Beverage sales were up slightly over the past four weeks, but salty snacks continued to outperform beverage sales.

Most categories in the beverage market experienced modest growth in the recent four week period ending Sept. 10, 2016.

According to a report from Wells Fargo Securities, all channel dollar sales – including grocery, drug, mass and convenience stores – for the total snack and beverage categories were up +2.2%.

The following are the results for each of the major non-alcoholic manufacturers:

• The Coca-Cola Co.: Total beverage dollar sales were down -0.2% last month, driven by modest improvements in carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), and offset by deceleration in the majority of other categories.
• PepsiCo: Total beverage and snack dollar sales were up +1.1% last month as relatively solid results in salty snacks and most non-carbonated beverages was offset by weakness in CSDs and teas.
• Pepper Snapple Group: Total beverage dollar sales were down -0.8% last month, driven by slight declines in the majority of major categories.
• Monster: Dollar sales were up 3.3-5.1% during the period, reflecting a continued slowdown.

Sales for CSDs Remain Negative
In the recent four week period, total carbonated soft drink sales (excluding energy) were sown -0.3%. This trend was driven by modest average equal price growth of +1.8% and equal unit volume declines of -2.1%, Wells Fargo reported.

Coca-Cola’s carbonated soft drink sales were up +0.3% over the past four weeks, which was a result of a+1.6% average equal price increase, along with equal unit volume declines of -1.3%. According to Wells Fargo, Brand Coke (which accounts for 43% of Coca-Cola’s CSD sales) dollar sales remain negative at -1.4%.

Wells Fargo reported that PepsiCo’s CSD dollar sales continue to underperform, as they were down -0.8%, driven by -3.4% equal unit volume declines partially offset by +2.7% average equal price growth.

Dr. Pepper Snapple’s CSD dollar sales were down -0.2%, resulting from average equal price decrease of -0.5% and equal unit volume growth of +0.4%, Wells Fargo reported.

Energy Continues to Slow Down
Wells Fargo reported that, based on published data, Monster sales were up 1.1% for the recent four week period, however the aforementioned growth rate mistakenly excluded the Monster brands that were transferred from Coca-Cola; therefore, Wells Fargo estimated that the actual dollar sales growth was between +3.3-5.1% when including all of Monster’s. Individually, Red Bull’s dollar sales were up +2.8%, Rockstar’s continued to soften to +1.9% and PepsiCo’s Kickstart remains strong at +20.1%.

Beer Category Softens
While Constellation Brands still remained very strong, Wells Fargo reported that overall beer sales were only up a modest +1.1% in the recent four week period. This trend was driven by equal unit declines of -1.0% and solid +2.1% pricing.

Wells Fargo reported the following results for each of the major brands for the past four weeks:

• Anheuser-Busch InBev’s dollar sales were flat, driven by -1.4% declines in equal unit volume and +1.4% average equal price increase.
• MillerCoors dollar sales were down -2.4%, based on average pricing up +1.5% and -3.8% equal volume declines.
• Constellation Brands remained very strong with +15.5% sales growth, driven by average pricing up +2.8% and +12.3% equal volume growth. Constellation gained nearly two points of dollar share again.

According to the report from Wells Fargo, salty snacks continued to outperform beverage categories, despite slight sequential softening. Salty snacks dollar sales increased +3.5% during this period on +2.0% equal unit growth and +1.5% equal unit pricing. PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay dollar sales softened sequentially, up +2.4% driven by +1.2% equal unit volume growth and +1.1% average equal pricing.