Channel Check: What’s Hot and What’s Not

SPOTLIGHT CATEGORY: ENERGY DRINK MIXES AND SPORTS DRINK MIXES

Looking for some of the fastest growing brands in the sports and energy drink categories? They might just be hanging from alligator clips outside the cooler door. That’s right, mix-to-drink products are continuing to gain in these functional spaces. In fact, Liquid IV, at nearly $800 million, would be the 4th-biggest sports drink brand, ahead of both Prime and Electrolit. Of course, having a corporate parent in Unilever doesn’t hurt distribution, but the entire category is filling in around it. On the energy side, growth is slightly milder but not bad — and is largely reflected as a supplement to liquid brands, like Prime and Celsius.