![]() ![]() The company is forecasting net sales for its U.S. In the face of crushing shipping costs, Japanese beverage giant Ito En has focused on refining its best-selling RTD SKUs under its own banner, as well as Tea’s Tea and Matcha Love, with new packaging that can help it expand to non-specialty channels. Slightly further away from the heavy hitters up top, challenger brands are still finding opportunities. For Gold Peak, that means frozen dispensed products like Southern Sweet Tea are receiving more attention, as are limited releases like Brisk’s first ever sparkling tea, Dragon Paradise, exclusively with Taco Bell. With on-premise providing a large portion of category revenues, foodservice is expected to be a focus for brands as they shake off the post-pandemic hangover. Praised for maintaining its 99-cents price point in the face of historic inflation, the company saw a 1.5% increase in dollar sales according to IRI. For new-age beverage survivor Snapple, meanwhile, bottled tea sales slipped -4.9% year-over-year through June, but the loss of Honest may mean its category exclusive relationships with distributors like Polar will become all the more valuable in blocking new competitors from encroaching into its territories.Īs for AriZona, the sun keeps shining. While brands Lipton (+2.2%) and Brisk (+14.7%) keep chugging along, Pure Leaf, which is in PET aside from a handful of super-premium SKUs in glass bottles, has subtly refined its identity in recent months, launching a grant program aimed at supporting women in March and introducing three reduced sugar varieties this summer. So what does that mean for the category at large? In the short term at least, it looks likely to clear the way for Pepsi’s Pure Leaf to continue growing its +22% market share, a full ten pointsahead of Gold Peak. Meanwhile, the brand’s summer marketing campaign, “Tea is for Trying,” features Grammy-winner Questlove of the Roots appearing in three ads. In June, the brand hosted a media event in New York City with cocktail blogger Camille Wilson featuring food pairings and original mocktails that highlight Gold Peak’s versatility. Right now the brand is complemented only by canned Peace Tea (down -22.5%, according to IRI) on the conventional end, with Fuze Tea having also been phased out in the U.S. Gold Peak may indeed be a contender for the premium tea-sized hole in Coke’s portfolio. However, its refrigerated sales slipped 9% to around $227 million. The good news for Coke is that Gold Peak is starting from a position of strength according to IRI numbers through June 22, the brand grew bottled tea sales 1.7% to over $478 million, a slightly faster pace than bigger rivals like Pure Leaf (PepsiCo) and AriZona. The brand has a larger foodservice presence compared to Honest and also does broad bag-in-box sales as well. ![]() The economics are clearly better: Gold Peak’s liquid is cheaper to produce - even after shifting away from a concentrate model in 2019 - and PET bottles are easier to place. plastic bottles and only a single unsweetened SKU (along with a zero-sugar sweet tea with aspartame). It’s hard to believe those influential spenders will follow along: while Honest Tea’s organic ingredients, glass bottle options and Fair Trade certification positioned it on the premium end of the spectrum, Gold Peak is a more straightforward proposition, offering either black or green tea-based varieties in 18.5 oz. Now, as Honest Tea exits the stage, Coke is preparing its low-key but more widely available alternative, Gold Peak, to step into the spotlight. Honest Tea’s power as a mission-focused, clean ingredient brand was soon leveraged for use in other categories - see sports drinks, kids drinks, kombucha and others – that seemed to put the company in step with the progressive, high-spending Whole Foods crowd. When Coca-Cola acquired a controlling stake in Honest Tea in 2011, the path forward was clear: with sugary soft drinks under fire, the beverage conglomerate was widening its options and deepening its portfolio with an organic, better-for-you drink with a strong following already behind it. ![]() Honest Tea didn’t have extensive market share – but pulling it out of the cooler changes the perspective around the whole category. ![]()
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