Wells Fargo has reported overall positive beverage industry trends.

A new report from Wells Fargo has revealed that, as retailers continue to benefit from strong in-store sales, convenience store non-alcoholic beverages experienced strong growth (+6.6%) in the first quarter of 2016.

Wells Fargo recently conducted a survey of beverage retailers representing over 15,000 convenience store (c-store) locations across the U.S., and some key takeaways from this first quarter “Beverage Buzz” survey include:

1. Non-alcoholic beverage sales remain strong, up 6.6% in and alcoholic beverage sales were up 5% in the first quarter.
2. Non-carbs, sports drinks, energy drinks and craft/import beers continued to generate robust growth given lower gas prices and premiumization trends.
3. Monster sales decelerated despite transition issues being largely resolved which we attribute to the difficult year over year comparison. However, retailers expect Monster to return to double-digit sales growth for the balance of 2016.

Wells Fargo noted that the risk/reward for both beverage manufacturers and c-stores ahead of first quarter results remains favorable given the benefit from lower gas prices/higher consumer disposable income and overall positive beverage industry trends.