Vault Energy Drink

Energy Sales Soaring

By Joe Bush, Contributing Editor.

Brent Howard isn’t just a retailer of energy drinks and shots. He’s a user.

Division manager for Sun Pacific Energy in Kennewick, Wash., Howard has seen the energy drink category take flight then watched as energy shots surged to prominence over the past two years. He said he has learned two things about effectively marketing the category: it’s not just for young whippersnappers and the drinks work.

“I’m 61 years old and I do a Red Bull every afternoon,” said Howard, from Sun Pacific’s 30 Sun Mart stores. “The appeal is a little broader than we think.”

Howard reports 10% growth in unit volume of full-size energy drinks in his stores in the past year. Just as the national numbers show, full-size drinks outsell shots at Sun Mart, but shots’ growth is much stronger—70% in unit growth in the past year, said Howard.

“I’m still shocked at the growth rate (of shots),” Howard said of full-sized energy drinks. “I thought they’d peak.”

Beverage Marketing Corp.’s Gary Hemphill said reports of energy’s plateau are greatly exaggerated. Numbers from Symphony/IRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm, agree. For the 52 weeks ended May 15, 2011, in all channels except Wal-Mart, full-sized energy drinks accounted for over $2.2 billion in sales, a 13.4% rise over the same period in 2010. Unit sales rose more than 15%. Shots rang up more than $400 million in sales, a 27% boost; unit growth was 25%.

“We don’t think it’s peaked,” said Hemphill, senior vice president in charge of Beverage Marketing’s Information Services Division. “It slowed in 2009 to some extent because of the economy, but all refreshment beverages slowed in 2008 and 2009 and there was somewhat of a rebound in 2010. Our basic belief is that energy is a huge need and there’s considerable room for growth for the category.”

Filling a Void “It’s the existing brands that have the potential to increase their volume and increase their sales because the brands in the market today already satisfy today’s consumers,” Hemphill said. “Anybody else thinking about coming into the marketplace by introducing a me-too product that offers no differentiation, is pointless.”

Beverage Marketing Corp. doesn’t expect to see the rapid product introduction the energy category experienced from 2008-1010. “The category really isn’t that new anymore. It’s a decade or so old, and so while we see growth in the category, our expectation is that you’re not likely to see many successful new product launches,” Hemphill said. “The core consumer for energy drinks has been younger males. That’s how the category began, that’s how the category grew. We see energy now as a very broad need state that could be applicable to any consumer demographic. We think there’s a potential that the demographics of the category will broaden and that there’s an opportunity to grow sales of existing brands by extending it to new consumers.

The Energy Drink Resource: Xyience Blu Pom Energy Review

I've had an Xyience drink in the past and it was good but I really wish that my local Circle K would carry Xyience drinks other than the sugar free ones. There's nothing wrong with sugar free drinks, I'd just rather have a regular one. Anyway, Hydrive's can designs are all nice, the sugar free drinks have a simple and clean can design that I really like. I've had drinks with similar flavors to this in the past and pomegranate has always been one of my favorite flavors, I didn't figure that it would taste horrible when I opened it so I decided to take a big drink since I was thirsty. As I predicted, the drink tasted really nice. It tastes just like you would think, it's mostly a pomegranate background with the "blu" being the overlying flavor. It still manages to have a nice bite to the taste and is really refreshing. Honestly, it doesn't taste sugar free and I probably wouldn't think it was if it didn't say so on the can. The proprietary blend contains 1,340 mg overall. It contains Taurine, Glucoronolactone, Caffeine, Guarana, Inositol and L-Carnitine. I remember reading that glucoronolactone is what prevents the "crash" that some people experience and that the crash is caused by too much sugar. Since this drink is sugar free, who knows that the glucoronolactone is for. Still, I experienced a nice energy buzz that lasted about 2 1/2 hours. I highly recommend this drink for anybody trying to stay in shape since it's sugar free or anybody looking for a good energy drink in general, it's not bad.

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