​Focus On Bottled Water: 17 February

By Vince Bamford vjbamford@googlemail.com

Publishing: 17 February 2024

Advertising deadline: 2 February 2024

Submissions deadline: 31 January 2024

Print, digital and sponsorship opportunities

Is the tide starting to turn in bottled water? After a year in which sales were dampened by disappointing summer sales, a new generation of challenger brands are enjoying rising sales as the market-leaders suffer volume losses. So, who are these challengers? What are they doing differently? And how are the market-leaders responding?

Retail channels: We will explore how bottled water is faring in different retail channels, from independent, symbol group and multiple convenience retailers to larger supermarkets. How do the performance of different brands and formats vary from channel to channel?

Challengers: Much excitement followed news of US challenger brand Liquid Death’s UK launch into the Co-op and Nisa last year. Who are the other challenger brands that are chipping away at the giants’ share?

Formats: We will explore how formats are changing. For example, one brand reports strong growth in sales of multipacks and larger bottles while others report growth in cans and Tetrapak formats, with another stating that bottled water consumption is changing, with growing numbers of families stashing large multipacks of bottled water in their cars for days out. Who’s cashing in? Where are they being stocked in store and which retailers are stocking them? What other formats are in growth?

Innovations: Profile of four new products or ranges that have not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.