1.1 Definition and presentation

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.

1.2 A European market on the rise

The NACE code "C****" entitled "Mineral and other bottled water and soft drink industry" is used to obtain information related to the turnover of the soft drink market.

Evolution of the European turnover for the NACE code "C****" EU **, ****-****, in billion euros Source: ****

As a result, the European market for ...

1.3 Italian Market

The production and sale of non-alcoholic beverages in Italy employs **,*** full-time equivalent jobs in activities related to the production, processing and marketing of the sector's products.

The actors involved in the supply chain generate an added value of *.* billion euro and contribute to the Italian state coffers with taxes and contributions ...

1.4 Imports and Exports

In order to understand the involvement of Italy in the international trade of soft drinks, we had a look at the data relative to the HS code **.**.**: Non-alcoholic beverages; non-alcoholic beer available on UN Comtrade.

As you will see in the following graph, it is clear that Italy is a net ...

1.5 COVID-19 Impact

The soft drinks sector has been hit hard by the Covid-** emergency and the introduction of the Sugar Tax scheduled for January the *st ****, which we will discuss in section *, risks causing new and heavy effects on the market with obvious repercussions on the economic values and employment expressed by the ...

2.1 Demand Characteristics

We have said that, as of ****, Italians consume a total of **liters/capita in a year. To have an idea of the evolution of the demand for these products, it is therefore useful to have a look at the numbers of this consumption over the years.

Evolution of per capita consumption ...

2.2 Geographic Distribution of Soft Drink Demand in Italy

A good indicator of demand for any product is the average expenditure of consumers for that product. Indeed, excluding goods which satisfy essential needs, consumers that spend more on a certain product, in this case soft drinks, are more likely to spend more on it also in the future and therefore ...

2.3 Bio and Vintage Soft Drinks Attract Always More Italians

According to Assobibe, soft drink consumption has fallen by **% since ****. The good news is that manufacturers have reduced calories by **.*% and sugar by **% over the same period. Moreover, Italians are increasingly choosing wellness drinks, sports drinks (***) and specialty drinks, an indication of the fact that health is becoming a primary concern ...

3.1 Structure and Dynamics of the Market

The companies active in this market, although grouped in a single study, nevertheless belong to two different markets with different competitive dynamics.

The mineral water market is predominantly composed of highly focused companies, while in the soft drinks market there are also companies specialized in a completely different production, such as ...

3.2 Geographic Distribution of Production

Overall, the Italian market of soft drinks is composed of ** companies and *** plants. As it can be seen from the map below, the producers are mainly present in the northwestern regions (***) [***].

Geographic Distribution of the Soft Drinks Producers

Italy, ****, in %

Source: ****

3.3 Distribution Channels

The Italian consumption of soft drinks is made up of approximately **% of domestic consumption, mainly (***) by small retailers which, in addition to traditional foodstuffs, also include dairies, bakeries and other specialized outlets.

The remaining **% of consumption happens through the out-of-home sales and service points which refer to the various HoReCa channels ...

3.4 Market Shares

The main brands of the top * production groups of soft drinks in Italy are:

Coca-Cola HBC Italia (***), Sprite, Kinley, Fuzeta, Powerade, Royal Bliss, Honest, AdeZ, Burn, Monster, etc. San Benedetto (***): Schweppes, Energade, San Benedetto drinks, San Benedetto baby drinks, Amor Mio, Ben's, San Benedetto Thè, Aquavitamin, etc. Sanpellegrino (***), Sanbittèr, Gingerino, ...

4.1 Offer Typology

Refreshing drinks include several product families. The types of non-alcoholic refreshment beverages (***) include these different product families in Italy [***]:

Colas Still or sparkling fruit drinks Lemonades, lime, tonics Tea-based drinks (***) Coffee-based drinks Energy and sport drinks Non-alcoholic aperitifs Flavored waters

Non-alcoholic refreshment beverages are divided into two main categories: soft drinks ...

4.2 Consumer Price Index

In order to analyze the pricing of soft drinks in Italy and its evolution over time, we need to start by looking at the CPI which measures the average price changes of goods and services purchased by households.

The graph below shows the evolution of said Index. Even though we see ...

4.2 A variety of Prices that Reflect the Diversity of the Offer

With the diversity of the offer that is inherent in the soft drinks market, the price range of its main products is quite large. In order to have an idea of such diversity, it might be useful to have a look at prices for different types of soft drinks, according to ...

5.1 Rules and Regulations

For what concerns the production of soft drinks, the Presidential Decree No *** of ** May **** lists the substances which may be used.

If a new substance other than those listed in Presidential Decree No. ***/**** is to be used in the production of soft drinks, Article **, third paragraph, of the aforementioned decree, amended ...

5.2 The 2022 Sugar Tax

The Italian sugar tax, which should take effect starting from ****, establishes a single rate of ** cents per liter for soft drinks containing more than ** grams of sugar per **** milliliters, which corresponds to about * cents for a *** milliliter can.

Most soft drinks on the market fall within this range, even though the ...