Beverage Companies Attempt to Maintain Sales in the US and Western Europe with New Products
Sales of traditional carbonated sodas are flat or declining in the United States and much of Western Europe. In 2005, for the first time in 20 years the number of cases of soda sold in the United States declined. Case volume in 2005 was down 0.7 percent, to 10.2 billion cases. Coke's flagship brand, Coca-Cola Classic, was down 2 percent, and original Pepsi from PepsiCo was down 3.2 percent.”1 This trend is continuing; when Coca-Cola reported its first quarter profits and sales in April of 2007, it stated that “sales in North America, as measured by unit case volume growth, declined 3 percent.”2 Soft drink companies are not giving up, however, on sales growth in the US and Europe. CocaCola Co. and PepsiCo have created new soft drinks to combat declining sales growth of traditional carbonated soft drinks in these regions of the world. These “substitute beverages” include such products as vitamin waters, fruit drinks, and energy drinks. As consumers in North America and Europe move away from traditional soda, many are simply switching to “enhanced” water beverages. “Sales of enhanced water jumped from $80 million in 2001 to $245 million the following year, and could top $600 million in the next year or so, according to New York-based Beverage Marketing Corp.”3 “While carbonated soda's share of the market is shrinking, alternative beverage sales are jumping as much as 50% a year. And energy drink sales are advancing even faster.”4 On first blush, these beverages may appear to be healthy alternatives to soda, however the reality is that many of them have nutritional profiles that are almost as bad, if not as bad, as traditional carbonated soda pop.

1

Warner, Melanie. Soda Sales Fall for First Time in 20 Years. New York Times. March 9, 2006.