Consumers have been feeling the pinch from rising living costs and inflation this last year, with increasing numbers being mindful of the amount they spend.
In a bid to make their money stretch further, these pressured shoppers are expected to move toward smaller transactions and smaller pack sizes.
At the same time, we’re also seeing a ‘lipstick effect’ where shoppers are switching from expensive purchases to treating themselves with smaller treats and indulgences.
“As inflation is set to continue, it’s important for retailers to offer choice to shoppers who will all be impacted differently – there’s no one size fits all solution,” comments Ben Parker, GB Retail Commercial Director at Britvic. “This should include a range of on-the-go options, in addition to multipacks and larger bottles, as well as price-marked packs (PMPs) as people will continue to look for value for money to help manage their budgets.”
We have seen the trend for healthier products continue to increase among consumers and with the high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) regulations now in place, reduced sugar options when it comes to soft drinks will only continue to grow in importance. As a category soft drinks was well prepared ahead of the legislation, following the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy which came into effect in 2018. Therefore, to date, soft drinks has been in an ideal position to help retailers with any shortfall from other non-HFSS categories.
“At Britvic, we know how important it is to offer retailers and shoppers choice, and as a business, we have a long history of helping people make healthier choices,” adds Parker. “Our innovation pipeline continues to centre around low and no-sugar products which meet HFSS regulations and offer consumers better-for-you options as part of our strategy. Our leading approach to low- and no-sugar reformulations has resulted in 90% of our portfolio – 196 liquids – already being HFSS compliant, all while maintaining our commitment to never compromising on taste.”
A recent example of this is the launch of Tango Apple Sugar Free in September 2022, and 7UP Free Cherry in a 500ml bottle for the first time in March 2022, so that people could enjoy the popular drink on-the-go. With the growing popularity of flavoured carbonates, both products meet the consumer demand for tasty sugar free flavours. Last year Britvic also reduced the sugar content across its Rockstar core range of energy drinks, making the brand’s six best-selling flavours HFSS compliant.
“The accelerated health trend has also created opportunities for wellness brands, it’s no longer just about removing sugar or calories from diets,” says Parker. “Shoppers are on the lookout for added vitamins or ingredients that can support both physical and mental health, from immune boosting benefits to those helping them to focus.”
Low in calories, with botanical extracts and added vitamins, Purdey’s has broad appeal, making it perfectly placed to lead in the wellness drinks segment. Its ambition is to make wellness drinks accessible to more people, by aligning with current consumer trends and providing great taste. The brand delivers the important factors customers look for in functional soft drinks – clear benefits, great taste and healthier ingredients. Britvic has also reviewed how it can serve the demand for functional benefits within its existing portfolio and last year launched Robinsons Benefit Drops, available in four flavours, each with a different added functional benefit. The range offers shoppers a convenient and tasty way to gain additional vitamins while on-the-move.
“As we look at consumer behaviour since the pandemic, hybrid working now appears to be the new norm,” Parker continues. “Alongside this, we can see that traditional mealtimes have shifted and consumers are now looking at all times of the day for meals or drinks.”
On the go drink shoppers spend on average £3.82 per visit vs lunch on the go shoppers who spent £6.37 (Lumina). Therefore, meal deals will give stores opportunities to offer bigger ticket propositions, tempting shoppers with recognised brands which have a strong appeal. Whatever happens next, soft drinks stand to benefit by being versatile, relevant, available all day and suitable across age groups and occasions.
Pure juice drinks in particular are performing well, currently up 26.71% vs YA (IRI). Last year Britvic expanded the Robinsons Ready to Drink range, capitalising on this growth. Launched in March 2022, Blackberry & Blueberry is the third flavour to the line-up. The new flavour allows retailers to offer their shoppers even more variety when it comes to choosing soft drinks. The latest Blackberry & Blueberry flavour launch helps retailers further drive on-the-go sales with an instantly recognisable and trusted brand in their chillers. Robinsons Ready to Drink was the official soft drinks partner for The Hundred cricket competition last year, which included an on-pack promotion giving consumers the chance to win tickets to the tournament. The promotion will be available again this year from August, following its success.
“With a wider set of occasions being undertaken outside of the ‘top up shop’ and lunchtime ‘food to go’, it’s vital that retailers think beyond traditional occasions within convenience,” Parker advises. “Developing these increasingly more prominent occasions – such as meal for tonight, breakfast and snacking – will be important in driving future growth. And as consumer needs evolve, it’s important to cater to these changing needs with new food and drink pairings.”
