Warm weather boosts soft drinks market by 200m euros

This year’s longer-than-usual warm season is likely to take sales of the major players on the soft drinks market up to over one billion euros.
The ten largest players on the soft drinks market boosted their turnover by more than 150m euros last year against 2005, reaching cumulated sales worth almost 800m euros. Most top ten companies saw turnover growth rates ranging between 20% and 40% in 2006 compared with 2005.
“We didn’t witness a spectacular increase in soft drinks consumption last year, despite the numerous new product launches on the market,” states Adrian Teslovan, marketing manager with Romaqua group.
The factors that brought this around included last summer’s rainy weather, which will not be registered again this year, according to official forecasts.
“This year, summer came earlier than expected. Given the weather forecast for this summer, the entire soft drinks market has clear growth prospects,” says Dana Iordache, marketing manager for non-carbonated soft drinks with PepsiCo International Romania.
She expects sales to see faster growth than in 2006. While in H2 of 2006 the soft drinks market advanced by 14% against the same period of 2005, considering 2006 was a cool year, projections are more upbeat for this year, pointing to growth by above 14%, Dana Iordache also says.
“Global warming is not a reason for joy, but we must admit that, in terms of soft drinks and mineral water consumption, this is a catalyst, driving sales up,” states Carmen Maris, a representative of European Drinks.
In his turn, Adrian Teslovan says he expects the soft drinks market to rise by around 10% against 2006, with speedier growth on the segment of mineral water.
At an average consumption of 1.5 litres of water daily, as recommended to active people during the warm season, daily cumulated sales by players on the market should be around 4.5m euros, in case only bottled mineral water is chosen. In terms of value, the mineral water market could exceed 330m euros at present.
“Unlike carbonated or non-carbonated juices, advancing by 12-19% during the summer period, mineral water usually generates 30% higher sales in the warm season against the average of autumn and winter months. We estimate these figures will be exceeded in 2007, provided that there are no floods or other such weather phenomena of course,” says Madalin Simion, Biborteni brand manager with Bibco Biborteni. Euromonitor put last year’s soft drinks consumption in Romania at over 2.2 billion litres, with an increase of around 7% in terms of volume against the previous year. In terms of value, the market has boasted a much bigger growth rate in the past year, according to the data reported by the main players for 2006.
This year’s high temperatures may bring new soft drinks consumers and faster growth of non-carbonated drinks segments.

Soft drinks market
The ten biggest players saw their turnovers rise by over 150m euros in 2006 year-on-year, reaching cumulated sales of close to 800m euros
Soft drinks consumption did not see spectacular growth partly because of the rainy weather
Against average consumption of 1.5 litres of water per day, daily cumulated sales by companies on the market may be around 4.5m euros, in case only bottled mineral water is chosen