The market covers instant and ground coffee, black and green leaf teas, hot chocolate and malted drinks, and fruit and herbals teas.
Despite this latest annual decline, the market for hot beverages in the UK has remained strong, with double-digit growth witnessed over the five-year period to 1 February 2014.
Due to the long history of high consumption in the UK — with estimates placing daily consumption of at approximately 165 million cups of tea and 70 million cups of coffee — combined with the constant expansion to the range of beverages and flavours available across the various sectors, demand in the hot beverages sector remains remarkably robust.
While overall demand is strong, fluctuating trends in consumption have resulted in decline across certain sectors. Historically, and culturally, the most important hot beverage in the UK, the black tea market has seen its value fall over the last three years largely due to rising popularity of fruit and herbal teas, due primarily to increasing choice and greater awareness of their reported health benefits, alongside strong growth in the coffee market.
Overall, the demand for hot drinks is likely to remain strong, with steady annual growth forecast in the market over the next five years. The main drivers of growth will be the ground coffee segment as consumers increasingly seek quality over the convenience of instant coffee – and the speciality, green, fruit and herbal tea sectors.
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