Spring Was Tough on Beverage Sales
By Steve Holtz on Jun. 30, 2017NEW YORK -- Spring was tough on four major beverage categories in convenience stores, according the latest 12-week data from Nielsen.
Beer, carbonated soft drinks and sports drinks all saw unit sales dip, while energy drinks just kept sales on the plus side during the period ending June 17, according to data shared by Wells Fargo Securities' analyst Bonnie Herzog.
"C-store channel sales remain soft," Herzog said, "[and particularly] lagged in nonalcohol beverages. ... Weak results in most categories suggest disappointing Memorial Day Weekend sales."
While c-store-specific sales data for bottled water were not shared, all-channel data suggests it was the winner for the category this spring.
Here's a look at the key categories ...
Energy drinks
Energy drinks led the beverage category in convenience stores with unit sales up 1.9% during the 12-week period, according to Herzog. However, during the more immediate four-week period ending June 17, energy-drink sales were flat, and for the latest 52-week period, sales were up 2.3%, suggesting a declining trend.
For the four-week period, Red Bull sales were up 1.0% in unit sales, Monster was up 1.3% and Rockstar saw a 3.7% drop.
Carbonated soft drinks
Carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) saw c-store unit sales dip 3.0% during the four-week period ending June 17, an improvement over the 12-week trend (down 5.4%) and 52-week trend (down 6.4%).
While regular CSDs saw unit sales dip 2.2% in c-stores during the four-week period, low-calorie CSDs dropped 6.4%.
Beer
Beer volume sales were generally flat (down 0.3%) in c-stores during the four-week period, an improvement over the 12-week trend (down 0.9%) and 52-week trend (down 2.6%), which suggests a slow recovery for the category led by imported beers (Constellation Brands up 15.9%) and craft beers (Lagunitas Brewing up 23.6% and New Belgium Brewing up 9.8%, for example).
Sports drinks
Sports drinks, meanwhile, similarly saw an improving trend line even as that subcategory's unit sales showed general flat (down 0.6%) activity. That's a significant improvement over the 12-week trend (down 4.2%) and 52-week trend (down 10.8%).
All-channel data
In most cases, beverage sales were even more challenged in all-channel sales data.
Here's how each category performed in unit sales during the four-week period ending June 17, 2017:
Beer: Down 2.6%
Bottled water: Up 1.7%
CSDs: Down 4.7%
Energy drinks: Down 0.5%
Sparkling flavored water: Up 15.6%
Sports drinks: Down 9.0%
Still flavored water: Up 0.5%
Data firm Nielsen and investment banker Wells Fargo are both based in New York.