Lemon-Lime Update:
Sierra Mist Grabs Share As Sprite and 7UP Slide.

Pepsi's new Sierra Mist lemon-lime reaches about 5.0 share of lemon-lime segment in grocery and C-stores, while both Sprite and 7UP lose share. YTD data through Aug. 11 shows Sierra Mist picks up +4.1 share points in grocery and +4.2 points in C-stores vs Pepsi's former lemon-lime brands, Slice and Storm. Sierra Mist introduced 3rd quarter 2000; Storm and lemon-lime Slice discontinued.

Table. Shows share and volume data for major lemon-lime brands in grocery and C-stores; grocery includes supermarkets and mass merchandiser grocery departments. Segment. In grocery channel, lemon-lime's overall volume up +5.7% vs +3.2% overall CSD growth. Segment holds 11 share of CSD market, up +0.3 vs 2000. In C-stores, lemon-lime volume down -0.4% vs flat performance for CSD market; holds 9.4 share, flat. Unlike some other flavor segments, private label not gaining share in lemon-lime.

Perspective. Weak Sprite performance hurts Coke's U.S. performance. Sprite was key growth engine in 1990's. 7UP has generally declined in share over past 15 years. Bright spots. Cadbury's Cherry 7UP, though tiny, posts double-digit volume gains in both grocery and C-stores. Diet Cherry 7UP posts double-digit gains in grocery. Coke's Diet Sprite -- 3rd-ranked lemon-lime brand in grocery -- gains volume/share in both channels.

Incremental cases. BD estimates Pepsi picks up about 10.7 mil incremental lemon-lime cases in grocery and 1.7 mil 192-oz cases in C-stores. Comparison includes Sierra Mist plus few cases of Slice/Storm that moved through retail channels in early 2001 vs Slice and Storm in comparable period last year.