Dive Brief:
- The U.S. liquid refreshment beverage market grew 2.8% to nearly 32 billion gallons in 2015, faster than the 2.2% growth the market posted in 2014, according to preliminary data released by the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
- Bottled water was a standout category, posting relatively high growth for a category of its large size at 7.9%. Bottled water could become the top beverage category by volume as early as this year, BMC concluded in its report.
- RTD coffee was the fastest-growing category with a 16.5% jump in volume last year, and sports drinks followed with 9.8% growth.
Dive Insight:
RTD coffee was driven in part by the fast growth of the cold brew coffee segment last year. U.S. sales for cold brew coffee grew 115% from the year before and was estimated to post growth of 339% from 2010 through the end of last year, according to a Mintel report last September. RTD tea has been a similarly popular category, though its growth was 6.1% in 2015.
Carbonated soft drinks and fruit beverages contracted, at 1.5% and 2.1% volume, respectively. This was reflected in the volume declines of the four leading beverage brands, all of which are soda brands: Coca-Cola's Coke (-2.6%), PepsiCo's Pepsi (-3.9%), PepsiCo's Mountain Dew (-1.0%), and Dr Pepper Snapple Group's Dr Pepper (-0.8%). Coca-Cola's Sprite brand, however, grew 2.4% in volume.
The fastest-growing brands in the top 10 were all bottled water brands: PepsiCo's Aquafina (11.4%), Coca-Cola's Dasani (7.0%), and Nestle Waters North America's Poland Springs (5.8%) and Nestle Pure Life (5.3%).
Notably, the fastest two bottled water brands came from companies traditionally known as soda makers. That demonstrates how important this category and categories like sports drinks (PepsiCo's Gatorade also made the top 10 brands), RTD tea, cold-pressed juices, and other beverage innovations will be for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to maintain sales and volumes going forward as consumers seek alternatives to soda.