Bottled Water in the Philippines

PROSPECTS

Still bottled water is cheap and more widely available, ensuring growth

Whilst some other soft drinks categories struggled to achieve growth in 2019, mainly due to the continued effect of the sugar tax, bottled water enjoyed dynamic off-trade volume and current value growth. This applied to still bottled water in particular, as more consumers wanted to shift to a healthier beverage with stable affordable prices.

Marketing helps functional bottled water return to growth

Functional bottled water saw an off-trade volume decline in 2018, and this encouraged more marketing efforts in terms of television commercials and brand activations. This, as well as consumers’ adjustment to the new higher prices, led functional bottled water to return to slight volume growth in 2019.

Carbonated bottled water sees launches by local players

New product introductions in carbonated bottled water at the end of the review period allowed more locally-produced products to enter the market. This is expected to help maintain the growth of this category in the forecast period.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Wider availability contributes to the rising share of the leader

Philippine Spring Water Resources remained the leader in bottled water in both off-trade value and volume terms in 2019. Its volume share increased, due to the company’s efforts to increase its product availability in modern and traditional retail channels.

Local players dominate, despite interest from international companies

With its Summit and Absolute brands, Asia Brewery maintained its strong second position in bottled water in off-trade value terms in 2019, although its share declined. The company continuously tries to improve its route to market, whilst initiating complementary above-the-line and below-the-line marketing strategies.

Activations in functional bottled water

Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines discontinued its Propel brand in 2018, and shifted its marketing efforts to G Active. The latter is Pepsi’s focus brand in functional bottled water, and is positioned as a brand for active, athletic people.

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