Reversal! Cola Share of Take-Home Increases.

From Beverage Digest 3/7/97

Reversal! Colas Increase Take-Home Share
in 1996. Diet Decline Continues.

After falling for 5 straight years -- and 9 of 11 most recent years -- cola's share of carbonated soft drink (CSD) business gains +0.2 point in 1996 Nielsen Foodstore data. Cola share stands at 58.3 vs 58.1 for 1995.

Cola Shares 1977-1996

Year	Total	+/-	Regular	+/-	Diet	+/-
1977	61.0		51.7		9.3
1978	61.4	+0.4	51.9	+0.2	9.5	+0.2
1979	61.2	-0.2	51.6	-0.3	9.6	+0.1
1980	61.4	+0.2	51.5	-0.1	9.9	+0.3
1981	62.3	+0.9	51.3	-0.2	11.0	+1.1
1982	62.1	-0.2	50.2	-1.1	11.9	+0.9
1983	63.1	+1.0	48.7	-1.5	14.4	+2.5
1984	63.6	+0.5	47.7	-1.0	15.9	+1.5
1985	63.3	-0.3	46.6	-1.1	16.7	+0.8
1986	63.5	+0.2	46.2	-0.4	17.3	+0.6
1987	63.3	-0.2	45.2	-1.0	18.1	+0.8
1988	63.0	-0.3	43.9	-1.3	19.1	+1.0
1989	61.3	-1.7	41.0	-2.9	20.3	+1.2
1990	61.8	+0.5	40.5	-0.5	21.3	+1.0
1991	60.4	-1.4	39.5	-1.0	20.9	-0.4
1992	59.0	-1.4	38.9	-0.6	20.1	-0.8
1993	58.6	-0.4	39.0	+0.1	19.6	-0.5
1994	58.3	-0.3	39.2	+0.2	19.1	-0.5
1995	58.1	-0.2	39.1	-0.1	19.0	-0.1
1996	58.3	+0.2	39.6	+0.5	18.7	-0.3

Reversal due entirely to sugared brands' growth, up +0.5 to 39.6. Diet continues slide which began in 1991; for 1996, diet down -0.3 to 18.7. Cola's 1996 overall gain erases loss posted in 1995, year of lowest cola share since Nielsen/BD tracking begins in 1977 (BD 2/23/96). Market share of regular cola in 1996 was highest since 1990; diet share lowest since 1987. Diet cola slide is consistent with overall diet CSD decline. BD/Maxwell all-channel data shows diet share of total CSD market drops -0.8 points in 1996 to 23.7 (BD 2/21/97).

Chart. Shows total cola, regular and diet shares plus share changes 1977-1996. Data. Nielsen Foodstore index includes data for $2+ mil supermarkets, small groceries and C-stores.

Reasons. Bottlers attribute cola rebound to Coca-Cola Co's intense marketing of Coke Classic plus Pepsi's cola-focused Pepsi Stuff promotion. Coke/Pepsi bottlers: 1) "There's been more focus on who brought us to the party." 2) "Immediate consumption in the contour bottle has driven growth." 3) "It was Pepsi Stuff." 4) "Coke is pushing Classic hard, and Pepsi doesn't sit by idly. They pour it on with pricing and promotions." 5) "This is good news for Coke and Pepsi bottlers." 6) "Both companies are putting a (heck) of a lot of money behind their colas." 7) "Pepsi for a while was placing a lot of emphasis on other products and had its eye off colas. No longer."

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