CALORIES ACROSS the soft drinks category are down by 7.3% over the last 3 years, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
The data shows that calories and sugars from soft drinks are falling faster than in any other food and drink category, with calories down 7.3% and sugar down 8.3% since April 2012.
The reduction comes from a range of initiatives, including smaller pack sizes, and the reformulation of products, as well as the promotion of low and no calorie products available to consumers. Soft drinks companies have increased their advertising spend on promoting low and no calorie products by nearly 50% last year.
Figures also published in the 2015 UK Soft Drinks Report ‘Changing tastes’ underscore the message from the Kantar data on changing patterns of consumer consumption. Almost half of all carbonates sold in the UK are low or no calorie (49%). Sales of bottled water continue to flourish, up 9.3% in 2014, and nearly three quarters (74%) of all dilutables sold are low or no calorie.
But despite growth in some categories, in 2014 soft drinks consumption was down overall by 0.5%. That partly reflects the fall in sales of fruit juice (down 9.5%) – attributed to consumer concern regarding the level of sugars found in juice drinks.
Gavin Partington, BSDA Director General, said: ‘Efforts by soft drinks producers and major retailers have clearly had an impact on the market with consumer calorie intake from our products down significantly.’