Iced coffee quickly bounced back

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2024/5

Dóra Szekeres
senior brand manager
HELL ENERGY
Magyarország

“If we look back at 2023, in Hungary the iced coffee category contracted by 7.7% in unit sales and 8.5% in volume compared to 2022”,

says Dóra Szekeres, senior brand manager of HELL ENERGY Magyarország Kft. (citing NIQ data).

Then the situation took a U-turn by the end of 2023 and the figures from January 2024 paint an even more positive picture for this year, according to Odett Bozók, junior channel and category specialist of FrieslandCampina Hungária ZRt.

Downtrading is not significant in the category, with private label products also down by two digits in volume

Odett Bozók
junior channel & category specialist
FrieslandCampina
Hungária

“At the beginning of the year we saw single-digit growth in value and double-digit growth in volume in the iced coffee category compared to the beginning of last year. The key drivers of this were the large retailers and discounters”,

she adds.

Looking behind the numbers, what we see is that fewer households purchased coffee drinks last year, with lower frequency and fewer drinks bought per shopping trip than the year before.

The market is becoming increasingly diverse not only in terms of flavours, but also in terms of packaging types

Plant-based alternatives do well

Plant-based dairy products are finding their way to consumers even in difficult market conditions, due to growing interest in them and the continued broadening of the product category.

Richárd Révész
marketing director
Danone

Vivien Németi
senior plant-based
innovation brand manager
CEE (Alpro)
Danone Magyarország

“With the latter it isn’t only the low price that is decisive, but it is also important to make perfect drinks from a professional perspective. To make working with our plant-based drinks easy for baristas – while still delivering the best flavour – it is essential to have the right quality ingredients”,

says Vivien Németi. //