Coca-Cola continues to lead an overall rebound in dollar sales of carbonated soft drinks (CSD), according to Wells Fargo Securities’ latest report covering Nielsen sales data. In the four-week period ending 12/20/14, overall CSD dollar sales saw only an increase of .1 percent, but Coca-Cola was able to eke out 1.0 percent growth in its own CSD dollar sales.
The narrow increase marks the CSD category’s sixth consecutive month of dollar sales growth. As she has in previous months, Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Bonnie Herzog, who authored the report, credited the sustained rise to Coke’s pricing initiatives, saying “We believe [Coca-Cola’s] ongoing pricing discipline will continue to support CSD sales growth.”
Dr Pepper Snapple Group also saw a bump, with a .7 percent increase in soda dollar sales. However, despite overall company dollar sales increasing by 1.0 percent, PepsiCo’s soda sales saw a 1.7 percent decline for the period. Strong performance from Gatorade accounted for an 8.8 percent growth in the PepsiCo’s sports drinks dollar sales.
Monster Beverage’s dollar sales have returned to double-digit growth, up 14.6 percent in the four-week period and boosting overall energy drink dollar sales by 12.5 percent. In October, the company’s growth had softened to 9.0 percent and in November, Monster saw an even more significant decline in growth, with total company dollar sales up a mere 5.7 percent. At the time, Herzog attributed the decline to “an anomaly of timing of promos,” adding that she expected sales growth to return to double digits. Now, Herzog is “encouraged by [Monster’s] solid results, particularly given the decline in promos this period.” Monster sold 28.9 percent of its volume on promotion this period, whereas it had sold 31.4 percent on promo during the four weeks prior.