Bharat Book Bureau

Carbonated and concentrated soft drinks, known colloquially in the UK as `fizzy drinks’ and `squash’, account for more than half of the soft drinks market (in terms of both value and volume. These are long-established drinks, usually sold to the consumer under famous brand names, either international or British, such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Lucozade, Irn-Bru and Ribena.

Sales of carbonates and concentrates were worth £7.58bn in 2007, representing 56.1% of the £13.5bn soft drinks sector. Their market value has declined since 2003 (by 3.5%). The main cause of this shift has been the trend towards simple bottled water, fresh fruit juice and fashionable `smoothies’: products that appeal to health-conscious consumers avoiding sugary food products.

Health awareness has driven demand since 2000, both from consumers and at governmental level (e.g. legislation on the sale of unhealthy drinks in schools, and on their advertising on television during children’s programmes). New products tend to have a low-sugar or healthy, natural message, examples including Coca-Cola Zero and the latest version of Pepsi, branded as Pepsi Raw.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the largest brands, and their manufacturers also produce many other types of drink, giving them more than half of the UK soft drinks market by retail sales value. Pepsi is made for the UK market by Britvic, a quoted British company, which also owns the leading squash brand, Robinsons, and Tango fruit carbonates. Coca-Cola Enterprises also has a wide range of brands, including Fanta, Sprite and Lilt.

Whereas squash is sold mainly through grocers, particularly for families, carbonates are very widely distributed in both `take-home’ stores and the catering trades (public houses, restaurants, etc.), where profit margins are much higher than in grocers.

The future holds challenges for these drinks but the multinational operators behind them have the resources to invest appropriately in areas including: added-value, premium products; innovative drinks and packaging; and healthy, natural drinks, produced and packaged with environmental sustainability taken into consideration. Value growth of 19.5% is predicted for the total market for carbonated and concentrated soft drinks between 2008 and 2012.

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