Gavin Partington, director general of the BSDA, says carbonate manufacturers – alongside other soft drink brands – have put a lot of effort into promoting calorie reduction.
This includes a significant shift to low and no calorie varieties: in the UK, 49% of carbonates fall into these categories.
This increase in variety, as well as smaller pack sizes and reformulation, are used by the industry to promote calorie reduction.
Future looks promising
“Carbonates have proven to be extremely resilient in recent years despite the tough economic climate,” said Partington.
“Last year the category did see a slight fall in volume (1.8%), but the latest figures from Canadean show a 3% growth for carbonates in the first quarter of 2015 so the future looks promising.”
But how does the BSDA respond to concerns over sugar in carbonates?
“The soft drinks industry recognises it has a positive role to play in encouraging and helping consumers make the right choice for their lifestyle and has done more than any other sector to promote calorie and sugar reduction,” said Partington.
“However, trying to blame one set of products is misguided, particularly when they comprise a mere 3% of calories in the average UK diet.”
Calorie counting
Carbonates account for 43% of the UK soft drink market, according to the BSDA’s UK Soft Drinks Annual Report 2015.
Low and no calorie varieties make up 49% of the category, regular calorie varieties take up 45%, and mid calorie versions account for 6%. Cola is the most popular flavour (55% of the sector), followed by fruit flavours (17%) and lemonade (11%).
“Driven by a determination to respond to consumer needs and to step up to public health challenges soft drinks companies have undertaken a number of initiatives including reformulation, providing smaller pack sizes and promoting the wide variety of low and no calorie products available to consumers,” said Partington.
“All of this has been backed by a significant increase in advertising spend on promoting low and no calorie drinks – up 49% last year alone – so that around 60% of soft drinks now sold are low and no calorie, including nearly half of all carbonated drinks.
“Ambitious voluntary targets manufacturers set themselves are working. Figures just released by Kantar Worldpanel confirm that calories across the soft drinks category are down 7.3% and sugar has been reduced by 8.3% since April 2012. In a market that makes up just 3% of calories in the average UK diet this is a remarkable achievement.”