Ready for work
Though energy drinks are gradually losing their premium status, they remain trendy. Sports drinks show slower growth, but might soon be discovered by new target groups. Sales of energy drinks which have begun their career in discos now exceed HUF 10 billion annually. Expansion has not been broken as a result of restrictive economic policy, though a substantial reduction in average price was needed to achieve such dynamic growth. – Categories do not disappear owing to the crisis, but a rearrangement takes place within them, with famous brands ending up among the losers and new products among the winners – says Dr. László Zentai, CEO of BUSZESZ, the distributor of Watt. – According to János Gréczi, managing director of Gramex 2000 Kft, energy drink is the category where the power of trends can overcome the general decline in consumption. The success of cheaper products has not resulted in a change in the structure of the market., which is till dominated by the tutti-frutti flavour and high calories. – The target group continues to remain the same, but manufacturers are trying to bring diversity into the category in order to make their products distinct from others – says Éda Pogány, communications director of Coca-Cola Magyarország. The most promising innovation in the market is Shooter, the concentrated energy drink which has become enormously successful in the US. According to data from Nielsen, the market share of the largest retail units has dropped. – Hyper markets are usually the place for weekly or monthly shopping, which means that products consumed on a regular basis are bought here in large unit sizes. Energy drinks are better suited to smaller stores – explains Zoltán Becze, sale sand marketing director of HELL Energy Magyarország Kft. Büki Üditő Kft, the manufacturer of Bomba! has adopted very aggressive pricing to promote further expansion, but continues to regard the “trendy” character of this product as a priority. This is why the appearance of Bomba! has been modernised and premium cola product added to the product line. Burn distributed by Coca-Cola has brought a number of innovations into the market, like mixed fruit flavour, red colour or fluorescent aluminium bottles. At present, innovation planned by Hell is limited to size and multi pack packaging. HELL is focusing its sponsoring activities on automotive sports in the shape of the HELL Racing Team and the Williams team. Watt has also revised its communication. Its new campaign is deliberately controversial, as it is targeted at young consumers, rather than mature retailers. V-Power manufactured by Gramex is an example of new ingredients added to the essential caffeine-taurine cocktail. L-Carnitine-t is also intended to boost performance. Sales of sports drinks are also growing, although at a slower rate than energy drinks. However, sports drinks have already found other target groups as well in foreign markets like Italy, where they have become competitors of carbonated soft drinks. At present, the market is dominated by three brands : Gatorade distributed by Pepsi-FÁÜ, Vitalade distributed by Gramex 2000 and Powerade distributed by Coca-Cola. 0.5 litre is the dominant unit size with a sports cap, while citric flavours are the most popular.
