It may sound like a broken record for some, but ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages have seen dollar sales increase, while unit sales decreased during the past year, a similar refrain to other dairy categories. According to Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm, tea/coffee RTD, tea/coffee refrigerated, aseptic juices, and bottled juices can all be painted with this same brush.
The outliers in the RTD beverage categories are canned juices, whose dollar sales rose 8.5% to $1.43 billion and unit sales increased by 2% to 627 million for the year ending Nov. 5. On the flip side, juice/drinks refrigerated suffered both dollar sales and unit sales declines. In this subcategory, dollar sales fell 1% to $7.8 billion, while unit sales cratered 8% to 2.25 billion, Circana data reveals.