Most recent all-channel Nielsen numbers for the four-weeks ending July 11, show slow growth across most categories, with carbonated soft drink sales declining.
All channel dollar sales (including grocery, drug, mass, and convenience stores) softened during the four-week period ending July 11, 2015, according to the latest Nielsen data, as reported by Wells Fargo Securities LLC.
Carbonated soft drinks, excluding energy drinks, fell 1.1% for the four weeks (up 0.5% over the past 12 weeks), driven by solid average price growth of 3.8% and offset by equal unit volume declines of 4.7%, according to Wells Fargo.
In the energy drinks category, growth decelerated slightly, with Red Bull continuing to outperform Monster. Overall, the energy category saw solid dollar sales growth of 9.8%, driven by strong results from Red Bull which had 10.5% dollar sales growth this period (+12.5% for 12-weeks), driven by solid 5.7% equal unit volume gains and +4.6% average equal pricing as its new pricing went into effect at the beginning of January.
Monster generated 9.5% dollar sales growth (+9.7% for 12-weeks), driven by overall 10.1% equal unit volume growth and 0.5% average equal pricing decline.
“Following three months of mid-teen dollar sales growth earlier this year, Monster has reported five straight months of high single-digit sales growth, which we believe could be partially related to the transition in distribution as well as continued strength from Red Bull’s successful innovation and pricing,” said Bonnie Herzog, a senior analyst with Wells Fargo.
Meanwhile, beer dollar sales in the four-week period were up 2.1% (up 2.2% for 12-weeks) driven by equal unit declines of 0.5% and pricing growth of 2.6%.
The salty snacks category also softened, with dollar sales up 1.4% for the four weeks (up 3.3% for 12-weeks) with 1.2% equal unit declines and 2.6% equal unit pricing.