Was it something we said? Goldman Sachs has changed up its ongoing coverage of non-alcoholic beverage sales data (through May 3) as provided by NielsenIQ, and it’s a little bit less detailed than we’re used to seeing. Here’s what you need to know:
📊 Some categories enjoyed a sales lift during the Easter holiday: in the 4-wks, CSDs (+6.5%), energy drinks (see below), and non-alc beer (+25.6%) picked up speed. Tea (+7.1%) and sparkling water (+8%) also rose.
That wasn’t the case in sports drinks (-3.9% for 4-wks) or RTD coffee (-4.1%).
Growth slowed across the spectrum in the 2-wks, with the exception of a slight reversal for sports drinks (-3.1%).
Coca-Cola (+6.9% for 4-wks) and KDP (+6.1%) were both up, but Pepsi slipped 3%.
⚡ The Goldman data set doesn’t break down by category, so we can’t tell how much a portfolio like KDP (C4/Ghost/Bloom/Black Rifle) is driving energy drink growth (+10.4% for 2-wks/+11.1% for 4-wks) or how sales gains are reflected in volume and pricing.
Celsius was at pains to accentuate rebounding numbers during its earnings call earlier this month, though Nielsen’s figures show sales falling in the 2-wks by 2.7% (compared to +3.6% in the 4-wks) and a deepening slowdown in velocity at -11.3% (compared to -7.6% in the 4-wks). As of last month, the two-year stacked sales are up 46.5%.
🥥 Coconut water hasn’t felt the pinch of on-again, off-again tariff policies, or at least not yet; unlike most categories, dollar sales picked up a half-point from the 4-wks to a healthy +20.5% in the 2-wks.
Category leader Vita Coco grew sales 22.4% in the 4-wks (+23% last month) with velocity running at 35.8%.