Soft Drinks Industry Essay

The soft drinks industry has evolved over the last 50 years. At the end of the fifties households were consuming more wine than any other beverages. By the beginning of the seventies households were diminishing their wine consumption for appellation wine, not to mention that strong alcohols saw a significant increase during this period with mineral water. Other soft drinks such as fruit drinks, sodas and colas became popular by the end of the eighties. Soft drinks sells became steeper during the nineties probably correlated with the fact that this period is situated during the raise of generation Y. This generation was highly influenced by television and Internet, thus commercials. Generation Y has been a golden pool for marketers at that time and allowed companies to progress a lot concerning their marketing research techniques.

Nowadays the soft drinks industry is booming, alcohols are not as successful as before and sodas are pointed out for their high sugar content. This is profitable for bio fruit beverages and other fruit based alternative beverages. This market is full of innovative ideas and opportunities.

i. Smoothies
“The smoothie is a drink made from fruit and / or vegetables, which can be embellished with various ingredients (honey, milk, aromatic herbs, etc.). Originally from England, its texture is thicker than a juice, more liquid than a puree less iced than a sorbet. In addition, the limits of a smoothie’s composition are those of the imagination.”

Today in France, 2 persons out of 3 consume fruit juices, 42% on a daily basis. Smoothies only represent 0,5% of the fruit juices consumption. In only 6 months the French market has increased for more than 500% from 167000L to 920000L of smoothies for the year 2008...

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...producers encounter difficulties to cope with the increase in price of their raw materials.

“2012 underlined the increase in sales of high range products and the French preference for premium juices such as pure juices” Emmanuel Vasseneix, president of Unijus.

iii. Waters
The French are with the Italian and the Spanish part of the biggest consumers of table water in the world. 80% of the sales volumes are made by Hyper and super markets, whereas restaurants make 20%. The consumption of still bottles water was 145L per year per inhabitant in 2009, close to the consumption of 1999 (Source: Agreste – Prodcom, Douanes – Mémento alimentation, 2011).
According to Xerfi, December 2011 the French mineral water market is divided as the following in GMS. Still according to Xerfi table water consumption has increased of 2% in volume and 4% in value in 2011 compared to 2010.