in soft drinks, partly due to the under-performance of water. Recent warm weather has helped things slightly, but supermarket chains have reaped more benefits here, up 0.8% over the last four weeks compared to last year, with growth in the sales of impulse soft drinks in supermarkets taking trade from independent retailers.
