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Has bottled water industry dripped dry?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Latest reporters' blogs, Russell Parsons March 13th, 2008 by Russell Parsons

After years of growing sales and increasing consumption the runaway success story which is the bottled water industry in the UK is showing a few signs of slowing down of late.

Hot on the heels of being attacked by environment minister Phil Woolas, who last month called the sector “daft” and said it bordered on being “morally unacceptable,” comes the latest Britvic Soft Drinks Report which revealed a sales decline for both ‘water plus’ and plain water last year.

Sales of functional and flavoured water (‘water plus’) dropped 11 per cent last year, driven by falls in flavoured waters, which account for 99 per cent of the sub-category.

Plain water sales, Evian, Volvic et al dipped three per cent.

Of course, the most logical explanation for the fall would be the inclement weather conditions during the summer of 2007; wet and miserable days are hardly conducive to drinking water.

Personally, I was more inclined to reach for the Cocoa last summer than cool off with a Volvic Touch of Fruit, but then I have never been seduced by the rush towards bottled water over the last five years.

Weather aside, does this signal the end of the boom times for the bottled water industry?

The raft of new entrant into the market over the last five years has left consumers spoilt with choice with too many indistinct brands on the shelves.

This may well lead to a cull in the number of brands as consumers zero on the tried and trusted which could, in turn, lead to further declines in the coming years.

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