Global Soft Drinks Sector Recovering

CHICAGONew market data from Euromonitor International predicts the global soft drinks market is on the way to recovery. In 2010, the market grew by 1.9 percent over 2009, a marked improvement from the last two year's average growth of 0.8 percent per year and is approaching pre-recession growth rates.

According to Euromonitor, major emerging markets acted as sources of volume gains for major multinationals over the 2008-2010 period. Over the past 12 months, major emerging markets including Brazil, China, Argentina and India produced solid volume gains for Coca-Colas overall soft drinks business on the back of the swift recovery of the macro economy and continuous urbanization. In Russia, the company saw a 6-percent volume growth in 2010 following a sharp decline in 2009.

PepsiCo's acquisition of its anchor bottlers boosted its global share from 9.9 percent by off-trade volume in 2009 to 10.1 percent in 2010. PepsiCos position in the overall soft drinks market was enhanced by its taking over of Pepsi Bottling Group in 2010, and with it Mexico's third largest bottled water brand Electropura. The acquisition of PepsiAmericas Inc., enabled PepsiCo to take full control of Sandora and Sadochok, which contributed to strong growth in its global juice sales.

PepsiCo also saw sales bounce back in Russia. In December 2010, PepsiCo announced its intention to buy a 66-percent percent stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann Produkty Pitania OAOa deal that could make PepsiCo the largest food and beverage company in the country. PepsiCo also has seen tremendous growth in China and India's juice markets in 2010.

Following an acquisition-led overseas expansion strategy, Japan-based Suntory cemented its global market share (1 percent) by off-trade volume to maintain eighth position in the overall global soft drinks market in 2010. The ultimate ownership of the Orangina Schweppes business has given Suntory a starting point for its long-term corporate objective to become a major global player in food and beverages.