Among refrigerated juices, the standards, like orange, apple and lemonade, struggle to keep sales up, while new combination juices are pushing their way to the top. Vegetable juice blends and juice and drink smoothies are showing promise with rising unit sales, and cranberry cocktail blows all others right out of the juice case. 

In the 52 weeks ended Mar. 24, 2013, the refrigerated juices/drinks category saw its dollar sales go up 3.7% to $6.5 billion, and units were up 1.4%, according to data from Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago. The dollar and unit sales for many of the segments in this category struggled, but a few showed promising numbers.

Here are some of the segments that make up the refrigerated juice/drink category:

• Refrigerated orange juice ($3.5 billion sales, units down 0.5%)
• Refrigerated juice and drink smoothies ($667.2 million sales, units up 30.5%)
• Refrigerated lemonade ($520.8 million sales, units down 3.3%)
• Refrigerated vegetable juice/cocktail ($61.9 million sales, units up 19.4%)
• Refrigerated cranberry cocktail ($47.1 million sales, units up 243.3%)

Seeing the biggest success was the refrigerated cranberry cocktail/drink segment. Though not the biggest player in overall sales, with $47.1 million, when it came to increases, it rose above the rest. It had a staggering 243.3% jump in unit sales and 308.3% in dollar sales. Coca-Cola cranberry cocktail led the segment in overall sales with $34.3 million. The dollar sales were up an impressive 2,097.5% and unit sales jumped 1,943.2%. Millennium Products Inc. saw dollar sales go up 71.5% and units rose 76.5%. (See table)

Making a significant splash in the category was the refrigerated juice and drink smoothies segment, which saw units go up 30.5% and dollar sales rise 32.4% to $667.2 million. The refrigerated vegetable juice/cocktail segment also saw progress; the units were up 19.4% and dollar sales rose 18.6% to $61.9 million. The only other segment seeing unit sales increase was “refrigerated all other juices.” The dollar sales rose 11.3% (to $71.7 million) and unit sales jumped 30%. Dominating this segment was POM Wonderful with dollar sales up 14.9% to $54.6 million and units rising 47%.

The refrigerated orange juice segment led the category in overall sales, with $3.5 billion. But it saw minimal change, dollar sales were up 1.1% and unit sales dropped 0.5%. Among its top five, Coca-Cola and Tropicana Dolewere neck and neck with overall sales, both with $1.1 billion, but neither saw unit sales increase. Seeing the most progress in the segment was Sweeney Enterprises; unit sales were up 7.1%, with dollar sales up a slight 1.3%. (See table)

In the refrigerated lemonade segment, sales were a little sour, with unit sales down 3.3%, but dollar sales were up 2.2% to $520.8 million. Coca-Cola’s lemonade was the leader in overall sales, at $391.6 million (dollar sales up 4.7%), but unit sales dropped 2.9%. Newman’s Own saw the most success with unit sales up 5.2%, and dollar sales up 4.6%. Another segment that struggled was refrigerated apple juice. Dollar sales dropped 6.3% (to $60.9 million overall sales) and unit sales were down 6.7%.