Bottled water takes the fizz out of carbonates

New research from MINTEL finds sales of bottled water booming as healthier drinks take an increasing share of Britain’s soft drinks market and carbonates see their share continue to decline. Indeed, the volume of the bottled water market increased by around 50% between 1999 and 2004, to stand at just under 2 billion litres. The carbonates market meanwhile grew by less than 6% in volume over the same five year period, resulting in a 5 percentage point decrease in volume market share since 2000. Further growth of almost 9% is anticipated in 2005 for the bottled water market, taking per capita consumption to almost 36 litres. Value growth in the bottled water market has also been significant at some 37% between 2000 and 2004 to reach £1.57 billion, with a further rise of 8% anticipated in 2005.