Better For You Beverages in Chile

2020 IMPACT

A conscious consumer in austere times

Health concerns resulting from the pandemic, aggravated by the lockdown and movement restrictions, with Chileans doing less physical exercise, made consumers continue to pay attention to the ingredients of the beverages and the warning labels on packaging, guidance that was imposed by the Chilean labelling law from 2017. Nevertheless, given the more austere economic situation, consumer migration between categories increased, and segments such as reduced sugar beverages saw their consumers migrating to other cheaper options such as tap water and powder concentrates, underpinning the decrease of BFY beverages.

Big players leverage their structure and benefit their portfolios

As a concentrated market between local manufacturer/distributer CCU and Coca-Cola de Chile, the reduced sugar beverages portfolio benefited during the peak of the supply and distribution issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, at the beginning of the health crisis. As the traditional and modern channels struggled to maintain their stocks of many products across their portfolios, the wide distribution networks of CCU and Coca-Cola Chile guaranteed a steady supply of products during most of the time.

Traditional channel, a challenging puzzle for producers

The increase in importance of the traditional channel, typically associated with convenience in contrast to the long queues at supermarkets, and the former’s limited capacity due to health safety guidelines, is one of the challenges for producers of BFY beverages to overcome. With limited shelf space, the portfolio mix that companies from the traditional channel have available is likewise very limited, especially when it comes to products that have a lower consumption incidence among the general population, compared with regular counterparts, as those within the reduced caffeine, fat and sugar subcategories.

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