I know the question was put earlier about what Glaceau means to Coke but I want to hear what you guys think it means when it is reversed.

I was looking at Glaceau's portfolio and I saw a ton of SKU's in the Vitamin water brand alone.
I think Coke will discontinue many flavors and concentrate on the better performers.
I also noticed that the Smart Water Brand had a lot of differnet sizes. I think Coke will kill some of those off as well.

you're probably right. there's only so much room on the shelf and in the trucks. so that may be the down side to some customers.

on the upside... coke will give glaceau products a wider distribution and more exposure, which will almost surely increase sales significantly.

Originally Posted by greg

I know the question was put earlier about what Glaceau means to Coke but I want to hear what you guys think it means when it is reversed.

I was looking at Glaceau's portfolio and I saw a ton of SKU's in the Vitamin water brand alone.
I think Coke will discontinue may flavors and concentrate on the better performers.
I also noticed that the Smart Water Brand had a lot of differnet sizes. I think Coke will kill some of those off as well.

We carry 11 vitaminwaters here and I wish we had 5 more flavors... they all sell amazingly well, sure a few edge to the top but its nothing like the piecharts I'm used to looking at where certain flavors dominate others... given the same time periods they all almost sold equally only off by a few percent on each flavor top to bottom... it was amazing... (up triple digits)

Smartwater is actually growing very strongly compared to where it was a year ago, I mean anytime you can grow something triple digits, its not a dog to throw to the side... its not as strong as vitaminwater is overall, but when you look at the growth in the last year you can't help but want to throw everything out there... (just for reference, plain old smartwater outsells sobe's lifewater in dollar sales, catching up and almost passing dasani flavors) (also up triple digits after a years distribution)

Now fruitwater... okay I never saw any appeal to this from customers, it was just a try it once and forget it item to them... most immediately switch to vitaminwater or smartwater, they've since lowered pricing on it to make it more of a value to consumers (compared to being an equal with vitaminwater) and its helped pickup sales but not going to be a huge focus I'm sure.. but when its up triple digits its hard to say forget it, they'll give it a whirl as its catching up on the coat tails of lifewater. (also up triple digits after a years distribution)

Now my printed numbers are a quarter or two old, but just from talking to other reps and watching my sales, its exceeding my expectations still, I'm going to go cry in a corner now over losing glaceau.

Arm chair question (I'm not familiar with this catagory.)

What approximately is the percentage sales (gross) of water and flavored water
as compared to the over all soft drink catagory? By retail sales and bottler sales?

Will water,flavored water and sports drinks approach those percentage sales of soda pop and energy drinks?

Hey Zabe...
Not sure if I can answer all of those questions...but here is a look at 2006 category sales at a grocery account here in SoCal...

Soft Drinks - $118 mil
P.E.T. Water - $54 mil
Jug/Bulk Water - $15 mil
*Enhanced Water* - $11 mil (growing at 107%)

In this market, enhanced water will pass up bulk water this year (my opinion). The growth is phenomenal and the potential for both retailers and bottlers cannot be ignored.

C-Store....long time no see.
Thanks for shedding some light on
the growth of enhanced water of one
of your accounts.

Now another question. LOL
What is the approximate net profit
for enhanced water per unit as compared
to a unit of soda pop? IMO the bottlers must
be thinking that EW is like Manna found on
the ancient desert.

Apples to apples, I'd say the profit on a 20oz soda compared to a 20oz vitaminwater favors the soda. Taking all packages into consideration, vitaminwater would obviously trump soda.

Vitaminwater has chosen a few smart packages to grow their share without eroding profit too much - the 32oz bottle and the 4 pack of 12oz bottles.

The biggest discount I've seen on vitaminwater around here was a Wal-Mart promo where they sold shrinkwrapped 12 packs for $9.99. But that was offset by lower labor costs (not having to handle each bottle individually) as well as the customer buying 12 bottles at once, versus maybe 2 or 3. They flew out of the stores around here.

and he says he has on an average 75 cases on his truck daily. It is a low volume beer distibutor who has it(they've had a rough year by the way. They lost Monster, Cadburry products, and now this is a year) and I could see us doubling that possibly.

Kinda off-topic, I work for a grocery chain that just introduced 6-packs of flavored water for $1.99. I looked at the cost... and it is only .28 a 6-pack! Thats crazy...86% Now you know why these companies love water!

Originally Posted by ScottyLibido

Kinda off-topic, I work for a grocery chain that just introduced 6-packs of flavored water for $1.99. I looked at the cost... and it is only .28 a 6-pack! Thats crazy...86% Now you know why these companies love water!

Well I don't know what size bottles these are but I have a feeling that 28 cents could be per bottle and not per 6pack... the plastic packaging would cost more than 28 cents for 6 with filtered water and flavoring and delivery etc etc etc.... it could have been priced per unit with them thinking a bottle is a unit not a 6pack...

Now if I happen to be wrong please let me know the source so I could start selling this by the semi load to stores around the country, or just to get the bottles.