Green Sheet: Coca-Cola Gains Share in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Others.

Coca-Cola held a leading retail volume and dollar share of carbonated soft drinks last year in most major metro areas tracked by BD, as shown in the table below. Coke was the leading cola in most of those markets as well. More broadly, Coca-Cola was No. 1 by CSD volume share in...

Executives from PepsiCo’s company-owned and independent bottling system met recently in Dallas to discuss 2024 market plans. PepsiCo Beverages North America CEO Kirk Tanner opened the meeting with a challenge to strive for “five-star excellence” when it comes to selling, service, sustainability, profit, and market share. “Three-star is good enough. Five-star is exceptional,” he said. “It is all about resetting our expectation for

PepsiCo’s SodaStream has new competition from kitchen appliance maker Ninja. The Ninja Thirsti Drink System launched in late July. The company sent me a unit to try. Here are my observations:

— The primary difference in Thirsti versus SodaStream is that drinks are produced by the glass instead of by the bottle. With SodaStream and most other sparkling water appliances, including Aarke and Drinkmate, water is carbonated inside a multi-serve bottle. The user removes the bottle and pours in flavor syrup, shaking the mixture by hand. With Thirsti, water is drawn from a reservoir that is refillable and removable for fridge chilling. Changeable concentrate pods automatically release...

Wall Street analysts are on high alert for shifts in pricing and volume trends within the US consumer packaged goods sectors, including beverages. A worst-case scenario would be decelerating pricing growth without a corresponding bump in volume performance, which would depress dollar sales growth trends. In an Aug. 22 report, A/B Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott summed up the current state-of-play this way: “With the period of ...

The US carbonated soft drink category at retail raised pricing by a high-double-digit percentage during the first half of 2023, generating +13.2% dollar sales growth. Volume declined by -3.5%, however. Meanwhile, as shown in the table, private label soft drinks gained volume share against category leader Coca-Cola and No. 2 PepsiCo. Keurig Dr Pepper posted a slight share gain, bringing the company’s CSD portfolio within three

If you haven’t yet listened to BD’s new podcast, The Breeze With Beverage Digest, I hope you will.

Our debut episode, “Is Gatorade Beatable?” explores Coca-Cola’s mission to use a combined BodyArmor and Powerade to overtake sports drink leader Gatorade in the coming years. Coke leaders are through being an also-ran in this category, and PepsiCo has no plans to give up its supremacy. That will make for great competition, even as the category shifts beneath both companies’ feet with the emergence of “rapid hydration.”

Episode 2, “Is Sprite Beatable?” delves into PepsiCo’s Starry lemon-lime soda launch and the company’s plans to disrupt the dominance of Coca-Cola’s Sprite. We discuss how Sprite spent decades embracing hip-hop and the NBA to build a loyal consumer base, and how PepsiCo has decided to start from scratch with Starry to reach Gen Z consumers after years of struggles with lemon-lime brands including Sierra Mist.

I’m joined for both podcasts by...

CEO Says Tractor ‘Not Looking to Get into Any Battle’ With Soda Giants.