It may be a new year, but it is expected that the trends in the beverage category identified in 2020 or already grown over the past year will continue and develop further.
According to Matt Donnelly, National Manager Category and Channel Strategy for Coca-Cola Amatil, four key consumer trends are having a significant impact on the retail beverage landscape.
The first of these is "home protection" with an increasing trend towards home work and study (exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19 restrictions).
According to Donnelly, that trend resulted in a 4.4 percent growth in the beverage category in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to 2.8 percent in the first quarter (IRI Australia Grocery Weighted excluding ALDI, $ growth, QTR through 11/22/20).
The next trend he leads is increasing health awareness, which is accelerating the growth of the nutritional segments in all categories many times over when compared to regular beverage ranges.
"For example," says Donnelly, "diet variants of soft drinks grow four times faster than normal." In fact, flavored CSDs are growing 25 percent versus 0.4 percent for the regular alternatives (IRI Australia Grocery Weighted without ALDI, $ Growth, MAT through 11/22/20). "
Another trend is the “energy demand”.
"The energy (beverages) category now accounts for 29 percent of total gasoline and convenience sales," says Donnelly. “68 percent of the growth in this category comes from NPD as consumers are excited to try new formats and flavors. ”
The last trend noted by Mr Donnelly is electronic commerce.
"We are seeing an increasing digitization of all aspects of life, which has been accelerated by the effects of Covid-19," he says. "For example, sales of e-commerce beverages are growing ten times faster than sales of stationary beverages (CCA Business Intelligence MAT Nov 2020)."
Read more about beverages in the latest issue of Retail World.
