Quenching your thirst for beverage information; A look at iced beverages

It is not a surprise that in Australia, a country where the average daily temperature exceeds 25 °C, cold drinks are extremely popular. One in four Australians purchase a cold drink from a commercial outlet on a daily basis. But with global warming kicking in, we need something colder than just cold.

According to The NPD Group, the iced beverage category (iced coffees, frappes, smoothies and frozen drinks) has shown double digit growth year on year since the company started tracking the foodservice industry in 2009. This has resulted in the average purchase consumption for iced beverages nearly doubling from 2010 to 2014. As this category becomes increasingly popular, there are some key growth opportunities evident at breakfast and snacking.

Iced beverages have become an important part of the breakfast meal, presenting the highest average growth rate over the past four years. For this occasion, consumers are more likely to include an iced beverage with their breakfast foods or as a meal replacement accompanied with other beverages.

This behaviour is not just a breakfast time habit, iced beverages are typically purchased with other items across all meal occasions. What is even more interesting is those additional items are more likely to be other beverages such as carbonated soft drinks. This is good news for operators as pairing iced beverages with other products results in a higher eater cheque than when purchased on its own.

Snacking is still the number one occasion for iced beverages. Nearly two in five iced beverages are purchased as a snack. This category is top of mind in the afternoon as consumers look for a pick-me-up refreshment to finish their day. To put this into context to other common snacks, iced beverages is as popular as bottled water. Being the second most popular occasion, snacking is a significant part of the Australian lifestyle and worth an impressive $6.9bn to the foodservice industry annually.

Relatively speaking, iced beverages is still a niche category but with long term consecutive growth, there is a clear opportunity to make this category a hotter than hot trend.

Who is the iced beverage consumer? NPD’s tracking service CREST*, identifies the main consumer as being under 35 and with equal consumption amongst males and females. Given the mainstream nature of iced beverages, this category is worth taking a second look at.

*Consumer reporting of eating share trends

Source: The NPD Group/CREST® - Year End June 2014