● The growth in dairy drinks is primarily being driven by a 2.7% increase in the average price per litre and shoppers buying the category more often.

● Flavoured milk has seen the highest absolute growth, up by more than £15m to £156.7m. The growth was particularly driven by NPD in the smaller own-label flavoured milks market, which grew by 27.3% in value to be worth £47.1m.

●Dairy alternatives and other yoghurt drinks are also seeing double-digit growth. 

● Levels of promotional activity have tapered off, particularly in flavoured milk, active health drinks and other yoghurt drinks.

● Among the retailers, Waitrose overtrades most significantly in dairy drinks and is growing at 7.3%. Although Lidl, M&S and Iceland all undertrade, they each delivered double-digit growth.

Stepahnie Sims/Kantar World Panel

● Actimel has suffered from the overall poor performance of active health drinks in the past year, though it remains by far the largest brand in dairy drinks.

● Yazoo was one of the star performers with brand owner Friesland Campina citing a keen focus on marketing and on the consumer as the reasons for its success. Yazoo’s no-added sugar range has contributed to growth.

● Starbucks is successfully appealing to the grab and go market. The brand delivered the highest absolute growth of the category (£61.m) with its iced coffee retail range 'Chilled Classics', which includes staples such as Caffe Latte and Doubleshot Espresso.

●Müller has been trying to reverse falling sales of its Frijj brand. In 2017, it reformulated and rebranded the Frijj range, replacing its ‘40% less sugar’ lineup with ‘no added sugar’ variants. It also shrank its existing 471ml Frijj bottles, replacing them with smaller on-the-go 400ml bottles, and launched a new 900ml portion size.

● Mars is another brand that has failed to sparkle during the past 12 months. It hopes the introduction of price marked packs for its Snickers and M&M’s Peanut 350ml products will create an opportunity for retailers to benefit from more impulse sales.

IRI data

● Brands’ ad investment topped £10m in 2017, which put spending broadly on a par with 2016 levels.

● Cravendale was the largest advertiser with nearly £3m in spend – but it’s a significant drop from the year before. 

● Effective marketing has been a key driver of Yazoo’s success. Much of its Shake It Up campaign has been activated through digital channels.

● Müller, meanwhile, launched 900ml Frijj SKUs in January, which it plans to support with online activation and a strong promotional campaign.

● Notable investment has also been made by The A2 Milk Company, in a bid to replicate its success in Australia in the UK.

Source: ebiquity