Bottled water saw stockpiling in the initial phase of the pandemic in Colombia. However, this eased as consumers became aware that the situation was ongoing, and supplies gradually normalised. However, the stockpiling culture is likely remain – albeit to a lesser extent – in future. Still purified bottled water saw the strongest performance in volume terms in 2020, as increasingly health-conscious consumers perceived this product as offering strong benefits in the COVID-19 environment.…

Off-trade bottled water consumption in Brazil surged during the early months of 2020 following a severe deterioration in the quality of tap water in Rio de Janeiro. This widely reported crisis damaged public confidence in the safety of tap water generally, leading people across the country to switch to bottled water. Off-trade bottled water consumption during this period was further bolstered by summer seasonality and Carnival festivities.

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Overall off-trade volume sales saw a 4% rise in 2020, compared to 2019’s decline by the same amount. All product areas turned in a positive performance in terms of volume growth, having all been in decline in 2019 with the exception of functional bottled water. In 2019, functional bottled water led growth with a 28%, which surged to 63% in 2020. The lowest rise was seen in carbonated purified bottled water, with an increase of 1% that is nonetheless an improvement on 2019’s decline by 7%.…

The increased number of people working from home in 2020, particularly in urban areas, will result in strong growth in off-trade sales volumes of still bottled water. Another factor supporting this growth in off-trade consumption is the drought in Azerbaijan from June - September, during which there were problems with the supply of tap water in several areas. A reduction in on-the-go consumption for the duration of the quarantine period led to a decline in retail sales of 0.5L bottles, while…

The impact of the complete shutdown of the consumer foodservice industry during the initial nationwide quarantine put enormous pressure on bottled water foodservice sales in 2020. The situation was exacerbated by the shift towards home working for office workers, service industry personnel and white-collar professionals. This resulted in substantial declines in business-to-business sales and limited demand for on-trade bottled water due to the reduction in the number of people commuting to…

2020 saw dramatic declines in demand for Asian speciality drinks in Vietnam as on-trade sales plummeted. The main reason for the negative trends seen in foodservice sales in the category during the year was the complete shutdown of the Vietnamese consumer foodservice industry during March and April as the country strove to gain control over the spread of the COVID-19 virus during the early stages of the pandemic. Although a shift towards the retail channel was noted in the category as the…

While there has been no stockpiling of this category since the outbreak of COVID-19, retail volume sales have been growing stably in the year. This is due to the fact that certain flavours of Asian speciality drinks (such as grass jelly) are popular due to their benefit of lowering body temperature because of their cooling effect, with consumers thus buying more the products given that high temperatures are a symptom of COVID-19. Home seclusion has also encouraged more regular purchasing of…

Asian speciality drinks was well positioned to benefit from the increased focus on health brought about by COVID-19. Nevertheless, retail volume sales have continued to decline in 2020, albeit at a slower rate than in 2019. The key product types within Asian speciality drinks in Japan are lactobacillus drinks and vinegar drinks. Lactobacillus drinks have seen rising popularity supported by increasing consumer interest in prebiotic and probiotic products in areas such as yoghurt. Meanwhile,…

The closure of numerous foodservice establishments and the greatly reduced availability of dine-in have had a limited impact on total volume sales of Asian speciality drinks, as most of the sales are generated from retail. In retail, however, this category has also declined, mainly because the government has imposed operating-hour restrictions on modern grocery retailers located in shopping centres, in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Some shopping centres were even closed earlier in…

The demand for Asian speciality drinks has been stable in the off-trade channel during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In particular, the category has benefited from the shift to e-commerce in soft drinks. E-commerce’s highest retail volume share, but not sales, in soft drinks comes from Asian speciality drinks. However, the on-trade channel experienced a steep decline in volume sales during and beyond the lockdown, as consumers were hesitant about returning to restaurants and bars.…

The COVID-19 pandemic had a strongly negative impact on demand for Asian specialty drinks during 2020. Asian specialty drinks is a small category of soft drinks in France and although demand was still rising prior to the onset of the COVID-19 situation, overall sales of these products remained very low. However, the category came under significant pressure as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in France as consumers found it very easy to justify leaving these products on the shelf.…

With Sweden having some of the most lenient COVID-19 regulations in the EU, this meant that gyms and on-trade establishments have remained open during all of 2020. However, these venues have had social distancing requirements put in place, with consumers asked to stay one metre away from other people. As elderly consumers mainly drink sports drinks in Sweden, the outbreak of COVID-19 made this consumer group particularly vigilant about socialising in public, and as such, many opted not to…

Sports drinks is a small category in Romania and is suffering further declines in 2020 due to consumers being less physically active as a result of COVID-19. In particular, the main audience for sports drinks is with people who visit gymnasiums and those who undertake regular sporting activities. However, with the closures of gymnasiums for months, along with other restrictions on sporting activities, the need for sports drinks decreased significantly. Additionally, sports drinks are…

Growth in off-trade volume and current value sales of sports drinks in Norway will decelerate modestly during 2020. Despite gyms being closed for a period during the spring lockdown, many people continuing to work out and practice sports either at home or outside. For many, the pandemic brought home the importance of regular exercise as a preventative health strategy. Demand growth is also being driven by two high-profile new product launches – Monster by Coca-Cola European Partners Norge AS…

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Hungarian government postponed all in-door sports activities, with only outdoor jogging and sports being permitted. The change in lifestyle of active consumers during the pandemic has also reduced demand for sports drinks. However, this decline is expected to be only temporary as interest in healthy lifestyles, regular sport and gym activities is growing. In addition, the re-opening of fitness, gym and sport venues will also help to boost sales and…

COVID-19 had a huge impact on sports drinks, leading the category to experience a significant decrease in both value and volume terms in Hong Kong. On the whole, the total volume of sports drinks observed a heavy slide due to the sales drop in both foodservice and retail. In foodservice, sales of sports drinks experienced a substantial loss as a result of the measures to fight COVID-19 imposed by the Hong Kong government. In order to comply with the lockdown measures, on-trade outlets like…

The outbreak of COVID-19 is expected to lead to an increase in off-trade volume growth for soft drinks in 2020, with off-trade volume growth of 3% predicted for the year, compared to volume growth of 2% in 2020. However, unlike other countries within the EU, as a response to the outbreak of COVID-19, Sweden did not enforce a lockdown in the country. As such, stockpiling behaviour that was seen in other countries, was not noted in Sweden, with all retailers remaining open.

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In general, COVID-19 will have a positive impact on off-trade volume sales of soft drinks in Norway: The fact that the border with Sweden was closed for a period restricted cross-border shopping, which boosted demand for soft drinks from domestic retailers. With many consumers spending more time at home and making fewer impulse purchases of soft drinks, distribution shifted from convenience stores and forecourt retailers to discounters, supermarkets and, to a lesser extent, e-commerce. This…

COVID-19 and the measures taken to try and contain it have had a mixed impact on sales of soft drinks in Japan, although the overall impact has been a negative one. A key factor behind this has been home seclusion with education facilities closed for part of the year, employees encouraged to work from home and foodservice being disrupted. This has resulted in fewer consumption occasions, with impulse categories such as carbonates and sports drinks being particularly hard hit. Meanwhile,…

Non-essential soft drinks categories like sports drinks and energy drinks were hit hardest by the current crisis in Hungary. However, the decline was prevalent in almost all categories except for concentrates and functional drinks with added vitamin content, especially those enriched with Vitamin C. Health consciousness has become of utmost importance for consumers during the pandemic, boosting demand for products that enhance the immune system.

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