Off-trade sales of soft drinks were stagnating at a regional level in Western Europe in 2024, given the declines being seen in some of the biggest country markets like Germany and France. In addition to the maturity in major categories like bottled water and carbonates, the cost-of-living crisis due to high inflation in recent years has been putting pressure on consumer spending power. Nevertheless, health and wellness continues to play an ever increasing role in Western European soft drinks.
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This report comes in PPT.
While the health and wellness trend is helping boost demand for reduced- and zero-sugar products, the Italian market has also seen the recent introduction of a number of new functional bottled water products, including San Benedetto Aquaprotein (protein, zinc, magnesium), Acqua Sant'Anna Pro (protein and zinc), and Vitasnella Le Linfe (magnesium, potassium, vitamins, no added sugar, citric flavour).
Modern grocery retailers continue to dominate distribution across most of Western Europe, with discounters tending to gain share in recent years in a number of regional markets impacted by high inflation, including Germany and Turkey. Both discounter chains Aldi and Lidl have bigger sales shares than leading brand manufacturer Coca-Cola in the German market, with supermarket player Rewe in fourth place at the NBO level in this country.
Although inflation has been easing in Western Europe, consumers in a number of countries remain relatively price sensitive. For example, costs, and therefore also prices, were still rising in Germany in 2024, which was affecting consumption behaviour, with many shoppers shifting to more affordable options such as private label, or waiting for promotions and discounts at retailers.
A sugar tax of EUR0.05 per litre on sugarised soft drinks was expected to be introduced in Italy from 2025, rising to EUR0.10 per litre in 2026. This could impact demand for soft drinks, especially carbonates. The sugar tax is likely to push manufacturers to focus on their reduced-sugar and sugar-free products, possibly also combining this with more specific health and wellness claims, such as high protein/energy boosting.
This is the aggregation of the following categories; Carbonates, Fruit/vegetable juice, Bottled water, Functional drinks, Concentrates, RTD tea, RTD coffee and Asian speciality drinks.
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