Flavour innovation is crucial in keeping shoppers excited by soft drinks and at a time when the cost of living is rising, it’s important to offer new products from well-known brands to help maintain basket spend.
Britvic bolstered Pepsi MAX® flavours last year with the new addition of Pepsi MAX Lime and also launched Tango Editions, a rotational sugar- free flavour series which combines bold tastes, bold liquids and bold pack designs to cater to this growing need. The most recent flavour in this series is the Tango Paradise Punch Sugar Free which launched in January, featuring Tango’s boldest pack design and flavour yet. Tango Dark Berry Sugar Free launched in April 2021 and was the number one fruit flavoured carbonate during that year (Nielsen), it is now worth £13m RSV, growing +66% vs LY (Nielsen).
Adrian Troy, Marketing Director at Barr Soft Drinks, comments: “The UK’s £10.6 billion (IRI) soft drinks category is growing at +10% and is one of the most profitable categories for retailers. By stocking a range of quality and trusted brands from Barr Soft Drinks, there are some key opportunities to drive incremental sales and increase profits.”
Over the last year, the Barr Soft Drinks portfolio of brands delivered an additional £28.2 million in retail sales value to the soft drinks category (IRI).
With unprecedented temperatures recorded last summer, sales were better than ever in soft drinks, with flavoured carbonates and water seeing the biggest uplifts.
Within this, flavoured carbonates achieved the biggest subcategory uplift, growing +55% in retail (IRI), highlighting the importance of brands like IRN BRU and Rubicon Sparkling, known for their iconic flavours and exotic fruitiness.
As the trend of sustainability continues to grow across categories, this has become a key driver for shoppers when making purchasing decisions.
Last year, Barr Soft Drinks announced plans to become carbon net zero by 2040. Under its No Time To Waste initiative, the company will be bringing together multiple energy, packaging and waste programmes to become more sustainable.
Building on changes that have already been implemented, such as 100% recyclable soft drinks packaging, clear on-pack messaging and a 41% reduction in greenhouse gases, No Time To Waste will drive forward even more measures to reduce overall environmental impact.
Adrian Hipkiss, Marketing and International Business Director at Boost Drinks, comments: “Energy is the largest soft drink category in the independent channel (IRI) and with £1 in every £3 spent on soft drinks being spent on an energy drink (IRI), making it an incredibly exciting space to operate in. When taking a closer look into the energy sub-categories, it’s the Energy Stimulation drinks which play a significant role in contributing to the growth of the soft drinks category, growing +14% YoY (IRI), and accounting for 26% of all Soft Drink value sales (IRI).”
The past two years of restrictions has seen a shift in energy drink shopping habits. As the nation travelled less and stayed home more, on-the-go consumption became ever so prominent, resulting in a growing consumer demand for 1litre and multi-pack take home formats. Despite restrictions now easing and footfall rising, take home products continue to be a huge growth opportunity for retailers as shoppers continuously seek ready-to-drink, on-the-go energy quality options at everyday value prices (Cousins Davis).
“Boost is the only brand operating in 4 functional drink categories – Energy Stimulation, Sports Drinks, RTD Iced Coffee and Protein Shakes (IRI) and within the energy stimulation category, it’s the third largest brand, something we’re incredibly proud of,” adds Hipkiss. “Boost Original is available in 1litre, 500ml and Boost’s leading SKU, the 250ml Original Energy. This range of options and pack sizes allows consumers to rely on us as a brand and purchase a Boost that suits every occasion, whether on the move or stocking up to enjoy at home.”
To boost this growth even further, flavours in energy now account for 38% of Stimulation sales (IRI) and have increased 48% vs. 2020, showing us that there’s a significant thirst for a range of flavour variants to suit all tastes. Boost Red Berry is the largest selling 250ml Stimulation Flavour SKU (IRI), however considering the fact that 39% of Stimulation shoppers actually make their purchase based on flavour alone (Cousins Davis), it’s important to stock a variety of flavours rather than relying on 1 or 2.
“Overall, to maximise on profits retailers should prioritise stocking Boost as a leading brand within the soft drink growth category, especially as a brand that provides a diverse range of pack formats, flavours and take-home offerings, ensuring retailers can meet the needs of their core consumer groups,” says Hipkiss.
Demand is on the rise for drinks that incorporate natural ingredients, provenance and nutritional benefits (Mintel), this can be seen through the fact that Rio is a top 5 ranked SKU in Fruit Carbonates based on unit rate of sale and has the second largest wholesaler sales rates to retailers (IRI). This shift in consumer appetites is only set to keep growing, so it’s vital for retailers to take this into account with a stock range that reflects this evolving consumer appetite.
