ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NACS and the American Beverage Association (ABA) are partnering with two of the nation’s leading health organizations to launch a new collaboration to help people reduce sugar and calories consumed from beverages.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) are facilitating the collaboration between ABA and NACS to support their respective existing commitments that help Americans in their efforts to reduce sugar consumed from beverages by providing more beverage choice.
The new agreement was announced at PHA’s 2018 Innovating a Healthier Future Summit in Washington, D.C., according to NACS.
“Convenience stores serve 165 million Americans every day, whether for quick snacks and meals or a variety of beverages. This new agreement will help extend the work we already do with groups like PHA to help make healthy options a convenient choice, whether you’re driving around town or on a summer road trip,” said NACS President and CEO Henry Armour.
Through 2019, ABA and NACS will work together to facilitate conversations between their member companies to test and learn scalable solutions to help achieve their respective goals in the c-store channel. They also will support their member companies in raising awareness of and driving consumer interest in more zero- and reduced-sugar beverage choices. These efforts will be supported in various ways, including through sharing of point-of-sale resources as well as in-store engagement with convenience-store consumers.
“By coming together to support one another’s efforts, these two industry associations are showcasing the powerful role the business sector can play to collaboratively support the health of our nation’s children and families,” said Howell Wechsler, CEO of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
“These two industries have seized an opportunity to align and increase availability and awareness of healthier beverage options in convenience stores, which will ultimately provide more choices for consumers on the go,” said Nancy E. Roman, president and CEO of PHA.
ABA and NACS had previously announced separate commitments to help achieve similar goals. In 2015, ABA announced a Balance Calories Initiative, developed with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, that focuses on reducing beverage calories consumed per person nationally by 20% by 2025.
At PHA’s 2017 Summit, NACS, which represents the nation’s more than 154,000 convenience stores, announced an association-wide commitment with PHA, becoming PHA’s first retail-association partner. Through its three-year commitment, NACS is relying on PHA’s resources and expertise to help conveniences stores provide more visibility to healthier choices inside their stores, as well as provide promotional materials related to Drink Up, PHA’s marketing campaign to encourage water consumption.
Convenience stores are a leading destination for beverages and have a 42.8% market share of all nonalcohol packaged beverage sales when examining convenience stores, food stores, drugstores and mass-merchandise stores (excluding Walmart), according to Nielsen data.
According to NACS, low-calorie beverage options are growing in sales in c-stores.
- Packaged beverage sales at convenience stores grew 2.3% in 2017, led by the growth of enhanced water (up 9.1%) and ready-to-drink iced teas (up 3.5%). Bottled water sales increased 0.6%.
- Nearly half of all convenience-store customers (49%) say that their primary reason to go into the convenience store was to purchase a beverage.
- U.S. convenience stores have 42.8% market share of all packaged-beverage sales among food stores, drugstores and mass merchandise stores (excluding Walmart), according to Nielsen data for 2017.
The American Beverage Association is the trade association that represents America's nonalcohol beverage industry. Its members include the three largest nonalcohol beverage makers in the United States: Coca-Cola Co., Dr Pepper Snapple Group and PepsiCo.
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