This was a striking performance in a year when recession has had a major impact on so many markets. The CSD sector performed particularly well, with shipments of 4,315m cans, an increase of 471m cans or 12.3%.
Commenting on the UK figures, chairman of Beverage Can Makers Europe, Vince Major, said: “It’s encouraging to see that the UK market continues to thrive despite a challenging economy. Cans continue to be a popular choice for consumers, as they offer good value and are 100% and infinitely recyclable.
“Forecasts for this year look encouraging, and by maximising opportunities such as this summer’s World Cup, we hope that this healthy performance will continue in 2010.”
In the rest of Europe, the market remained stable despite the economic crisis. Total can shipments reached 51.5bn, a decrease of 2.4% compared to 2008. This slight drop can largely be attributed to the unexpected decrease of one billion cans (17.5%) in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) due to the impact of reduced disposable income in the region.
Western Europe was steady with a 0.3% decrease on 2008, while the Eastern European market experienced a 9.3% drop, or a 2.2% decrease excluding CIS figures. The UK market was followed closely by Iberia, the Benelux and the CIS. The UK and Iberia make up 30% of the European can market while the four regions combined represent a 50% share.
Beverage cans continued to be a popular packaging format for a wide range of drinks, showing their resilience during tough market conditions. In 2009, soft drink can volumes in Europe decreased 0.3% versus 2008 to 24.5bn, while beer can volumes decreased by 4.2% to 26.9bn.
The soft drink and beer markets look brighter when excluding the CIS figures, indicating an increase of 0.9% to 24bn for soft drink cans and a decrease of 2% to 23.2bn for beer cans. France and the UK drove growth in the soft drink market while beer market growth was mainly achieved by Scandinavian countries.
Source: Beverage Can Makers Europe
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