Plus: IRI Sees Return To Parity Between At-Home And Away-From Home Food Sales. Late in the first quarter of this year, US soft drink retail sales begin to cycle the impact of pandemic-related pantry loading last year. To get a baseline understanding of the extent to which elevated retail sales are sticking now that pandemic lockdowns are easing, BD compared data from the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2019 (instead of 2020).

CFO Expects Sales Growth Momentum to Offset Higher Costs For Now. Marketing Spend on the Rise, CEO Says. Also, ‘Happy” With Polar Seltzer Velocity. Yesterday, Keurig Dr Pepper reported first quarter organic revenue growth of +11%, which follows +6.4% growth in the fourth quarter of last year. Here's what else we learned...

Walmart, Costco Decline as Target, Kroger Outperform YTD 2021. Pandemic-related uncertainty this year has weighed on beverage stocks tracked by BD through the close of trading on April 27. Most, including...

Progress in Away-From-Home Consumption Key for Coke, PepsiCo Companies Confident in Pricing Strength Amid Commodity Inflation. On April 15, PepsiCo reported first-quarter earnings results, followed by Coca-Cola yesterday. Both reports were complicated in various ways by the lapping of pandemic pantry loading last year. The companies are now...

Higher pricing has helped beverage makers offset volume declines against unusually high comparisons generated by last year’s pandemic-driven consumer stock up. US all- channel retail data...

Coke system bottlers in the US have warned of a retail customer backlash and expressed frustration at Coca-Cola for speaking out about a new voting law in the company’s home state of Georgia. In recent statements...