Dive Brief:
- The U.S. liquid refreshment beverage market grew 2.2% in volume in 2014 as compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 30.9 billion gallons, according to a report from the Beverage Marketing Corp.
- Bottled water helped in pushing this growth, as aggressive pricing strategies grew the category's volume by 7.3% during the year.
- The largest volume increase came from ready-to-drink canned and bottled coffee drinks, which surged 10.7% last year. RTD coffee still, however, represents only a small segment of sales of all packaged beverages.
Dive Insight:
In contrast, carbonated soft drinks and fruit beverages both lost volume last year, 1% and 2.8% respectively. This brought soft drinks' market share down from just under 43% to a little over 41%. The main beneficiary? Bottled water, according to BevNet, which makes sense as more consumers are turning away from highly sweetened beverages and favoring healthier options, like water, instead.