Insight illustrates that Flavoured Carbonates is the third largest category in Soft Drinks, worth over £291m and growing +8% YOY (IRI). This in turn points out that Rio offers huge growth opportunities for retailers; and with a range of products such as Rio Tropical and Rio Tropical Light, there’s a selection of products on offer to suit varying consumer needs, including those looking to make more conscious choices about the products they consume, as many are in 2022.
This year, Boost Drinks diversified its portfolio with new products in both coffee and stimulation. The brand is building on its RTD Iced Coffee range with the addition of a Mocha variant. Within the RTD Iced Coffee sector, 75% of the sales value are made up of just 4 flavours – Latte, Caramel, Espresso & Mocha (IRI) – adding Mocha to the portfolio allows Boost to capture the consumer demand and provide more choice for customers.
“The RTD iced coffee category is growing rapidly,” suggests Hipkiss. “To capitalise on the future growth and stock fast growing brands such as Boost’s RTD Iced coffee range, retailers should allow for sufficient fridge space, highlighting the range of products on offer and allowing them to grab consumer attention.”
Supported by a cross-channel media strategy with touchpoints across OOH, social, trade advertising and a depot activation, Boost’s new Mocha variant is set to seek maximum exposure. Backed by high-impact advertising Boost seeks to drive maximum brand awareness and hopes to amplify consumer and retail trial and engagement around the new Mocha variant.
Taking into consideration the fact that the Fruit Punch flavour is the largest stimulation flavour on unit sales, with a significant 28% share and 28% YoY growth (IRI), Boost Drinks has recently expanded its popular Energy Stimulation range with the re-formulation of its Fruit Punch flavoured 250ml SKU. Made up of punchy flavours including peach, passionfruit and banana, Boost’s fruit punch medley of flavours offers a point-of-difference against current single-flavour SKUs in the category. Available now in 65p price-marked packs (PMPs), the new offering continues to enable retailers to communicate great value amidst increased consumer price-consciousness, whilst still delivering excellent margins to sellers.
Boost Drinks has recently tapped into the largest selling can segment (IRI) with its new 500ml Juic’d range. The NPD is made with 5% real fruit juice and is price marked £1.00 on pack. This price marked pack will help retailers to communicate great value on fixture, amidst increased consumer price consciousness, while still delivering excellent margins. Now more than ever, sales of 500ml cans are booming with 28% growth (worth £232m, IRI) and 39% growth in the category from flavoured 500ml variants alone (IRI), resulting in the 500ml can segment currently being the fastest growing category in energy drinks. This growth and consumer appetite presents a promising opportunity for Boost Drinks to penetrate the 500ml market with its new range at an impactful, affordable price point.
“Juic’d is jam-packed full of flavour, with real fruit juice refreshment but at the same great Boost value price point for consumers,” continues Hipkiss. “With the cost-of-living increases, it’s great to be able to launch a new brand in this thriving category and provide more choice for consumers.”
To further amplify the NPD launch, the brand is activating a cross-channel marketing strategy with touchpoints across OOH, digital advertising, social media as well as a creative depot activation. With all this and more in stock, the Juic’d 500ml range is set to be Boost’s biggest ever NPD launch, a fact that makes for an exciting and engaging release into the world of Energy Stimulation.
A Red Bull spokesperson comments: “For a long time, the Red Bull portfolio has been about offering choice, ensuring the right product is available for each shopper at their point of need. Increasingly consumers have been looking to moderate their sugar consumption and legislation such as HFSS has provided wholesalers and retailers an opportunity to highlight key low/no sugar ranges.”
As a result, low/no sugar soft drinks are the best-selling sector (+£1.5bn) and fastest growing, +12.8% vs full sugar +12.5% (Nielsen). Red Bull offers no sugar variants in both Single Serve and Multipacks with Red Bull low calorie Single Serve in growth +£3.7m, +18.0% YoY and Multipacks, £772.9k, +240.1%. The brand’s best-selling low-calorie drink is Red Bull Sugarfree 250ml, £23.4m, +12.6% (Nielsen).
“Every shopper need is different, so it is crucial that their favourite soft drink is available in a range of formats to help satisfy their immediate requirement,” adds the spokesperson. “2 in 3 Red Bull shoppers actually go into store knowing which can size they want to buy (Kantar), therefore Red Bull Energy Drink is available in three different can sizes – 250ml, 355ml and 473ml, with each playing a key role.”
