The soft drinks market in Italy

The non-alcoholic beverages market comprises several types of beverages, mainly marketed through food distribution channels, such as supermarkets and grocery shops, and food service. Non-alcoholic beverages include:

still and sparkling water

sparkling drinks

flavoured waters

fruit juices and vegetable centrifuges

energy drinks

non-alcoholic beers

Within the scope of this study, we are not going to include fruit juices as part of the soft drinks category, as we already treated this type of drinks in a specific study.

The global soft drinks market is expected to grow at a rate of 8.20% until 2027. The growth of the market is driven by the current health trends and the increasing body care of citizens, coupled with the growing inclination towards healthy beverages. In 2019, Asia held the largest share of the soft drinks market, followed by the U.S. and Europe. The European market is expected to witness significant growth due to declining consumption of alcoholic beverages and growing popularity of healthy products.

In 2019, the Italian beverages market consisted of 77% non-alcoholic beverages and 23% alcoholic beverages in terms of litres consumed. Consumption of fruit and vegetable juices and nectars decreased by -3.3% in the last year, while consumption of mineral water and still drinks increased. Overall, soft drink consumption grew 1-3% in 2019. The market is highly concentrated, with a few national and international players dominating the market.

Overall, the market is driven by various innovations, especially in packaging and new formats, and by investments in marketing to stimulate demand in a sustainable way. Recent years have also seen a general increase in prices.

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, market turnover has been supported by online sales and the continuity of production in the food sector. However, the hotel industry's results are negative, recovering only during the summer.