With the Olympics taking place just across the Channel, it’s a good excuse to look at the sports drinks market, which often seems to get overlooked as we concentrate on energy/stimulant drinks.
But there’s good reason to look at sports drinks as they are performing well. According to Matt Gouldsmith, channel director, wholesale, at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I, sports drinks have performed well thanks to consumers increased focus on health, especially following the impact of Covid-19.
“Penetration of sport drinks grew by 66% from February 2020 to February 2022 (Kantar). While a lower base than stimulation, the trend within sport drinks matches the upward swing in the broader sports and energy segment. Sales of Lucozade Sport were again strong in 2023, with the brand climbing in value by 21.2%, continuing the strong performance displayed in the previous year.
“In fact, sports drinks are growing ahead of the category, currently seeing 18.6% value sales growth and 17.1% volume sales growth (Nielsen).”
Gouldsmith says Lucozade Sport Zero Sugar is driving new shoppers to the category as well as boosting soft drink shoppers’ existing spend. The brand has delivered over £8.5m in sales and is over-indexing versus the category average and is also 55% incremental to the soft drinks category as a whole (Nielsen).
According to Nielsen data, sports drinks are worth nearly £408m in GB, growing in value by over 45%, and volume by 20% – more than any other sub-category in the soft drinks sector by value and volume.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) says it has responded to consumer demand for more choice by adding Golden Mango to its Powerade line up.
The Powerade brand is the number four sports brand in GB and is enjoying both value and volume growth .
New isotonic sports drink Powerade Golden Mango has a tropical flavour profile and comes in 500ml plain packs. Like the rest of the range, it contains Vitamin B6, which may help with the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Powerade also has a new packaging design to drive standout on shelf.
Gold standard
Sticking with sports drinks, and Carabao has announced that Carabao Sport has achieved Informed Sport certification. Informed Sport is described as a globally recognised quality-assurance programme which certifies that products consumed by athletes do not contain banned substances. The Informed Sport certification complements Carabao’s ongoing partnership with the English Football League (EFL) and the Carabao Cup sponsorship as well as its ‘Official Sports Drink’ partnerships across the UK. The drink currently holds the title of Official Sports Drink and Official Hydration Partner at over 25 clubs across the English and Scottish football leagues.
Carabao Sport is a carbohydrate-electrolyte drink designed to contribute to the maintenance of endurance performance and enhance hydration during prolonged exercise. Available in orange and mixed berryflavours, it contains B vitamins, is made using only natural colours and flavours, and does not contain aspartame.
Consumers of Carabao Sport are currently being given the chance to win tickets to Carabao Cup games in 2024/25. A total of 1,210 tickets are being given away. Fans scan the QR code on special packs of Carabao Sport bottles to enter the competition.
Carabao recently extended its partnership with the EFL for a further three seasons, as title sponsor of the EFL Cup. Carabao first became title sponsor in 2017 and with this latest extension to 2027, it will become the longest serving title sponsor of the competition with a total of 10 seasons.
Exposure to the Carabao brand is enhanced by the fact that the EFL has reached an agreement with Sky Sports for this season, which will mean all 93 Carabao Cup games are broadcast live. In addition, starting in January 2025, a deal between ITV and Sky Sports has been agreed for at least nine games a season to be broadcast free-to-view on ITV, including the 2025 Carabao Cup Final.
Meanwhile, Carabao Energy is doing particularly well in the forecourt channel. NiQ data has it as the fourth biggest energy brand within the forecourt channel in 2023. It has generated value growth of £2.9m in the channel over the past two years.
Carabao has always prided itself on its low sugar content and this year will launch new and improved formulations for its energy drinks containing as little as 2.8g of sugar per 100ml. In addition, Carabao’s new drink formulations will contain only 41 calories per can, be free from aspartame, contain 100% natural colours and flavourings, and be vegetarian, vegan and Halal friendly.
Bring the Energy
Back to Lucozade, and there has recently been a major relaunch for the brand which has brought together its three key drinks: Energy, Sport and Alert.
Encompassing TV advertising, social, in-store activation, consumer sampling and more, the new Bring the Energy campaign is all about how Lucozade helps fuel people to rise to the challenge and to move with energy in the moments that matter.
As part of the brand relaunch, the Lucozade range has also undergone a redesign featuring an updated logo and packaging.
