Some of the top names in Bain & Company’s annual insurgent CPG brands list should seem more than a little familiar: Alani Nu, Ghost, Poppi. Do you sense a theme?
The list tracks brands that are shaking up the marketplace by outpacing category growth and mounting serious challenges to established incumbents. But with so many of these “insurgent” players all recently exiting to larger companies – Ghost to KDP, Poppi to PepsiCo and Alani to Pepsi-aligned Celsius – it begs the question, is the insurgency succeeding? And for that matter, why?
It’s far too early to conclude that the young front is successfully overthrowing the old guard, but one thing is clear – strategics are paying attention and rapidly aligning themselves with insurgent players before they find themselves out in the cold as consumers embrace lower calorie drinks and fresh, colorful branding.
And it’s not just the recently-transacted types that are surging per Bain’s review: Black Rifle Coffee and Bloom (both distributed by KDP) and Fever-Tree (aligned with Molson Coors) also made the list. Those without big partnerships also broadly speak for themselves when it comes to cultural impact – be it Olipop or Liquid Death, many of the insurgents are setting the pace for innovation in their sets and reaping big revenues.
All of this year’s 120 insurgent brands, combined, snagged an outsized share of incremental growth in 2024, according to Bain. They drove 39% of incremental category growth while holding less than 2% of total market share in their respective categories. For comparison, last year’s insurgent brands class drove just 17% of incremental growth in 2023.
Narrowing it down to non-alc bevs, the insurgents were responsible for 32% of category growth with under 3% market share.
“Insurgents achieved this outsized share of growth almost entirely through volume expansion,” Bain reported. “While price increases remained low, insurgent volumes grew close to 60% year-over-year in a market where overall volumes were flat.”
Now there’s the question of where the smaller insurgents go next. New entrants on this year’s list included Sol-ti, Bizzy Cold Brew and Counter Culture. Returning names counted Remedy Organics, MALK and Bucked Up. This week’s Poppi exit has shown there are still hungry buyers out there, and whether or not Coca-Cola decides to start flexing its muscle or smaller companies hop in on the game, the wind is clearly in the sales of the insurgents.
Where do you think these brands will go? What else makes an Insurgent unique? Let us know your thoughts at bavery@bevnet.com.