Take-home bottled water sales continue to perform strongly, up 6.9% in value compared with the 3.4% average in total grocery. Over three-quarters of UK households have bought bottled water in the past year, a 0.9% rise on the previous year. 

Key drivers for growth this year were flavoured sparkling water, up 19.7%, and the spike in penetration during the heatwave this summer. 

However, category growth has slowed compared with last year due to a few category-wide challenges, including reformulated soft drinks becoming more permissible and shoppers moving away from plastic. 

Furthermore, while shoppers continue to choose bottled water over ambient juices and energy/sports drinks, bottled water's gain from soft drinks has slowed.

Some retailers' category growth has also slowed compared with last year. For example, the Co-op has shown the second-greatest growth of the retailers, up 7.4%. But this is much slower than the growth it saw the year beforehand, when it was up 25.4%. 

Several retailers, including Aldi, Lidl, Iceland and Waitrose, have seen performance dip from double-digit growth last year to either decline or marginal growth this year. 

The big four grocers, on the other hand, excelled in their performance, with both Tesco and Asda seeing substantial growth of 7.3% and 12.3% respectively.

Private label bottled waters did particularly well this year. Value of own label shot up 8.1%, driven primarily by the sales performance of plain still, which is up 10.3%. 

Own-label efforts were focused on smaller still water multipacks and large still water singles, boosting value sales for the two sectors by 14.8% and 13.1% respectively. 

This growth far outpaced their branded counterparts, with sales of branded smaller still water multipacks dropping 11.4% and branded large still water singles only managing 2.3% growth over the same period.

Iona White, Kantar Worldpanel

Consumption of bottled water including on-the-go sales rose to exceed 2.2 billion litres in 2018, according to Nielsen figures. 

Last year saw many new launches that tapped new consumer trends, including rising demand for carbonated and flavoured water products. There was also a diversification in pack formats, with more canned and glass propositions.

These trend-led propositions are growing faster than the rest, with functional sparkling water increasing its value by 34% and canned propositions tripling in volume sold. 

However, these remain small markets and still plain water accounts for nearly three-quarters of overall volume. 

Along with growing preferences for recyclable packaging such as cans, there is rising awareness of reusable and zero-waste packaging. Still, 99% of water bottles bought in 2018 were made of plastic. 

The trend for low and no-sugar drinks resulted in some successful reformulations, such as Volvic's Touch of Fruit. 

But some brands didn't fare so well, with Evian and Robinsons Fruit Shoot both losing volume sales. 

Evian, which only plays in the still plain water category, missed the opportunity to become part of new drinking occasions. For Robinsons Fruit Shoot, a change in packaging and multivitamin mix may have hindered its Hydro range's performance. 

Vasilena Daskalova, Nielsen

Price is typically more important for sales in bottled water than other fmcg categories, according to Shopper Intelligence analysis. However, the insight group found bottled water purchases were less reliant on promotions than grocery overall. 

A key factor in deals being less important in bottled water sales is that water is not an "elastic" category. "More indulgent snacking and drinks sectors like juices, crisps and confectionery are elastic consumption - the more shoppers buy these products, the more of them they'll eat," says Jeremy Garlick, partner at Shopper Intelligence. "That means they respond very well to promotions, but that's not the case in bottled water." 

Most bottled water shoppers purchase water routinely, making them less concerned with price deals. "These shoppers prioritise a fixed low price and finding the product quickly in store," says Garlick. 

Shoppers were found to rate Tesco marginally ahead of Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons on bottled water prices, likely due to the extensive range provided by the retailer. "Tesco's water aisle provides an option for every price point, from its discount Stockwell & Co two-litre at 17p to San Pellegrino, which is 16 times pricier at £1.35 for one litre," says Garlick.

Source: Shopper Intelligence February 2019

Base: 403  shoppers (bottled water) and 78,700 shoppers (store average, 181 categories)