Moreover, even though giants like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo entered on this segment as well, the dwindling purchasing power helps private labels take the lead by volume. In terms of value, however, Red Bull remains the top seller.
“The private labels market has gone up a lot not only in Romania but also worldwide. More and more such products are entering the market,” Red Bull officials said.
The largest producers by volume in August 2011-July 2012 are private labels, followed by European Drinks with Rienergy, Candy Globe (a Hungarian company) with Hell, Coca-Cola with Burn and Red Bull, according to Nielsen data.
On the other hand, Red Bull is the leader by value, followed by private labels.
“Red Bull accounts for 90% of the on-premise (hotel, restaurants) market in terms of value, while its share of the retail segment, where the number of private labels is on the rise, stands at about 30%, and its share of the gas station sales is about 50%,” the company officials said.
The energy drinks market reached 14.7 million liters last year, according to data previously provided by Pepsi, which sells the Adrenaline energy drink brand. Early this year, when it launched the product, Pepsi said this market was the only one not to have witnessed decline last year, despite the difficult economy conditions.
At a price of at least 20 lei (almost EUR5) per liter of energy drink, the market might stand at EUR60 million to EUR70 million.
Red Bull officials said that even though the world energy drinks market grew by 10% in the first half, local sales were flat.
“The energy drinks market has remained at about the same level as in 2011, not just because of the economic crisis, but also because sales were influenced by the [bad] weather in the first two months of the year.”
Officials of the company remain optimistic, though. “The segment is growing in all Western and Eastern European countries. Even the markets with the highest consumption per capita are expected to grow at a steady pace,” said Red Bull representatives.
According to Nielsen data, 47.7% of the drinks sold in August 2011-July 2012 were sold in hypermarkets and supermarkets, and 17.4% in stores with less than 20 square meter floor space. Volumes sold in gas stations accounted for 5% during the same period.
The global energy drinks market, dominated by Red Bull, Burn and Monster, rose by 14% to about 5 billion liters in 2011 compared with the previous year according to the data provided by Zenith International. According to the same source, the global market amounted to EUR26.5 billion, up 13% year on year.
Although Red Bull remained the top product by value on the Romanian market, several local producers have tried to gain a slice of the market, too.
The energy drinks market also includes Rio Bucovina (one of the top producers of bottled water) with its Golden Horse brand, Dacardi Impex (producer and importer of energy drinks based in Oradea, NW Romania), with New Force and Big Party and Tymbark (a producer of soft drinks), with an imported brand, Tiger.
Monster, one of the world’s leading producers of energy drinks, entered the local market last fall via EQ Motorsport Management dealer. The company officials said sales had exceeded expectations and Monster would officially enter the Romanian market when plans were done.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)