Low Calorie making gains in West Europe

The diet segment in west Europe has come a long way since the arrival of Diet Coke all the way back in 1983, when the product first hit the shelves of the UK, Norway and former West Germany, says Richard Corbett, stategic analyst at Candean

The diet segment in west Europe has come a long way since the arrival of Diet Coke all the way back in 1983, when the product first hit the shelves of the UK, Norway and former West Germany, says Richard Corbett, stategic analyst at Candean. 

By the end of 2005, low calorie or diet drinks will account for 18% of all carbonated drinks sold in West Europe. Diet drink share is set to continue to rise well into the future – in 2004 low calorie carbonated drinks gained share in all of the region’s markets with the exception of Germany and Portugal where it remained static. The low calorie segment is significantly outperforming the regular segment in 2005, with West European diet sales expected to rise by 5.5%, and regular volumes anticipated to shrink by more than 1%.

Demand is driven by an increasingly health-conscious audience and sizeable investment from the main players in the industry. This investment has particularly boosted the cola segment; with 78% of all low calorie drinks being made up of colas, the popularity of many of these diet cola variants has been a key driver in many countries and diet or light variants average 26% of the region’s cola sales. New product development is yielding results in other flavour types and other flavours are very slowly catching colas up. Clear lemonade variants are the next biggest contributors to the low calorie segment having overtaken orange diet drinks in 2004 to represent 5% of sales.

Low calorie carbonate penetration, still varies from over 30% in the UK to as little as 2% in Italy and just five markets – the UK, Germany, Spain, Belgium and France – make up more than three quarters of volumes in the region. In per capita terms, it is the Norwegians who drink the most diet/light carbonates, with each consumer drinking nearly 40 litres; this is nearly 10 litres more than the next biggest consumers, the Belgians. At the other end of the scale, at one litre each, the Italians drink the least. This is, however, probably related to the popularity of sparkling waters in the market – sparkling water is effectively a diet drink.

With an increasing focus on the issue of obesity, particularly among children, the opportunities for diet drinks are set to increase right across the region.  db February 2006