Soft drinks market holds extra £2.4bn potential – Britvic

The beverage manufacturer, which boasts brands such as Robinsons Fruit Squash and J2O, revealed a three-pronged strategy to boost growth in its Britvic Soft Drink Review, published yesterday.

The plan focuses on developing opportunities by better targeting consumer needs, point of purchase offerings and daily occasions when drinks are consumed.

Under the heading of consumer needs, the firm claimed more could be done to meet demand for products that boosted vitality, fuelled kids and attracted shoppers aged 35 and over.

Individual tastes​

Britvic said growth could be achieved by developing products that complemented daily occasions such as meals and social get-togethers more effectively, as well as by tailoring them more for individual tastes.

And it claimed sales of products positioned near till points could be boosted by targeting seasons and events better and making them so inspirational they could snap shoppers out of autopilot mode.

Drinks processors could add £748M to soft drinks sales by doing a better job at point of sale, according to Britvic.

Biggest prize​

It said main stock-up shops offered the biggest prize in terms of incremental category growth: £1bn. This was swiftly followed by £598M available through meeting demand for immediate refreshment and £385M up for grabs in the eating out sector.

Britvic recognised that soft drinks was a mature UK category, so creating growth was hard.

However, the firm’s director of category Claire Handford-Jones added: “Our goal is to continue to work in partnership with customers to create solutions that change shopper and consumer behaviours through better meeting needs, unlocking occasions and inspiring at point of purchase.​

“By doing this, we believe the category is in a great position to unlock incremental sales of £2.4bn by 2020 and look forward to working with our customers to capitalise on this huge and exciting growth opportunity.”​

Britvic claimed value sales of UK soft drinks rose 2% to £10.3bn last year [Nielsen Scantrack data, 52 w/e December 28, 2013]. It said grocery and convenience retailers generated the bulk of that – more than £7.5bn – with leisure outlets such as pubs and bars making up the rest.

In November, Britvic announced full-year results​, claiming 4.4% revenue growth in the 52 weeks to September 29 and 18.4%, having recovered from a major 2012 Fruit Shoot recall and last year’s abortive merger with AG Barr.