Top-10 U.S. Soft Drink
Companies and Brands for 2000.

Coke and Pepsi Post Modest CSD Growth.
Cadbury Out-Paces Industry But Dr Pepper Slows.

Diet Colas Gain Most Share. Industry Volume Up +0.2%.
Retail Value Climbs +4%. Cott Tops Share Growth.

In 2000, U.S. CSD volume grew +0.2% to 9.95 bil 192-oz cases, according to BD/Maxwell all-channel data.  Sluggish growth rate was even slower than +0.5% increase in 1999 (BD 2/18/00) and far lower than industry's +3% growth in 1998 (BD 2/12/99).  As in 1999, Cadbury's Dr Pepper/Seven Up unit (DPSU) posted top share and volume performance among major brand owners.  But private label (PL) producer Cott gained most share among top companies, up +0.2.  Coke and Pepsi eked out slim volume growth and posted flat market shares as their bottlers raised retail pricing.  Retail value.  BD estimates industry retail value up +4% to $60.2 bil, far out-stripping volume growth.  Rankings.  Rankings for top-10 companies and brands unchanged vs 1999.

Table. Shows rankings, actual market shares, share changes, volume in 192-oz cases and percent volume change vs 1999 for beverage companies and brands.  BD/Maxwell CSD data covers all channels of distribution:  take-home, cold-bottle, vending, fountain, institutional, etc.  Notes.  1) DPSU buys Royal Crown in 4th quarter 2000; RC treated as separate company for 2000 data.  2) Big Red buys Nugrape and Nesbitt's brands from Monarch last year; total volume for those brands under Big Red was 3 mil cases.

Brands. Coke owns five of top-10 brands; Pepsi owns three and DPSU owns two.  Diet colas.  Two of three strongest performers were Coke's and Pepsi's flagship diet colas:  Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi.  Diet Pepsi posted strongest growth of any top-10 brand, with volume up +4% and share up +0.2 point.  Diet Pepsi's stable-mate, Pepsi One, posted volume decline of -22%.  However, combined volume of Diet Pepsi and Pepsi One -- 588.4 mil cases -- far exceeds Diet Pepsi's volume of 524.5 mil cases in 1997, year before Pepsi One launched.  Diet Coke volume up +2.5%; market share up +0.2.  Lead colas.  #1 brand Coke Classic, after losing volume in 1999, improved performance last year. Flagship Pepsi also improved by narrowing its rate of decline; volume in 2000 down -1% vs -2% in 1999.  Slowing stars.   Pepsi's Mt. Dew, Coke's Sprite and Cadbury's Dr Pepper have posted strong growth in recent years, but didn't in 2000.  In 1999, Mt. Dew was top-10 volume leader with +6% growth. Last year, Mt. Dew up +1.5%.  Dr Pepper grew volume only modestly, and Sprite lost volume and market share.

Notables. Coke. #10 brand Barq's root beer posted healthy +3.0% volume growth. Minute Maid flavored CSD line (not in top-10) was up +10%; Mello Yello citrus up +9.9%.  Pepsi.  Wild Cherry Pepsi up +13%; Diet Mt. Dew up +7%.  DPSU.  Diet Dr Pepper up +7.1% to 104.5 mil cases; Caffeine-Free Diet Dr Pepper up +15.6%; Sunkist orange soda up +14.1%; Cherry 7UP up +8.1%.  Cott.  Positive performance by leading private label producer due to price increases on national brands plus company revitalization under new management.

Plus.  1) Pepsi's "all other" volume up +139.7% to 13.9 mil cases; executive says "most of that" was from Sierra Mist's rollout in 4th quarter.  2) Coke's "all other volume" up +65.5%.  Comes partly from rollouts/expansions of Red Flash, Inca Cola, etc.  3) Coke's Surge citrus volume falls -55.8% to 11.8 mil cases.  4) Coke's Citra grapefruit volume down -40.5% to 15.6 mil cases.  Colas.  Reversing several years of sluggish performance, three of five cola brands in top-10 post above-industry volume growth.  BD/Maxwell estimates cola share of total CSD in 2000 was 60.5, flat vs 1999 but still at lowest point since tracking begins in 1985.