Bottled water sales and consumption projected to be the number one packaged drink by 2016
Building on last year’s growth of 4.7%, bottled water will again post significant increases in both sales and consumption for 2014, according to preliminary data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC). Information presented by BMC managing director of research, Gary Hemphill, during the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) Annual Business Conference in Dallas, Texas, points to bottled water’s growing share of the packaged beverage market.
“While other beverages struggle to gain or maintain market share, bottled water is expected to have a 7.4% increase in 2014 – that equates to 10.9 billion gallons,” says Hemphill. “Every segment of the bottled water industry is growing and we consider bottled water to be the most successful mass-market beverage category in the U.S.,” he added. “In fact, single serve PET plastic bottled water outperformed all other beverage categories, posting an increase of 8.4%.”