The Lucozade Alert line up is being boosted with the launch of Lucozade Alert Ultimate Energy and Lucozade Alert Zero Sugar Mango Peachade, both available in 250ml cans. Lucozade Alert Ultimate Energy, a guarana flavour, is a new flavour addition to the range, while the Mango Peachade Zero 250ml can brings this zero-sugar flavour to a smaller format.
SBF GB&I says these two launches have been specially developed to attract new shoppers to the category by bringing the right taste in the right format to retailers’ chillers. When surveyed, half of stimulation drink shoppers said they’d prefer a smaller can, highlighting the importance of having a range of format options in the chiller to suit all preferences and occasions.
Aoife McGuigan, head of category expansion at SBF GB&I, says: “The research shows us there is strong demand for smaller cans in the category, with 31% of stimulation drinks now sold in 250ml cans. We also know they’re especially popular with shoppers over 25 years old (Kantar), so can help retailers to unlock new shopper demographics.”
Lucozade Alert is a high caffeine drink with vitamin B3 to help reduce tiredness.
Lucozade Alert Ultimate Energy and Mango Peachade Zero Sugar 250ml cans will be available from August at an rrp of £1 each and in a PMP at 75p. The launch will be supported by a significant media investment incorporating out-of-home advertising, social activity, consumer sampling and in-store activation.
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Sneak Energy gains ground
Disruptive energy drinks brand Sneak Energy is quickly gaining distribution across independent retailers, since launching in March they have achieved over £600k in retail sales and more than 7,000 distribution points*.
The cutting-edge caffeinated formula is now available at select retailers across the country, and showing strong rate of sale in Euro Garages, MFG, SGN and many more.
Sneak comes in 500ml cans in four mouth-watering flavours - Raspberry Lemonade, Tropikilla, Purple Storm and Blizzard Lemonade. With zero sugar, natural caffeine, natural flavours and just five calories per serving, Sneak is tailormade for the five million Gen Z and Millennials actively seeking cleaner, benefit-driven, functional energy drinks.
Sneak will go on to appear at music, gaming and pop culture events right through the summer, stopping off to sample with the students during their various Freshers Weeks in September.
About Sneak Energy:
Do more of what you love for longer with Sneak Energy – the UK’s #1 online energy drink brand. Sneak’s sugar-free formula is cleaner and healthier, putting the big names to shame with no sugar and no junk. But Sneak is also about pushing the boundaries of what an ‘energy drink brand’ can be, providing products and experiences for their customers that go far beyond the norm. Because normal is boring – and we fuel different.
*World of Sweets Retail Sales Value Data, July 2024
Cleaner drinks
A new contender in the competitive energy drinks arena is Sneak and Chris Smith, partner brand manager at World of Sweets, says it been well received by retailers since it launched earlier this year.
“Sneak offers forecourt retailers and their customers something different and feeds into the growing trend for clean energy drinks,” he says.
“Clean energy is becoming much more important to customers, which means no added preservatives, no refined sugars, no artificial colour and no artificial flavours.”
The Sneak range contains natural caffeine, zero sugar, taurine, ginseng, choline and carnitine plus added B vitamins. Smith says these all combine to help deliver a boost that enhances mental focus and sharpness.
The fruity flavours including Tropikilla, Raspberry Lemonade, Purple Storm and Blizzard.
To complement the eye-catching can design, retailers are able to take advantage of Sneak-branded point of sale to drive impulse purchases in the chiller fixture and off shelf. Among the support available to retailers are FSDUs to elevate the product positioning in store, shelf-edge strips, shelf barkers, push/pull sticks and window vinyls.
The brand is backed by out-of-home digital screen advertising and will also be attending Comicon London in October.
“This will further drive engagement with product sampling, increasing the volume of potential shoppers the brand is reaching and encouraging them to purchase,” says Smith.
Big MFG win
Virtue Drinks describes its products as the UK’s first all-natural, zero sugar and zero calories energy drink. Around since 2016, the drinks harness the power of yerba mate to create what the company says is a more sustained and all-natural energy alternative to coffee and energy drinks.
There are three flavours: Tropical, Peach & Raspberry and Strawberry & Lime, which come in 250ml cans, rrp £1.75. Strawberry & Lime and Tropical are the best sellers.
