With new shoppers entering the market and a steady stream of flavour innovations, there are numerous opportunities for local retailers to prosper from sports & energy drinks.
If there’s one soft drinks area that really gets retailers buzzing, it’s Sports & Energy drinks. The number one bestselling subcategory in UK convenience, stimulant energy delivered value growth of £181.5m last year [Circana Convenience, Britvic Defined Soft Drinks, 52WE 31.12.23].
In years gone by, energy drinks were frequently associated with video gamers, and students powering through the night to hit deadlines, but these days, there’s a whole new demographic of consumers entering the arena as sugar-free stimulants rise up the ranks.
Red Bull Sugarfree sells more units than any other unflavoured, zero sugar functional energy variant [Nielsen Scantrack, Total coverage, Unit sales, MAT 03.08.2024], whilst bringing a more affluent and mature shopper to the category [Kantar Worldpanel | Combined Panel | Total Market | 52 weeks to 9th July 2023], claims Red Bull.
“To ensure we continue to meet the demand for low sugar across the full range, Red Bull is now leveraging the no-sugar need across the flavoured part of its portfolio,” states the firm. “Combining the tastes of raspberry and other forest fruits, complemented by herbal notes of verbena, Red Bull Pink Edition Sugarfree is the first fully sugar-free flavour in the portfolio, aiming to attract new shoppers to the category.”
Zero-sugar variants are becoming increasingly popular within the stimulation segment and are growing by 26% YOY [Nielsen Total Cov. Incl. Discounters 52wks 13.04.24],” states Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I. “We recently launched Lucozade Alert Zero Sugar Mango Peachade in a smaller format in 250ml cans to give shoppers even more choice for this popular zero-sugar flavour,” says Matt Gouldsmith, Channel Director, Wholesale.
Barr Soft Drinks claims that high numbers of non-energy drinkers were previously put off by sugar and concerned about the effects of caffeine, which has led to growth in “natural” energy drinks. “50% of shoppers perceive Rubicon RAW as being a natural energy drink [Mintel Energy Report 2023], thanks to the natural caffeine and fruit juice content,” says the company. “That’s higher than any of its big can energy competitors, by some margin!”
Fruity flavours have also been central to Rubicon RAW’s success, with its Apple & Guava variant exceeding all sales expectations, selling over 3.5 million cans since launching in May 2022.
This summer was the most disruptive and impactful one yet for the brand, backed by a £3.5m investment, with mass sampling reaching one in five big can energy drinkers.
Boost Drinks agrees that the concept of natural energy is becoming popular. “Across all ranges and categories, consumers are looking to ‘lighten’ their drinking options, by reducing or removing the sugar content from their intake,” says Commercial Director Adrian Hipkiss. “They are also seeking more natural alternatives including increased real fruit juice content, as well as natural ingredients and stimulants.”
The firm’s sugar-free products are enjoying 18% growth YOY [Circana Symbols & Independents 52 w/e value sales data to 29/06/24]. The group recently introduced three sugar-free SKUs in both the Energy and Sport ranges. Tropical Blitz and Apple & Raspberry Sugar-Free Energy (250ml) and Limited-Edition Watermelon & Lime Sport (500ml) launched in May 2024, and have seen a +23% growth of Boost Sugar Free 250ml since the NPD launched [Boost Sugar Free 250ml 8 w/e value sales data to 29/04/24].
Beyond the sugar-free segment, new flavours are equally critical. “Innovation has been vital to the success of energy drinks growth this year, with particular engagement around new flavours, which has helped broaden the category’s appeal to new groups of shoppers, where taste was previously a barrier,” states Red Bull.
NPD has been largely incremental for the company with nearly half (45%) of shoppers that bought into the Editions flavour range being new to the Red Bull brand [Kantar Combined Panel, buyer numbers vs YA, MAT 21.01.2024]. “Editions have recruited shoppers fast, with 2.8 million buying the brand, growing seven-fold in just two years [ibid],” says the firm. “Editions shoppers tend to be younger than the average energy drink consumer, with 60% of buyers being under 35 [Kantar Worldpanel, Combined Panel, MAT 07.07.2024].”
September saw the launch of Red Bull Winter Edition Iced Vanilla Berry. Consumer testing showed a high purchase intent for the new flavour, with 72% saying they would be likely to buy an Iced Vanilla Berry flavoured Energy Drink and 49% of these inclined to say it is new and interesting [Appinio | N=1,000 | March 2024].
With 82% of Red Bull Edition shoppers wanting to try new flavours within Energy often [Appinnio Survey, N=469, March 2024], this novel flavour aims to replicate the success of last year’s Red Bull Winter Edition Spiced Pear, which sold two million serves within its first six months [Nielsen Scantrack | Total Coverage | Serving units = 250ml can serving | 24 weeks to 31st December 2023].
Hafiz Ahmad, manager at Sunny’s Premier in Stirling was one of the first to stock the new Red Bull. “It started off really well, then died down a little bit,” he says.
It was a similar story with Monster Nitro Cosmic Peach. “People liked to try it at first, but now it’s not so popular,” he claims.
But regardless of whether or not they inspire repeat purchases, Hafiz claims that having lots of energy drink flavours is crucial to his store’s success. “We always try to have different options, even if it’s a slower seller,” he states.
Demand for energy drinks in general is high with the store’s customer base. “There are a lot of University of Stirling students near us,” says Hafiz. “They play all different kinds of sports – football, basketball, running, so energy drinks are very popular.
“Monster and Red Bull are our bestsellers. There are so many different flavours of Monster and we do American flavours as well. There are a couple of flavours that fly out always – Pipeline Punch and Mango [Loco].”
But it is the constant roll out of new flavours that keeps customers thirsty for more. “We try our best to meet customers’ demands, so if a customer messages on social media that we need a certain flavour then we bring it in for them,” he says. “They know we import drinks and they don’t mind paying a little bit extra for them because you can’t find them anywhere else around here. We try to bring in products that the big stores don’t have – that’s why we’re busy because people like to come here to see some unusual products.”
Red Bull concurs that flavours drive sales: “Flavoured energy drinks now sell 27% more units per store than two years ago [Nielsen Scantrack, Total coverage, Unit sales vs 2YA, MAT 03.08.2024] and 71% of new energy shoppers buy into Flavours [Kantar Worldpanel, Take-home, MAT 24.12.2023], meaning many sales are incremental to the category.”
