Higher carbonated soft drink pricing at retail in the first-quarter generated dollar sales for the category, as Coca-Cola and Keurig Dr Pepper both grew pricing and dollars (table). PepsiCo was unable to fully offset its volume loss. Private label makers also boosted pricing.

Brands. As shown in the Green Sheet (download issue), the top-10 CSD brands all grew dollar sales in the quarter. Coke Zero Sugar showed the strongest dollar and volume growth. Diet Pepsi posted dollar and volume gains as consumers gravitate back to the original formulation including aspartame. Meanwhile, both brand Coke and Pepsi-Cola grew dollar sales.

Channel. In the c-store channel (Green Sheet), CSD dollar and volume sales declined. Mtn Dew, Diet Coke and Diet Mtn Dew also lost dollar and volume sales in c-stores as competition for cold vault space has intensified.

Data. Quarterly, BD tracks multi-channel CSD retail sales from two data sets. The data has been combined to present a snapshot of the industry. It covers supermarkets, c-stores, drug chains, mass merchandisers including Walmart, plus some dollar/club stores and the military channel. The CSD Green Sheet included with this issue shows first-quarter 2019 corporate and top-10 brand shares for the combined data sets, plus breakouts for major channels. The table shows volume, dollar and pricing metrics for the combined data set.