Red Bull Energy Drink 250ml is ideal for on-the-go consumption, with 50% of 250ml shoppers drinking the can immediately after purchase. Whereas, 1 in 3 Red Bull shoppers are likely to consume the larger cans later in the day, with Red Bull Energy Drink 355ml linked to gaming, studying, and socialising, and Red Bull Energy Drink 473ml being the can of choice for all meal occasions, making it ideal for a meal deal offering (Kantar).
Red Bull Energy Drink 250ml sells more packs than any other single serve soft drink (Nielsen) and drives the highest demand in Red Bull portfolio (Nielsen). Additionally, Red Bull Energy Drink 355ml and 473ml are the top two fastest growing PMP skus in Sports & Energy, +£8.9m (+24.0%) and +£7.4m (+18.0%) respectively (Nielsen).
“During the summer, as well as these core functional missions, consumers want hydration, so flavoured Sports & Energy drinks are a must-stock,” says the spokesperson. “Red Bull Editions are growing ahead of total Sports & Energy flavours, with the top three skus (Red Edition 250ml, Apricot Edition 250ml, and Tropical Edition 250ml) cumulatively amassing £4.3m in value sales over the summer – that’s 61% of all Editions sales. Stock all three to offer retailers and shoppers choice during the warmer months and maximise sales.”
Continuing its mission to offer Flavours for all Tastes, and Wiings for Your Summer, Red Bull is launching its latest Summer Edition this Spring, with the taste of Juneberry.
Shoppers are looking for new, exciting flavours, with 31% saying an exciting flavour would persuade them to buy new drinks and 18% have bought drinks with new or different flavours (Nielsen). Juneberry performed particularly well in multiple consumer taste tests, offering a strong flavour profile and the highest purchase intent of any previous Summer Edition at 75%.
Flavours are essential in driving Sports & Energy sales, particularly over the summer, and many of the shoppers are incremental to the category, with 24% of people who don’t currently buy Energy Drinks saying they would try a flavour. Additionally, they appeal to converted shoppers, with 41% of current Energy Drinkers saying they would try a flavour. Flavours also bring in more females to the category, equating for 62% of buyers spend in Flavours (Kantar).
Available in 250ml, 250ml PMP, 255ml Sugarfree and 250ml Sugarfree 4-pack, the launch of Red Bull Summer Edition – Juneberry will be supported with a range of tailored POS to raise awareness in store and in depot across all key touchpoints.
Soft Drinks continues to perform well at a total level, +9.5% value, with Sports & Energy worth £1.9bn, +15.7% (Nielsen). Red Bull also had a fantastic year, growing ahead of the category at +15.3% to a value of £576m (Nielsen). Within Scottish Impulse soft drinks growth is +8.7%, with Sports & Energy at +10.7% and Red Bull at +12.6% (Nielsen).
Despite the current challenges on shoppers’ household income, soft drinks performance remains resilient, growing faster than other key FMCG categories (Nielsen). Switching to own label is key savings strategy, which is amplified as shoppers spend more at the discounters. As a result, own label is outperforming brands across most categories, although soft drinks is the exception. Soft drinks branded spend is in fact 36% higher than own label, suggesting that shoppers prefer to stay brand loyal and are willing to spend more, rather than revert to own label to save money as they do in other categories.
As shoppers spend less on non-essential items, such as alcohol and tobacco, soft drinks continue to play an important role in customers’ repertoire. Potentially as an alternative or simply a fundamental item they are not willing to compromise on, despite cutting back in other areas.
Summer is a key period for all soft drinks and thanks to the exceptionally warm weather and the additional bank holidays in 2022 it was a particularly strong year. Red Bull occasions are elevated over the summer period compared to winter with the brand’s share of consumption within Sports & Energy increasing to 13.6% vs 8.9% in the previous period (Kantar). Last year, this led to a brand growth of 17% YoY, adding £16.3m in value vs the previous summer (Nielsen).
Flavours are key to helping drive the growth of Sports & Energy, and the area which sees the most innovation, as shoppers look for variety and hydration, particularly during the summer months. As a result, flavoured Sports & Energy drinks are up +21.9% YoY vs unflavoured at +10.7% (Nielsen), with tropical flavours a core opportunity, growing 22.5% vs mainstream flavours at 14.5% (Nielsen).
