US energy drink surprises

And now, what about US energy drinks? Are they bigger than say carbonates or still water or coffee? Again, I’m only referring to figures for value sales in retail outlets according to SymphonyIRI in the July issue of Beverage Industry magazine. In the 12 months to May 2011, carbonated soft drinks were down 1.3% to $18.5 billion, still water was up 2.8% to $6.5 billion and ground coffee was up 6.6% to $2.6 billion. Energy drinks jumped 13.2% to $5.9 billion and energy shots leaped 33.6% to in excess of $1.0 billion, putting the overall energy category on $6.9 billion. That’s nearly three times ground coffee, more than still water and above one third of carbonates. Quite an achievement. By the way, 5-Hour Energy commanded over 88% of the energy shots market, with brand number two trailing at under 3%.