Bottled Water in Thailand

2020 IMPACT

COVID-19 lockdown puts serious pressure on on-trade demand for bottled water

The main impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sales of bottled water in Thailand during 2020 was the dramatic decline seen in volume sales in the foodservice channel. The principal reason for the very unfavourable on-trade performance seen during the year was the unavailability of restaurants, bars, pubs, cafés, specialist coffee shops and nightclubs for an extended period due to the government-mandated shutdown of the entire hospitality industry.

Stockpiling of bottled water during initial stages of pandemic supports off-trade sales

As drinking water is one of the most important items for the vast majority of Thai households, bottled water was one of the products that was subject to widespread stockpiling among the Thai population during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, bottled water in bulk packaging proved a particularly popular item among stockpiling consumers, including multipacks of bottles between 500ml and 2L in size, as well as very large bottles in excess of five litres and even larger than 10 litres.

Closure of nightlife venues suppresses consumption of carbonated purified bottled water

As mentioned above, the government-mandated shutdown of Thailand’s entire hospitality industry for an extended period in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 had a devastating impact on on-trade sales of bottled water generally. Within this paradigm, carbonated purified bottled water faced a particularly grim year as sales of these products were accounted for mainly by nightlife venues such as late-night bars, nightclubs and discotheques.

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