The soft drinks category continues to flourish in the foodservice and licensed sector and is set for further growth thanks to the healthy living trend, according to the latest Britvic Soft Drinks Review.
The company said that despite economic uncertainty following last year’s EU referendum and the government’s announcement it would introduce a soft drinks levy, soft drinks have continued to grow in the sector, up 3.3% from 2015 to a total of £6.7bn.
Britvic said it had identified four main drivers of growth – a continued trend for premiumisation, a rise in the number of socialising occasions involving food, consumer interest in healthy living, and operators’ improvements to personalise the consumer experience.
The company forecasts these trends to continue throughout 2017 and beyond. It said the trend for healthy living had arguably the biggest impact on the soft drinks category in 2016.
It highlighted that manufacturers continued to extend popular brand ranges to include new low and no added sugar variants resulting in low calorie drinks growing faster (6.8% to £1.9bn) than full sugar equivalents (2.0% to £4.9bn).
It said that the shift towards lower sugar was most evident in the cola category, with sales of Pepsi Max, which contains no sugar, growing 54.2% and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar growing by 22.8%.
Russell Goldman, commercial director – Licensed, Foodservice & Leisure at Britvic GB, said: “The performance of the soft drinks category in the Foodservice & Licensed channels in 2016 has been impressive and all of us at Britvic are proud of the part we have played - and continue to play - in driving the category’s growth in the channel. Foodservice and Licenced has never been so competitive so supporting our customers to drive increased custom and revenue through soft drinks sales is a top priority for us. With our fantastic brands, investment in innovation and marketing, and our extensive category insights, I’m pleased to say we’re succeeding in this area with our customers and we’re committed to ensuring this remains the case in future.
“Competition for the leisure pound isn’t going to get any easier for operators in the year ahead, but the good news for them is that if they get their soft drinks offering right, tailoring it to their customers’ needs and focusing on creating sensational experiences for them, they can unlock further potential from the category and reap the rewards.”
Paul Graham, managing director at Britvic GB, said: “At Britvic, we recognised the impact of the healthy living trend early on and we’ve led the industry in recent years when it comes to adapting to meet consumers’ needs. We’ve taken bold steps to help consumers to make choices that are better for them, removing 19 billion calories per year from our portfolio since 2012. We’ve also worked closely with many of our customers in the channel to help them adapt their soft drinks offering to provide their customers with the healthy choices they expect today. We will continue to keep our commitment to providing consumers with inspiring choices that deliver on taste at the heart of our strategy in the years to come.”
