Consumer Trends: Beverage Market Trends

DALLAS (PRNewswire) — RnRMarketResearch.com offers Quarterly Beverage Tracker Report Q4 2013 for USA, China, Russia, Mexico, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Argentina, United Kingdom, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy and other countries.

Quarterly beverage tracker reports Q4 2013 for USA, China, Russia, Mexico, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Argentina, United Kingdom, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy and other countries provide a detailed analysis of the latest developments in the beverage market for each of these regions.

Key highlights from the USA Quarterly Beverage Tracker Report Q4 2013 include gasoline prices fell sharply in the fourth quarter which also gave Americans more money to spend as well as around half a million new jobs were added during the fourth quarter according to the latest estimates. Private Label food and drink sales rose quite strongly in the quarter; within beverages this trend was really only noticeable in packaged water, where retail brands are dominant, although Private Label also grew share in iced/rtd coffee drinks. The small but fast-growing "water enhancer" segment continued to see many new entrants, with most major beverage producers introducing their own products.

China's retail sales grew 13% year on year to RMB21.13 tn (US$3.48 tn) in the first 11 months of 2013. Improving economic growth and the country's determination to shift to a domestic demand-driven expansion model has boosted consumer confidence. For individual months, China's retail sales grew 13.3% to RMB2.15 tn (US$352.6 bn) in October, and 13.7% to RMB2.1 tn (US$344.4 bn) in November. In spite of raw milk undersupply, dairy drinks experienced growth of 8.7% in the last quarter of 2013, as leading dairy manufacturers took measures to strengthen their control of raw milk sources. Increasing cost pressures became one of the reasons for the increase in retail prices by dairy beverage makers, including Mengniu, Yi and Bright Dairy. This impaired sales to some extent, although the rigid and increasing consumer needs partially offset the effects.

As per China Quarterly Beverage Tracker Report Q4 2013 (http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/china-quarterly-beverage-tracker-report-q4-2013-market-report.html ) , soft drinks categories have continued with healthy double-digit growth, primarily owing to the key categories such as iced/rtd tea drinks and packaged water. With such promising results, the soft drinks industry is expected to capture the opportunities from the rebound in China's economy during the coming quarters.

Within the Mexican beverage industry, drinking yogurt had a positive performance during Q4-13 as well, mainly driven by the healthcare trend. The category predicts further progression due to an increase in flavor varieties and offers in stores. Coffee showed a solid performance during this period. It was boosted by the winter cold weather and an increase in points of sales - mainly the opening of coffee shops and convenience stores. During Q4-13, hotel occupancy in tourist destinations grew 15% compared to the same period last year.

For the Russian beverage market, carbonates grew in Q4, aided by massive advertising campaigns during the quarter. In Q4-13, cider skyrocketed, increasing more than eight fold compared to Q4-12. The massive increase was due to a widely expanded offer of international brands, imported from a range of countries including Belarus. The worst PL performance was seen in juice and nectars where most supermarkets saw flat PL volumes. Consumers were dissatisfied with the quality and offers available. Increased competition in the segment led to very low prices and supermarkets reduced their offer as a result of this poor profitability. This quarter's special focus is on Functional and Flavored Waters.