The Drinks List
Coca-Cola remains top soft drink by a large distance
![Soft options: Coca-Cola’s classic variant is still the biggest brand while Diet Coke came second (credit: Getty/Jonathan Knowles)](https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/var/wrbm_gb_hospitality/storage/images/_aliases/wrbm_large/publications/hospitality/morningadvertiser.co.uk/drinks/soft-hot-drinks/what-is-the-best-selling-soft-drink-of-2021/4581673-1-eng-GB/What-is-the-best-selling-soft-drink-of-2021.jpg)
Volume and value sales have decreased across the board by about 20% across the top seven brands in The Drinks List - top brands to stock in 2022.
Coca-Cola saw a 19.5% fall in volume sales from 536,040 hectolitres (HL) to 431,747HL, while its value sales dropped from £336.9m to £275.1m – an 18.3% plummet. However, this still represented about 100,000HL and £48m more sales respectively than second placed Diet Coke and almost 185,000hl and close to £143m more than Pepsi Max in third spot.
Diet Coke saw volume losses of 15.3% (from 391,090HL to 331,213HL) and value sales drop by 11.8% (from £246.1m to £217.1m) while Pepsi Max’s volumes dropped from 335,816HL to 247,329HL (minus 26.3%) and value fell from £172.m to £132.3m (minus 23.2%).
Best of the rest
Positions four to six were taken by R Whites, Pepsi and Schweppes Lemonade, which all lost between 20.3% and 25.2% in volumes and 18.2% and 24.9% in value.
The only shuffle in order from last year’s list involved new entrant Schweppes Lime Cordial reach ninth place and Red Bull dropping a spot to 10th. Interestingly, only Coke Zero and Red Bull suffered volume and value losses in single-digit percentage points versus all other brands. Coke Zero volume sales went from 145,535HL to 135,872HL – a fall of 6.6% – and value dropped by 6.7% from £87.9m to £82m.
Faring best in respect of its own statistics from last year was Red Bull, which saw volumes drop by just 4.4% from 67,846HL to 64,864HL and value fell 3.4% from £73.1m to £70.6m.
Despite retaining seventh position, Diet Pepsi was hit by the most severe declines of 28.2% in volume sales (218,826hl down to 157,202hl) and 26.3% in value sales (£114.4m down to £84.3m).
- All data provided by CGA for the 12 months to 9 October 2021
2021 rank | Brand | Volume (hl) | Value (£m) | 2020 rank | Up or down |
1 | Coca-Cola | 431,747 | 275.1 | 1 | Level |
2 | Diet Coke | 331,213 | 217.1 | 2 | Level |
3 | Pepsi Max | 247,329 | 132.3 | 3 | Level |
4 | R Whites | 208,898 | 109.4 | 4 | Level |
5 | Pepsi | 200,366 | 108.2 | 5 | Level |
6 | Schweppes Lemonade | 191,507 | 116.1 | 6 | Level |
7 | Diet Pepsi | 157,202 | 84.3 | 7 | Level |
8 | Coke Zero | 135,872 | 82 | 8 | Level |
9 | Schweppes Lime Cordial | 84,857 | 31.4 | N/A | New entry |
10 | Red Bull | 64,864 | 70.6 | 9 | -1 |