Bottled Water Pricing Fell Despite Higher Demand.

Pandemic lockdowns fueled a rebound in shelf-stable, ready-to-drink teas in the US last year. As shown in the table, the category grew +5.0% by volume and +4.2% dollars, even as pricing declined -0.8%. In 2019, the segment declined -3.1% by volume and grew a slight +0.1% by dollars after pricing growth of +3.2% (not shown in table). As shown in the Green Sheet included with this issue, PepsiCo’s flagship tea Lipton and Coke’s flagship Gold Peak each posted volume and dollar growth. In 2019, core Lipton declined by both measures. Arizona and Snapple also grew volume and dollars last year. Those four brands, with key distribution at grocery and convenience retail, helped drive last year’s positive results as shoppers looked for trusted brands and companies focused on core products. The story was different for premium brands such as PepsiCo’s Lipton Tea House Collection, Coca-Cola’s Honest, and Starbucks’ Teavana (distributed by AB InBev), which all declined by a double- digit percentage in volume and dollars, as also shown in the Green Sheet.

WATER PRICING FALLS. Bottled water pricing fell last year despite higher demand. As shown in the Green Sheet, Pricing for plain bottled water declined -2.2% while pricing for flavored and enhanced bottled water dipped -2.5%. (In 2019, pricing for the two segments declined -0.2% and -0.7% respectively.) In plain water, Nestlé’s Pure Life and Coca-Cola’s Dasani each posted dollar declines as pricing fell. PepsiCo’s Aquafina grew volume and dollars while taking only a slight pricing decline. As for premium brands, Essentia and Fiji each grew volume and dollars while posting higher pricing. Keurig Dr Pepper’s Core Hydration also grew volume and dollars on slightly lower pricing (-0.5%).

DATA. Beverage Digest’s Green Sheet details performance for select brands within the water, sports drinks, tea and shelf-stable juice categories. The multi-outlet data in the Green Sheet covers supermarkets, c-stores, drug chains, mass merchandisers including Walmart, club stores, dollar chains and the military channel. The data draws from two separate information sources. Data points were chosen to provide the best possible metrics for the brands, companies and categories for which data is provided.