How cola is slowly being replaced by Britain's new favourite drink

Anna Leach
24 February 2015
Britain is falling out of love with traditional cola drinks. Here’s what we’re pouring down our throats instead!

“It used to be you’d see people on the bus drinking a can of coke, now they’ve got an energy drink,” says Olly Wehring, editor of industry magazine Just Drinks.
And the numbers back him up – recent years have seen a huge surge in the popularity of energy drinks, like Red Bull. And it’s partly at the expense of more traditional cola drinks.
Is it good for you?
Health concerns are the main reason that Brits have been cutting back on the cola and other fizzy drinks, according to consumer research experts Mintel. But there’s another reason too – and one that sector leader Coca Cola has been feeling the power of.
“Trends,” explains Wehring, “you don’t necessarily want to drink what your parents drank. Coca Cola has been around for a long time.
“It’s a dusty brand,” he adds.
Do you see more people with Coke or with energy drinks?
“It’s the same with spirits; Scotch whiskey sales are falling down. You don’t want to drink what your dad drinks.”
The things that Brits are drinking now more than ever: bottled water, vitamin water, smoothies and energy drinks.
Energy drinks are WAY up
Sales of energy drinks are soaring, despite health scandals of their own. They’vebeen banned from some schools, and energy drink Monster was even named in court cases claiming that it contains a ‘toxic’ level of caffeine.
In the face of all this, British consumption of energy drinks has DOUBLED in the last ten years.

Lucozade is far and away the biggest seller, with Red Bull and recent entrant Monster taking second and third places. One sign of how popular they’ve become is that Tesco is now slapping security tags on energy drinks to stop people shoplifting them. Normally it’s just the pricey booze getting that treatment!

Data from Euromonitor
Meanwhile Coca-Cola is SUFFERING
Coca-Cola just hit the news with a significant fall in volume sales – and that’s in Europe and America, previously its heartlands.
At the end of 2014, the amount of sparkling beverages Coca-Cola sold was down 3% across Western Europe.
That includes all premium Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero brands.
Sparkling beverages as a whole were down 1% in North America.
But we’re still drinking more cola than energy drinks
Cola sales vs energy drink sales, UK (millions of litres)

Euromonitor, off-trade sales by volume
In fact, just sales of Coca-Cola branded products by themselves outweigh the ENTIRE energy drinks market twice over.
Coca-cola sales vs Energy drinks, UK 2014 (millions of litres)
Coca-Cola cola drinks

Off-trade volume sales, AC Nielson 2014, Coca-Cola
But Britons’ appetite for energy drinks is only going up, while the cola sector has gone flat. Cola sales have hardly changed since 2010.