SDI JUL09.qxd - Soft Drinks International

INDUSTRY NEWS
4 Soft Drinks International – JULY 2009
Europe
Resilient
performance
THIS year's annual British Soft Drink Association
(BSDA) Industry Lunch coincided with
the first year review of the associations' Sustainability
Strategy. Speaking at the event
Paul Moody, BSDA President and Chief
Executive of Britvic plc, highlighted the
progress the industry had made in terms of
its environmental record.
Moody informed soft drink leaders that,
amongst a raft of initiatives, one member
company plans to instal a wind turbine
which will result in a 60% reduction in electricity
use. New chillers installed at another
company were HFC-free, leading to a 50%
energy saving. There were advances in recycled
PET; less waste was going to landfill, and
more being recycled. Packaging had become
lightweight with less use of shrink film and
companies were making inroads into the target
of 20% reduction in water usage by
2020.
Commenting on the industry's performance
in the current economic climate he
said it had proved resilient and added: “The
Sales decline in
consumer slump
NORWAY's non-alcoholic beverages market
continued to lose ground in the first four
months of 2009, negatively impacted by
depressed sales, with a further decline forecast
in the face of a downturn in Norway's
short term economic outlook.
A beverages market sectoral report by the
Department of Finance (DoF) has forecast a
marginal improvement in the sales of bottled
water and soft drinks in the second half of
2009. However, drinks companies are predicting
a further dip in sales, with the prospect of
Remove soft drinks
from schools?
FINLAND's National Institute for Health
and Welfare (NIHW) is pressing government
to introduce legislation that compels
local authorities to remove sugared soft
drinks from kindergarten and primary
school lunch menus and diets in their
municipalities.
Moreover, the NIHW wants the government
to require local authorities to replace
sugared soft drinks with 'healthier substi-
Paul Moody left with Roger White, CEO of AG Barr and newly elected Vice-President of the BSDA.
confidence that our consumers have in our
products gives us the opportunity to innovate.
The way in which tastes are changing
gives us the need to do so. We are not just
part of the food and drink industry, we are
also in many ways one of the nation's cre-
sales lifting again during the first half of 2010.
Figures released by NHO Mat & Drikke
(NHO), Norway's food and drinks industry
federation, reveal that soft drinks sales were
down 3.2% in the first four months, while
sales of bottled water were hit hardest, and
slumped by 9.9% compared with the corresponding
period last year.
"These are challenging times for alcohol
and non-alcohol products in Norway. We all
hope that the decline is temporary, but in the
case of soft drinks, the market is shifting to
sugar-free drinks. The present cooling in sales
is linked to the economic climate and lower
consumer spending. We expect this situation
to improve in 2010," said NHO's Administrative
Director Knut Maroni.
tutes' that include milk, mineral water and
natural fruit juice products. The NIHS plans
to meet with government ministers in
August to discuss the basis for, and the possible
content of, new legislation.
"By allowing soft drinks on their school
menus, some local authorities risk being in
violation of the current health foods law
which requires them to offer school children
healthy variety in lunches," said Pekka
Puska, the NIHW's Director-General.
This legal requirement to offer schoolgoing
children "fully balanced meals" free of
sugared soft drinks, is not necessarily imple-
ative industries. Design and invention are the
heart of what we do. This relentless focus
on innovation over the recent history of the
industry has been instrumental in modernising
the category and providing substantial
choice for our consumers.”
Iceland may raise
VAT on soft drinks
THE government of Iceland, in a revenue
raising exercise intended to plug holes in the
Nordic nation's emergency budget, is considering
a proposal to raise taxes on 'high sugar
content' soft drinks. The new proposal, which
stands as a collaborative effort between the
MoF and the Department of Health (DoH),
also aims to shift consumer sales to more
expensive fruit-based drinks and bottled
water.
"We must meet the real challenges we
face with higher taxation. This means that
taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fuel will
increase, but the burden is also on the government
to obtain additional taxes from the
less obvious areas. By taxing high sugar-content
soft drinks we have the opportunity to
both raise monies and change consumer
habits, for the better," said Finance Minister
Steingrimur Sigfusson.
The taxes levied on alcohol in Iceland are
being increased by 15%. However, the proposal
is to raise VAT charged on high sugar
content soft drinks by 5% to 10% in the
autumn. The MoF expects the tax to raise an
additional €24 million over a full fiscal year.
mented in all municipalities, said Puska. www.softdrinksinternational.com