BEVERAGE FEATURE
Six beverage trends worth knowing Mark Dingley*
Australians are the biggest drinkers of fruit juice on the planet and consume more soft drink than the Brits, yet this former nation of full-strength beer drinkers is turning to bottled water and ‘different’ beers — with a real liking for craft and flavoured beers. And in 2017, Australians can happily raise a glass of coconut water to toast the twofold win of volume and value rises for our wine exports in 2016.
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he Australian beverage market has changed, with some clear winners and losers over the past couple of years. Here are six trends worth knowing in 2017, along with the ‘business takeaway’.
1. Juicing the health market Australia and New Zealand are the world’s biggest fruit-juice drinkers, according to a study by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Despite that, the past five years have been quite tough for the industry; strong competition within the sector from private labels, as well as from outside the sector from different beverages, has reined in growth, which is estimated to be just 2.3% from 2012–17. Consumers have also gravitated to cheaper alternatives. Then there’s the sugar element. Even though fruit juice is seen as healthy, those with added sugars have seen centimetres in magazines devoted to the centimetres they add to waistlines. Business takeaways: It’s not all bad news: some product-pack26
March/April 2017
aging innovation levered off ever-growing health consciousness has seen single-serve beverages grow in popularity. Put it down to Australians’ busy lifestyles, where people want greater convenience and manufacturers meeting that need can potentially add (more than) centimetres to their profits. Nudie is one brand that has done well in targeting health-conscious consumers with ‘no added sugar’ and ‘no concentrate’ in their products.
2. Softly for soft drinks In Australia, ABS data has shown that 16% more children are drinking sugar-sweetened beverages (or SSBs) than adults. A recent article in the medical journal The Lancet published data showing that Australians drink more SSBs per capita than the Brits, buying 0.88 SSBs a day, compared with 0.84/day in the UK. And Australians also love regular cola drinks, buying 447 million litres in the 12 months to October 2012 out of a total of 1.28 billion litres of SSBs. But growth in the sector has been limited, due partly to aggressive pricing and changing
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