Bottled Water in Portugal

PROSPECTS

Health and wellness and the sugar tax favour bottled water

Bottled water in Portugal is benefiting from an “alignment of stars”, boosting its growth. The health and wellness trend is leading consumers to be more cautious with the products they consume, and they are looking for healthier products, with fewer calories and artificial ingredients, and are demanding products to increase their wellbeing.

Niche categories with conflicting trends

Flavoured bottled water has been in the spotlight, mainly due to new product launches and marketing promotions. The category has been gaining media space and also shelf space in modern grocery retailers.

The hot weather increases consumers’ thirst, also boosted by tourism

The hotter and longer summers have also contributed to growth in bottled water. Being the preferred beverage to mitigate thirst, the long hot periods that were seen in recent years, and particularly in 2018, are playing a role in the growth of bottled water.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

A fragmented category dominated by local players

The competitive landscape in bottled water is highly fragmented, and dominated by local players. SCC – Sociedade Central de Cervejas e Bebidas led bottled water in off-trade value terms in 2018, followed by Super Bock Bebidas, the successor company to Unicer – Bebidas de Portugal.

The emergence of new companies

In recent years, new companies emerged which specialise in bottled water, and increased through mergers and acquisitions, as was the case of Waterbunkers SGPS, and its growing Águas de Monchique brand. Águas das Caldas da Penacova also saw significant growth, based both on its Caldas da Penacova brand, and on its production for private label, leading the company to have a key role in bottled water, particularly in the off-trade channel.

Marketing has an increasing role

The attention bottled water attracted in recent years increased the role of marketing. This led companies to launch new brands or brand extensions to meet the needs of specific market segments.

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