Water enhancers

Despite the rather cool summer weather Nielsen reported a few-percent improvement in mineral water sales. Still mineral waters continued their conquest and now almost every other water bottle sold is still mineral water. Levente Balogh, owner-managing director of Szentkirályi Ásványvíz Kft. informed us that cheap private label product sales expanded last year but at a slower pace than before. What is more, premium products managed to increase their market share to the detriment of PL products. Flavoured waters’ popularity has been rising for years. Krisztina Kozák, marketing manager of Magyarvíz Kft. told Trade magazine that they acquired a 10-percent market share by now, with sales growing by 27.5 percent from the base period. She added that PL waters’ performance improved by 4 percent to reach a 44-percent market share. Sales of branded products have been stagnating in the last 2-3 years. Adrienn Horváth, marketing manager of Aqarius-Aqua Kft. revealed that the reason behind this was their trying to keep up with PL products’ growing popularity. Consumers know very well that low price doesn’t necessarily mean low quality too! József Nemes, sales director of Pet-Pack Industry and Trade Kft. added that the difference between first-price/ PL products and manufacturer brands seems to have become stable by now. In his view discounters do well and sales have started growing in the supermarket channel too. Péter Mucska, corporate affairs manager with Coca-Cola Hungary told our magazine that three quarters of sales (Nielsen data) are realised by 1.5-litre mineral waters. The company’s NaturAqua mineral waters are available in shops in 1.5-litre and 0.5-liter PET bottle packaging, perfectly in line with consumption habits. One of the main innovation directions remains to be eco-friendly production and packaging. In the last 10 years Aqarius-Aqua Kft. reduced bottle weight by 50 percent. They are taking further steps to be more environmentally friendly: the company is increasing the proportion of recycled PET used in production – they have even started an exciting PET bottle recycling project in their Innovation Centre in Karcag. Szentkirályi’s bottles have also been revamped recently. They also see innovation potential in using recycled PET waste. Slimming mineral water bottles has been one of the trends in recent years, but this can’t go on forever: the bottle’s strength also has to be considered – warned Ms Kozák and Mr Nemes concurred with her. He added that they are working with a discounter chain to make private label products and their packaging special. From January their first-price Pannon-Aqua products come out of the mineral water plant in more stable PET bottles. Aqarius-Aqua’s innovation activity concentrates on flavoured waters. It was them who laid the foundations of the category in the private label segment. In 2014 a lemon-flavoured mineral water they bottle for a partner was voted the tastiest by a popular website. New flavours can be expected from them in the category this year. The company’s business strategy continues to give priority to serving the needs of private label partners. Szentkirályi will put the Virágoskert product line on the market in the first half of the year. These flavoured products are special because they contain extracts of edible flowers. They will be available in three flavours: melon-lotus flower, lemon balm-lemon-lime and grenadine-daisy. Sales of Magyarvíz Kft.’s Mizse brand rose 9 percent and Primavera products performed a stunning 19 percent better. They have a new warehouse and in the company’s portfolio we find a ‘green bottle’ product, in the manufacturing of which 30 percent less CO2 is emitted. The company sees the growing popularity of 0.5-litre products and their Mizse brand can profit greatly from this. Last year sales of Pet-Pack products (Visegrádi, Pannon-Aqua and Balfi) augmented despite a stagnating market. As for the private label products they manufacture, thanks to their new contracts they have taken a big step forward. Innovation-wise they are also working on new flavour combinations. Their lemon, elder or raspberry mineral waters are stable performers so now they would like to add more exotic flavours to the palette of products.