Are C-Stores Missing Out on a CSD Recovery?

NEW YORK -- April showed signs of recovery for sales of carbonated soft drinks … unless you're a convenience-store retailer, that is.

Nielsen's scan data for all channels of retail shows CSD dollar sales grew 2.1% and volume sales rose a surprising 3.9% during the four-week period ending April 22. C-store dollar sales, however, were down 2.0% and volume down 4.4%, according to a Wells Fargo Securities report from analyst Bonnie Herzog.

Longer-term trends suggest c-store volume sales of CSDs are declining at an increasing rate, down 3.8% for the past 12 weeks and down 2.7% over the past year.

The subcategory in all channels, however, appears to be recovering, with volumes down just 1.6% over the past year, 1.4% over the past 12 weeks and up nearly 4% in the most recent four-week period.

"CSD sales [were] driven by promotional pricing, likely driven by Easter promos," Herzog said, citing an average price decline of 1.8% during the four-week period.

The trend is even worse for diet CSDs in c-stores. In all channels, diets saw volume grow 3.9% during the four-week period, while c-store volume dropped 6.7%.

Here's a look at how other beverage categories are performing ...

Growth of energy-drink sales remained in low-single-digit territory during the four-week period ending April 22.

The subcategory saw dollar sales grow 3.8% in all channels and 3.4% in c-stores.

Unit sales of energy drinks grew 2.6% in all channels and 3.2% in c-stores.

Red Bull showed decent growth in c-stores at 6.2%, while Monster was up 3.4% and Rockstar up 5.0%.

Beer sales saw some relief from a slow period of growth, up 2.5% and 2.4% in dollar sales in all channels of retail and in convenence stores, respectively, during the four-week period.

Unit sales grew less aggressively, up 1.2% in all channels and 0.7% in c-stores.

Sales of sports drinks were generally flat during the four-week period, down 0.2% in all channels of retail and up just 0.1% in c-stores in terms of dollar sales.

Volume sales saw the subcategory down 0.9% overall and 2.0% in c-stores.