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

Spotlight Category: Bottled Water

The cut-over to conventional channels is starting to register for brands like Essentia and CORE, as can be observed in the numbers below. As they gain accounts in mainstream grocery, drug, and warehouse channels, their data gets rolled in with the rest of the category, and the iceberg that’s been forming in the independent and natural channels below that waterline begins to surface. It’s been a long journey for both brands in crowded seas, but premium products are on the rise. Even big-company responses to erstwhile independents, like PepsiCo’s Life WTR, are growing ahead of the category — expect others to appear in the top ranks soon enough.