Red Bull is instrumental to the strong performance, outperforming total flavoured Sports & Energy by four times at +92% (Nielsen). The brand continues to innovate its portfolio, regularly rotating flavours and introducing limited edition variants to add excitement to the category, which has not only helped to drive sales, but also encourage trial by introducing new shoppers to the sector.
As the signpost brand, Red Bull Editions grew a huge +100.8% over Summer 2022, way ahead of total Sports & Energy flavours at +22.9%. The launch of Apricot Edition was instrumental to this, attributing to 30% of Editions sales, contributing to 54% of Editions growth and selling 4.8m packs to a value of £6.8m since launch (Nielsen).
Kat Jones, Marketing Director at Cawston Press, comments: “According to Global Newswire’s report on the Global Fruit Juice Market (2022 to 2027), the consumption of soft drinks such as fizzy drinks is reducing due to high sugar content, artificial colouring, phosphoric acid, artificial sweeteners, and caffeine, creating a greater shift in demand from carbonated drinks towards natural fruit juices with not from concentrate leading the category.”
This coincides with research commissioned by Cawston Press via YouGov, which highlighted that 60 of UK adults are concerned about the amount of sugar and sweeteners in fizzy drinks. Also, 63% would prefer if their drinks were made with more natural ingredients.
“At Cawston Press, the number one brand in the Not From Concentrate category in soft drinks, we make our drinks with pressed fruit, no added sugar and no added artificial ingredients,” adds Jones. “No Jiggery Pokery. We use only the finest ingredients inspired by the kitchen garden, picked at harvest time when they are brimming with flavour.”
The brand is known for its sparkling soft drinks range, featured within its Life’s Best Pressed campaign. The campaign highlighted how it’s possible to create clean, great-tasting, sparkling soft drinks from real, familiar and simple ingredients, with no added sugars, no sweeteners, no shortcuts, and no artificial ingredients. The campaign focused on the brand’s well known sparkling soft drinks range, which includes the core four best-selling SKUS Sparkling Rhubarb, Cloudy Apple, Elderflower Lemonade and Ginger Beer, which grew +11.7%, +64.3%, +66.5% and 7.4% in the last 52 weeks respectively (Nielsen).
Vegetable juices have seen a rise in popularity for their health benefits due to their mineral substance and microelements content (Zenith), as shown through pressed Beetroot Juice showing a very healthy growth vs last year. It is made from a blend of 90% pressed beetroot juice, with crisp pressed apple juice for a rich and hearty refreshment packed full of vitamin C.
Cawston Press launched the 750ml bottle range in Summer 2022 to cater for those sharing summer moments and has had great responses. Additionally, the brand has just introduced tethered caps to its 1 litre Pressed Juices to make recycling cartons as efficient and effective as possible, ensuring that all caps are disposed of and recycled together with the rest of the packaging. This is part of the Cawston Press Pressing For Better strategy to try and reduce the impact they have on the planet.
In all three of the categories it trades in, it is outperforming the market. Within flavoured carbonates, the market has grown at +12.5% over the last year, whereas Cawston Press carbonates has grown at 19.7%. Furthermore, in the ambient fruit juice category, the market has grown at +5.5% over the last year, whereas Cawston Press’ ambient 1L cartons has grown at 16.9%. Similarly, within ambient juice drinks, the market has grown at 5.9% over the last year, and Cawston Press’ children’s range has grown at +31.0% (Nielsen).
“At Cawston Press we are committed to transparency and simple messaging, and encourage the soft drinks industry to follow suit,” says Jones. “Our latest campaign Life’s Best Pressed highlighted the often misleading messaging and opaque practices that exist within the soft drinks industry. None of that Jiggery Pokery can be found at Cawston Press, where we use simple, pressed fruit with no added sugar, no sweeteners, and no artificial ingredients. There is no cutting corners with concentrate and no fruit fakery, just honest ingredients. We are continuing to encourage shoppers to challenge the soft drinks industry with a commitment to transparency when it comes to what ingredients are used to make these drinks.”
Cawston Press ran a successful ATL campaign in 2022 with its Life’s Best Pressed marketing campaign, which saw the introduction of the tagline No Jiggery Pokery and highlighted that it is possible to create sparkling soft drinks from real, simple ingredients with no misleading language, hidden sweeteners, not using concentrates or added sugar. This campaign was supported by a large-scale sampling campaign, social media activation and PR, and resulted in the highest brand awareness to date (YouGov study Nov 2022). The brand plans to build on this campaign in 2023 reaching more consumers than ever before.
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