Sales of Nestlé Water’s Vittel have fallen 59% to £8.3m, while the firm’s other international brand, Perrier, dropped 12% to £1.7m. Market leading Volvic from Danone fell 10% to £120m, and Evian’s sales fell 11% to £98m.
Perhaps demonstrating the power of ‘local’, Nestle’s Buxton water saw sales jump 12% to £46m, while the company’s recently launched Pure Life brand has achieved sales of £3m since it launch last October. Experts say the trend can be explained by consumers who still insist on buying bottled water being increasingly reluctant to purchase non-British brands.
Tesco bottled water buyer Jamie Feely said: “The traditionally dominant European brands are facing heavy competition from locally sourced bottled waters.”
However, the figures – from market research firm Information Resources Incorporated – show Scottish brand Highland Spring is failing to benefit from this domestic market trend, with sales falling 4.8%, from £62.2m to £59.2m, over the past year.
This is in addition to a further 4.6% drop from sales of £65.2m recorded for the year ending 12 July 2007. However, Highland Spring said that it uses AC Nielsen market data for analysis of the grocery sector. Sally Stanley, marketing director of Highland Spring, said this data shows volume sales for bottled water have increased by 0.7%, while value sales have increased by 7.1%, giving Highland Spring a 14.3% brand share.
“Highland Spring has continued to enjoy steady sales in recent months and has strong expectations for the rest of the year and beyond,” she said. “In June this year, we recorded our best month’s sales in the history of Highland Spring, bottling nearly 30 million litres, the equivalent of £8m for the first time in a single month, and up 25% on June last year.”
Source: The Scotsman
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