’You Need More People’ to Grow, CEO Tells Barclays Audience
September 14, 2023
Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey and North America President Jennifer Mann sat down on Sept 7 for an on-stage interview with equities analyst Lauren Lieberman at the Barclays Consumer Staples Conference in Boston. A key message from Quincey and Mann was Coca-Cola’s pursuit of...
When Kevin Keane joined the American Beverage Association in 2005 as SVP of policy and public affairs, industry issues were well focused on a single category. “We were talking largely about soda pop,” he recalled last week in an interview after being named the U.S. trade group’s CEO late last month. “Now there are so many different products that we're ...
Gatorade Water Marks Brand’s First Entry into Unflavored, Unsweetened Bottled Water Market
September 7, 2023
PepsiCo’s Gatorade brand is jumping into the alkaline bottled water market with an electrolyte-infused entry called Gatorade Water to be available early next year. The product will be the brand’s first ever...
Mexico, Other Global Markets to Follow Using ‘26 World Cup as ‘Launching Pad,’ BodyArmor CEO Says
September 6, 2023
Coca-Cola will launch BodyArmor sports drink across Canada in January 2024, marking the US brand’s first international expansion since BodyArmor’s 2011 founding and Coke’s late 2021 takeover. “One of the first goals of the...
Wall Street analysts are on high alert for shifts in pricing and volume trends within the US consumer packaged goods sectors, including beverages. A worst-case scenario would be decelerating pricing growth without a corresponding bump in volume performance, which would depress dollar sales growth trends. In an Aug. 22 report, A/B Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott summed up the current state-of-play this way: “With the period of ...
Pure Life, Smartwater, Arizona Show Dollar Growth Leadership
August 30, 2023
All non-carbonated beverage categories tracked by BD grew pricing and dollars at retail during the first six months of this year, according to BD data. As shown in the table below, all categories also posted a volume decline. Sports drinks posted the largest dollar and pricing gains, as well as the deepest volume decline (see related story HERE). Bottled water outperformed all other categories on a volume basis...
Defense Will Require Innovation, Agility. Meanwhile, Model Behind Prime Hydration Confounds Industry Leaders
August 30, 2023
PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, the country’s No. 1 and No. 2 sports drink makers, face challenges on two fronts. On one side sits Electrolit, which has taken share by appealing to consumer desire for greater functionality and by embracing Hispanic consumers. On the other side sits Prime Hydration, which rose to...
Turning Point? Pricing, Dollar Gains Decelerate. Volume Loss Widens.
August 9, 2023
The US carbonated soft drink category at retail raised pricing by a high-double-digit percentage during the first half of 2023, generating +13.2% dollar sales growth. Volume declined by -3.5%, however. Meanwhile, as shown in the table, private label soft drinks gained volume share against category leader Coca-Cola and No. 2 PepsiCo. Keurig Dr Pepper posted a slight share gain, bringing the company’s CSD portfolio within three
Monster to Slim Bang Portfolio, Broaden Manufacturing Range
August 9, 2023
On July 31, Monster Beverage completed its $362 million acquisition of bankrupt Bang Energy owner Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX). Last week, Monster confirmed that Coca-Cola and its bottlers will distribute Bang globally, with a US rollout to begin this quarter. “As a result, there will be a
Beverage pricing growth in the US for both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo is likely to decelerate during the second half of this year, mostly as the rate of input cost inflation slows, according to those companies’ leaders. During analyst calls and interviews with BD during the recent spate of second-quarter earnings reports, executives said pricing for the second half of this year will be driven primarily by increases already