Non-alcoholic beverage sales continued to rise over the two-week period ended on June 13, increasing 13% from the same time frame last year, according to an analysis of Nielsen data by Goldman Sachs Equity Research.
The data suggests that “at home consumption trends continue to be robust despite the on-premise channel starting to open,” according to the report.
PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company and Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) all enjoyed strong performances at retail during the first weeks of June; more importantly, all three corporations saw both sales and volume accelerating from the weeks prior. For Pepsi, total company sales (including snacks) were up 10.1% over the two-week period, up from 8.5% over four weeks. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola and KDP reported a 14.2% and 17.5% increase, respectively, over the two weeks.
The broadly positive trends in beverage were reflected in the performance of individual categories. According to Nielsen, CSDs (excluding energy) enjoyed a 16% increase in sales over the two weeks, with volume up 12.3% and pricing rising 3.4%. Coca-Cola (16.3%), Pepsi (12%) and KDP (22.5%) all posted sales gains, with the latter reporting the largest movement in both volume (17.2%) and price (4.6%) during the period.
Meanwhile, bottled water arrested its recent slide and grew 4.2% over the two weeks. Coca-Cola reports a 2% rise in sales (after falling 4.3% in the four weeks and 14.3% in the 12 weeks), with price falling 2.7%. Nestle, which recently announced plans to divest some brands from its regional portfolio, fell 3.7% in sales and 5.6% in volume.
Sports drinks and sparkling flavored water were also among the fastest growing categories. For the former, sales rose 21.3% in the two weeks (up from 12.6% in the four weeks), while volume picked up by 13.6%. Sales for Pepsi (18.5%), Coca-Cola (6.2%) and BODYARMOR (55.4%) all continued to trend upward.
In sparkling flavored water, overall sales climbed 23.4% over the two weeks, against an average price increase of 3.1%. The category spread sales gains generously across brands, including Talking Rain (27.4%), National Beverage Corp. (24.7%), Pepsi (20.3%), Polar (24%), Coca-Cola (105.9%) and Spindrift (66.9%).
Consumers in the U.S. continued to seek out energy drinks over recent weeks; sales picked up 9.9% over the two week period, versus 7.8% in the four weeks. But individual brand performance varied widely: Bang slowed its decline, but still fell by 12.4% in the two weeks, while Red Bull outperformed the category and accelerated its pace by growing sales 20%, against a volume increase of 21.5% and a 1.2% drop in average pricing. Elsewhere, Monster reported a 7.2% increase in sales and a 11.5% drop in average pricing.
Finally, led by sales gains from Pepsi-Starbucks (21%), Danone (34.3%) and Califia Farms (14.3%), RTD coffee grew 17.4% over the two weeks, against a volume gain of 18.6% and an average sales dip of around 1%.