Virtue is expanding on its deal with MFG into 300-plus Morrisons petrol station sites, which means the drinks can now be found at all MFG’s 1,200-plus sites. In addition the drinks were recently listed in Morrisons grocery stores nationwide.
For new customers, Virtue offers promotional pricing to drive customer trial and also supports the drinks with FSDUs and shelf barkers.
The appeal of new flavours
Innovation has been vital to the success of energy drinks growth, with particular engagement around new flavours, which has helped broaden the category’s appeal to new shoppers, where taste was previously a barrier.
A Red Bull spokesperson explains: “The demand for flavoured energy drinks has never been stronger, acting as an entry point for consumers. Selling on average +38% more units per store versus two years ago (Nielsen), and with 83% of energy drink consumers wanting to buy across a variety of flavours (Appinio survey), the category has been tapping into this demand with new and exciting options. Last year 71% of shoppers that were new to energy drinks bought a flavoured product, so flavours are a key part of the category to drive penetration (Kantar).”
Red Bull says sales of its new products have been largely incremental, with 45% of shoppers that bought into the flavoured Editions range, for example, being new to the brand (Kantar). “Editions have recruited shoppers fast, with 2.8 million buying the brand, growing seven-fold in just two years. This was reinforced last year, by the launch of our most successful NPD yet: The Summer Edition with the taste of Juneberry, which sold 9.4 million 250ml cans (Nielsen), and has now been made permanent in the range as The Blue Edition along with The Red Bull Ruby Edition, which was introduced in September as The Red Bull Winter Edition with the taste of Spiced Pear,” the spokesperson continues.
Its latest launch is its Summer Edition Curuba Elderflower and also Red Bull Pink Edition Sugarfree which the company says is the first fully sugar-free flavour in its portfolio.
Fruity refreshment
The flavours keep coming from CCEP with both Monster and Relentless releasing new ones all the time.
Relentless recently added Fruit Punch to its line-up, describing it as “the ideal fruity refreshment for the summer months”.
According to NiQ data, Relentless is the number four energy drink brand in GB, worth £45m. Fruit Punch joins the six strong Relentless portfolio which includes Origin, Cherry and Passion Punch, alongside its Zero Sugar range of Watermelon, Peach and Raspberry.
And earlier this year Monster Reserve Orange Dreamsicle and Monster Juiced Bad Apple were added to the Monster range. CCEP said the launches are designed to maintain momentum behind the brand – which is worth more than £574m and driving more value growth than any other brand (42%) in the energy category (Nielsen).
Helen Kerr, associate director of portfolio development at CCEP, says: “More than half of energy drinks’ innovation sales over the last year have come from Monster’s NPD – which has helped us grow our value sales by a massive £111m. And shoppers can’t get enough of our flavour-packed Monster Juiced range, which is up 25% in value and growing ahead of the flavoured energy segment and the total energy category (all Nielsen).”
In addition, price-marked multipacks for Monster Juiced Mango Loco and Monster Zero Sugar Lewis Hamilton were launched.
Kerr says Monster multipacks have added over £16.3m in value over the last year as consumers enjoy energy drinks alongside food at home or during occasions like chill-time or when gaming. Apparently, they are growing faster than multipacks from any other major brand in the energy category (20.7%).
Kerr adds: “We know PMPs give shoppers a feeling that they’re getting better value for money, so in these challenging times the launch of price-marked multipacks for Monster Juiced Mango Loco and Monster Zero Sugar Lewis Hamilton offers a point of difference that shoppers can’t get in larger stores and will help to drive sales for convenience retailers”.
Meanwhile, Red Bull recently added a new mixed multipack (four x 250ml, rrp £5.25 and four x 250ml PMP £5.35) exclusive to the impulse channel.
The pack includes the original Red Bull Energy Drink along with some of the brand’s best performing Editions: The Red Edition, The Tropical Edition and The Blue Edition. An Appinio survey found that 88% of Red Bull shoppers preferred to buy a variety of flavours, so this new pack enables them to do just that.
According to Nielsen, Red Bull multipacks account for 42% of multipack growth, with Red Bull featuring in 60% of the top functional multipacks. This is led by the four x 250ml Red Bull energy drink multipack, which sells more than double that of the next energy drink multipack, worth £56m (Nielsen), and is therefore a must-stock item for forecourt stores with the space.
