By Rob Brown rob_j_a_brown@hotmail.com
Publishing: 11 December 2021
Submissions deadline: 19 November 2021
Forget sober October or dry January. People may be giving up the hard stuff during those months, but with health concerns rising many shoppers are trying to cut down year-round. That at least is one of the forces behind the growth in adult soft drinks, up 18.5% to £714m in sales. So what kind of drinks have been doing especially well? What alcohol-free booze is doing especially well from the enthusiasm for sobriety? And can the grocery sector continue to profit from home occasions now that hospitality is fully open?
Health and function: Soft drinks have often been targeted by health campaigners due to their sugar levels. With consumers also taking an interest, how are adult soft drinks positioning themselves in this respect? Touting low levels of sugar and calories is obvious, but many drinks are also advertising their functional benefits including CBD. Are shoppers buying it?
Low/no alcohol: Alcohol-free booze is proving easier to get these days. While before you’d be lucky to find a single can of no alcohol beer behind the bar, now pubs often stock several. Supermarkets are being equally generous with their ranges, and spirits and wine are catered for too. So why are consumers proving so responsive to this category? And why have suppliers proven especially interested this past year?
Own label: Own label continues to comprise a small portion of the category, at around 9%. What’s holding back retailers from challenging brands on adult soft drinks? And will the latter continue to dominate?
Dry January and Sober October: Each year dry January seems to have grown, and sober October is not far behind. But with pubs and bars fully open this winter after some troubled times, are such events as important for boosting adult soft drink sales in grocery?
Post-pandemic habits: With the UK out of lockdown home drinking occasions have moved back to bars and restaurants. But are some of the occasions boosted by lockdown lingering? And how are adult soft drink suppliers responding?
Big beer brands : While low/no alcohol beer has long been produced by smaller batch brewers, the last few years have seen major suppliers join in. Consumers can now get alcohol-free variants of many bestselling lagers, so what’s the impact been on the category?
Kantar data: Using Kantar data we sum up how the category has performed in the past year.
Innovations: Four new products or product ranges that have not appeared in The Grocer, including launch date, rsp, a hi-res pictures
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