Global Beverage Industry Ready for Competition in 2014, says just-drinks Survey

LONDON, July 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The global beverage industry widely expects competition to increase in 2014, according to the latest annual survey of executive decision-makers by just-drinks.com.

Around 75.7% of executives who took part in the 2014 just-drinks survey said they expected competition to increase this year - up from 71% in 2013.

The overall outlook remains positive, however, with around 67.5% of drinks executives believing their business will have a better year in 2014 than in 2013 - up from just 34.7% in last year's survey.

Around 50% of respondents said they felt consumer confidence would improve in 2014.

Olly Wehring, managing editor of just-drinks, said: "The annual survey asks our readership, which comprises global drinks industry executives, about their feelings towards the year ahead.

"We always get a great response rate; the results give us a decent glimpse at the state of the industry as we move into the new financial year for 2014.

"The results of this year's survey show that, overall, our readers are exceedingly positive about their outlook for 2014.

"The survey really shows renewed optimism and a drop-off in pessimism from previous results. The huge rise - showing 67% having confidence trading will improve year - is possibly over-egging it. But it's interesting to see just how optimistic executives are at this time."

The survey also revealed that 49.2% of respondents felt the overall outlook would improve in 2014. This was down from 52.8% in 2013.

Tied to this was a drop in the number of those who felt the industry outlook would worsen during the year, with around 12.1% fearing a drop-off in trade in 2014, compared to 13.7% in 2013.

"The drinks and beverage industry faces a lot of challenges this year and this is reflected by the results of our survey," Olly Wehring added.

"For some, reductions in the cost of packaging will be a priority, whilst around 30% of those we interviewed said they would focus on health to help sell more products in 2014. This underpins the general upturn in healthy drinks consumption over the past few years.

"It's important for us to understand the mood of the global drinks industry at the start of the year, as it helps us provide the information, data and research executives want, to be able to track their gut feeling as it happens, in real-time, over the course of the next 12 months."

Earlier this month the site relaunched with new features and a redesign, and is running a special offer for non-subscribers. Sign up now and get 30 days of full access to just-drinks for just GBP 1, EUR 1 or USD $1 at http://www.just-drinks.com, https://www.just-drinks.com/membership/index.aspx?utm_source=pr_newswire&utm_medium=press_release&utm_campaign=none&utm_term=confidence_survey&utm_content=30_day_trial

About just-drinks.com 

Established in 1999, just-drinks is a leading online resource for the global beverage industry, publishing around 20 news articles, analysis features and insights every working day. Under the direction of managing editor Olly Wehring, its experienced team of journalists, consultants and analysts provide a unique and comprehensive blend of reports and interpretation of the beverage industry, including key events, trends, interviews and research that are delivered to over 92,000 business executives per month.

Through its web site, webinars and in-depth management briefings just-drinks offers insight into soft drinks, wine, beer, spirits and bottled water industry developments and supply-chain trends, brand and corporate strategies, CONSULT research platform, enterprise technologies such as PLM and ERP.

Furthermore, just-drinks supplies news on manufacturing developments and how the drinks industry is performing around the world.

For details of how just-drinks is helping decision makers make decisions, visit http://www.just-drinks.com

For further information and images please contact John Newton, Public Relations at Aroq Limited on +44(0)1527-573-734, email john.newton@aroq.com