Palatinose - Soft Drinks International

36 MArKET AnALYSIS
Soft Drinks International – February 2011
PET wins again
in 2010
There has been
little change to
the long term
trend, reports
richard Corbett.
Evolution of cartons, cans, glass and PET in the last decade.
While in January, we analysed the performance
of the global soft drinks market, this
month attention is turned to what these soft
drinks are packaged in, focusing on the big four
formats: glass, PET, cartons and cans. According
to Canadean’s Wisdom database, in 2010, 86% of
the global soft drinks output were packaged in
one of these pack types. A month into 2011, we
can already use the database to assess the latest
state of play in the global packaging mix for soft
drinks.
Glass
Glass bottles have played a pivotal role in the
development of the soft drinks industry and it
was this type of packaging that enabled the first
soft drinks to reach their audience. These were
the European natural mineral springs that many
believed had medicinal properties. The glass bottle
meant that consumers did not have to travel to
the springs but could enjoy the benefits from the
comfort of their own homes. The real breakthrough
for glass bottles though, which really
allowed soft drinks operators to reach out to the
mainstream, came in 1910 with the invention of
the first automatic bottle blowing machine –
these machines could churn out more than
50,000 bottles a day.
Today glass share of the global soft drinks market
has shrunk considerably. At the turn of the
century 16% of all soft drinks were packed in
glass; today that has halved to 8%. In these difficult
times of economic insecurity, glass has been
the format that has had the most to lose due to its
association with the struggling Horeca channel
and the depressed premium end of the soft drinks
market.
Before we pen the obituary of the glass bottle,
we should however take into account that consumers
in many if not most parts of the world
Source: Canadean
still associate soft drinks in a glass bottle with
quality. There is undoubtedly a perception that
soft drinks taste better from glass and that is why,
when you next treat yourself to a night out; the
restaurant or bar will more than likely be serving
your soft drink in a glass bottle; this justifies the
price premium. Glass remains iconic. Canadean
expect glass volumes to have registered the smallest
of rises in 2010.
PET
Glass has, howeve,r been squeezed out of the
mainstream by PET. This process began just over
30 years ago when the chemist Nathaniel Wyeth
patented the first PET bottle. PET was easier to
handle for retailers, did not break, could be
resealed and was light for the on-the-move consumer.
Not surprisingly, PET was more suitable;
it was instrumental in facilitating the still water
boom that has driven the soft drinks market for a
decade and more.
Advances in PET technologies continue; PET
bottles become lighter by the day, reducing costs
at a time of high oil prices. In the juice, nectars,
still drinks and iced tea categories, shelf life and
other issues have been addressed with the right
barriers, oxygen scavengers and UV blockers
increasing PET’s presence in these soft drinks
categories. It is perhaps no surprise that since
2000 as glass’s influence has dwindled, PET’s has
jumped from 45% of global soft drinks to as much
as 61%. In terms of volume, PET use increased by
4% in 2010 according to the latest Canadean estimates.
Carton
Advances in PET development have obviously
made the beverage carton vulnerable in its juice,
nectars and still drinks heartlands, but the carton
is holding up well. Cartons make up 6% of total
soft drinks volumes; but in non-carbonated soft
drinks this rises to 12%. Of course carton use in
the still water segment is limited to a few markets
and is otherwise niche, so if we just assess juice,
nectars, still drinks and iced teas, which make up
95% of carton volume, then the share increases to
more than a quarter. The impact of PET has how