The Homa Files

TakeAway: Drink makers have figured out that consumers not only want the absence of “negatives” in their foods and beverages, but now also want some “positives”. 

Let’s see if coconut water turns around the bottled water biz.

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Excerpted from WSJ, “Coconut Water Bubbles” By Suzanne Vranica, August 27, 2009

As the once-hot bottled water business loses steam, drink makers are starting to pour money into marketing campaigns for what they hope will be the next sector to come to a boil: coconut water …

Coconut water is the clear liquid inside young, green coconuts and is different from coconut milk, which is pressed from the coconut meat. A popular drink in Brazil, the water is now catching on in the U.S., thanks to its healthy image and athletes and celebrities … who drink the product …

For the past 52-weeks ended July 12, sales of bottled water dropped 6% to $7.6 billion …  sales of coconut water doubled this year to roughly $20 million

 “Although it’s a very tiny part of the beverage business, it’s growing fast because it’s seen as a natural product, it’s relatively low in calories and it has a lot of potassium”

The category’s potential is now attracting the biggest players in the beverage business. Earlier this month, PepsiCo agreed to buy Brazil’s largest coconut water company, which makes coconut water brands Kero Coco and Trop Coco …

Edit by TJS

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Full Article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125132416429761857.html

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This entry was posted on September 16, 2009 at 7:29 am and is filed under Beverages - Soft Drinks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.