Talk about a fall from grace. This time last year, Prime was Top Products’ third-biggest success by absolute value gain. Twelve months later, it’s down £63.1m: the largest loss of any food and drink brand. Volumes have plunged 32.6%, or 8.8 million litres.
Signs of this decline began emerging in early 2024. In March, photos on X showed Prime Hydration’s Blue Raspberry and Strawberry Watermelon reduced to 31p in a Tesco store. Similarly, independent grocers began discounting Prime’s once-viral drinks – or just axed the brand altogether.
“We had a really good run, but it tanked at the start of 2024. So, we’ve delisted it,” says one Nisa retailer. “It was a novelty item.”
Still, Prime’s performance is something of an anomaly in sports & energy drinks. The rest of the top five brands are in value growth, and total volmes are up 0.8%.
A standout performer is number two brand Monster. It’s grown volumes by 10.5% – and its £103.6m value gain is the biggest of any food and drink brand this year.
The brand attributes its success to flavour innovation such as such as Juiced Bad Apple and Nitro Cosmic Peach.
With that growth, Monster continues to creep towards the top slot currently occupied by Red Bull. Not that the market leader is doing badly: it’s added £84.8m on volumes up 9.1%. It has similarly benefited from innovation, such as April’s Pink Edition Sugarfree.
“NPD has been largely incremental, with nearly half of shoppers that bought into the Editions flavour range being new to the Red Bull brand – acting as a gateway to the core range,” says a Red Bull spokeswoman
Over in carbonates, sporting tie-ups were a focus for the leading brand this year. As sponsor of UEFA Euro 2024, Coca-Cola ran an on-pack promotion that gave consumers the chance to win prizes throughout the summer tournament. The cola giant was also an official partner of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.
But such activity appears to have little impact on Coke sales. Value has grown just 0.5%, while volumes are down 2.5%. That’s behind the overall category: total value is up 2.2% and volumes have fallen 1.5%.
Irn-Bru has had no such difficulty, with a 5.6% rise in value on volumes up 0.4%. It enjoyed an “impactful Euros campaign”, says Jonathan Kemp, commercial director at owner AG Barr. The push “drove sales throughout a key period of national celebrations in and out of the home”, he adds.
For other sodas in the black, innovation has been instrumental, says NIQ analytics executive Swetha Balakrishnan, particularly “disruptive and limited-edition flavours”.
Top Launch 2024
Tropicana Sparkling | TBG
Tropicana unveiled its first carbonates in May – a bold diversification for the struggling juice brand. Created for the convenience channel, Sparkling Zesty Orange and Sparkling Tropical Twist are made from hand-picked fruits and boast “two times the fruit content of the sparkling category average”. They’ve rolled out in a slimline can (pmp: £1/250ml) to retailers including WH Smith and Shell. The launch marked “a real pivot”, TBG said at the time. And it could just add a little fizz to the brand’s sales.
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