As the British Soft Drink Report/09 showed, companies of the drinks sector did well in an unpleasant year. Soft drinks sales in 2008 totalled £8.4BN, just 1% lower than the previous year. CEO of Britvic Soft Drinks, Paul Moody said in a statement, that development of sales proved that the industry was able to adapt & respond to change. Moody said the essential market of take-home sales, which makes up almost three quarters of total sales of the soft drink industry, grew by 1% in 2008, despite a decline in volume by 2%. Here, growth was mainly achieved by energy & sports drinks. Traditional soft drinks are benefitting from the more conscious behaviour of customers in contrast to sales of smoothies, which faltered after years of strong growth. Moody stated that customers were not willing to pay a premium to normal fruit fix. Sales of bottled water also declined.
