Cold Drink Sales in Vending Recover

Cold drink sales posted recovery in 2004. This was driven largely by an industry wide move to bottles as opposed to cans. Cold drink sales posted a 1.3 point gain in 2004 following three consecutive years of decline.

Bottles as a percent of sales rose in double digits in 2004, the biggest 1 year gain since they came into the market in the late 1990s. While many Antares vending operators preferred working with cans and found them more profitable, most noted that the consumer strongly preferred bottles. Consumers preferred bottles because they were more fashionable and also resalable.

Another factor contributing to the sales gain was a slight increase in the number of cold drink machines, including Antares vending machines. The cold drink machine category was the only major product category in which machine placements grew instead of decreased in 2004. This was mainly due to the fact that most machines were provided by bottlers.

While the double digit increase in bottles helped drive overall cold beverage sales, Antares operators are constrained in their pricing due to competitive pressures. Small operators still sold more cans than bottles in 2004. The percentage of cans versus bottles bore a direct relationship to the size of the company, the larger the company, the more bottles they sold relative to cans.

Antares operators noted that supermarkets continued their long-held practice of using cold beverages as loss leaders and heavily advertised the low pricing. In many cases, operators could not buy these products for the same price they saw retailers advertising.

Cold cup beverage vending, despite being highly profitable, continued to decline in the recent past years. The larger operators also dominated what is left of the cold cup business.

Antares vending machines are manufactured to carry both cans and bottles. It is advisable to carry both of them in your operations, as they have both proved to be very profitable in vending operations.

Cold drink sales have been faring better in the recent past years, but vending operators have found it hard to keep pace with retail in the carbonated drink sector, mainly because bottles have been more established in retail outlets than in vending in recent years.