Meanwhile, Pepsi Faces Turbulence in Latest Soda Results at Retail
August 2, 2022
As consumers face unprecedented 40-year-high price inflation for everything from gas to groceries, beverage industry watchers have kept their eyes on an important canary in the coal mine for branded drinks – growth in private label offerings. When consumers’ bank accounts are pressured, they look to lower-priced store brands to stretch the grocery budget. This year had been different, as shoppers for many...
You’ll note an extreme focus on carbonated soft drink pricing in today’s newsletter. That’s because there is no shortage of news, and soft drinks remain a massive and profitable category for US manufacturers and retailers.
On page 7, bottlers discuss the recent Memorial Day holiday weekend and how soda consumers and retailers are responding to higher list prices and fewer “hot” promotional deals. BD shares what we learned from an informal survey. The news so far is positive, even if precarious.
On page 10, we publish our annual soft drink concentrate pricing review, which reflects the inflationary environment facing the industry and its stakeholders. Increases for major soda brands like Coca- Cola, PepsiCo, and Dr Pepper as high as...
Private Label CSDs Fails to Make Inroads Amid Inflationary Crisis
June 7, 2022
Private label carbonated soft drinks (CSD) at US retail were unable to make progress in the first quarter of this year even though shoppers are facing unprecedented inflation at the grocery. As shown in the table, Private label CSD dollar sales barely grew in a category that was up more than...
The return to restaurants in 2021, following pandemic lockdowns the year before, helped generate good news as you will see in today’s special issue and BD’s newly released Fact Book 27th Edition.
All major beverage categories, including carbonated soft drinks, posted...
Sprite Passes Diet Coke in Top-10 CSD Ranking, Nearly Tied With Dr Pepper
May 16, 2022
Annually, BD publishes estimated volume and value sales data for the US liquid refreshment beverages (LRB) market, as well as categories including carbon- ated soft drinks (CSD), and energy drinks. The data included in this special issue estimates beverage sales for all measured and unmeasured channels, including packaged retail, foun- tain, and vending. At retail, drinks measured are generally single-serve, direct-store-delivered (DSD) beverages. The fountain channel includes restaurants, sports and entertainment venues, and other foodservice outlets. BD now includes chilled juice in this report and in the annual Fact Book (available for purchase HERE)...
PepsiCo CFO Speaks To Strategy Behind Recently Disclosed Investment
March 17, 2022
In December, PepsiCo disclosed for the first time a stake in online bulk grocery retailer Boxed. The disclosure was prompted by the start of trading for Boxed as a public company by way of a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. PepsiCo had first invested in the privately held Boxed ...
Last year’s US carbonated soft drink market notched unprecedented retail pricing growth, driving up category dollar sales by +8.1% on volume that declined -1.1%, according to BD data. As the table below shows, CSD pricing jumped +9.3% in 2021, which represented...
Plus, PepsiCo Soft Drink Concentrate Pricing Up +7.5% for 2022
February 9, 2022
Niagara, the country’s largest private label bottled water producer and a co-packer for companies including Coca-Cola, informed retailers this week that rising input costs will force a wholesale price increase on March 1. Niagara is battling higher supplier costs for...