Soft Drinks on Steady Climb as Bottled Water Moves Toward $125B

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Total global retail soft drink sales notched a steady increase from 2005 to 2010, rising from $435 billion to $504 billion in that five-year span, according to MarketResearch.com's new report "Growth Opportunities in Soft Drinks."

The report found that traditional categories such as carbonates are stagnating in developed-world markets. In addition, the trend to drive consumers to premium categories such as energy drinks and smoothies has fallen victim to the recession and discretionary consumer spending cuts in many developed economies, according to MarketResearch.com.

Looking ahead, the fastest growing drinks category from 2010 to2015 will be functional drinks, which will see 5 percent growth per year to reach $61 billion. Bottled water will grow at 4.8 percent driving the total market to $125 billion, while concentrates will be the third-fastest-growing category at 3.3 percent, the report said.

In addition, the report points out that low or no growth in most western economies is a given for the next three years. In the short term, rising Chinese consumer spending creates opportunities in the beverage sector, but in the long run it is likely to lead to Chinese drinks companies that represent serious competition to existing market players, not just in China but worldwide.

 

X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds