Juice in Poland

2020 IMPACT

On-trade sales plummet as COVID-19 hits Poland

The closure of foodservice outlets, especially bars and restaurants but also cafés and juice bars, has led to a very strong decline in sales of on-trade juice as in March Poland took steps to curb the spread of COVID-19 that included the prohibition of dine-in. While many of these outlets have reopened as lockdown measures have eased, dine-in services in the on-trade remain limited owing to mandatory social distancing and reductions in operating hours.

No major shake-up of retail juice by pandemic

Juice is the only soft drinks category which is represented mainly by Polish companies; not least because Poland is the largest apple juice producer in Europe. MWS continues to lead in off-trade value terms in 2020, followed by Hortex Holding and Marwit.

Retailers’ own-label juice shows strong development

Private label players are trying to become more competitive by following the latest trends. Such players now provide very-good-quality not from concentrate 100% juice ranges.

RECOVERY AND OPPORTUNITIES

Acceleration of lower-sugar trend predicted

While on-trade sales will show a bounce-back in 2021, it is unlikely that the channel will return to 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels by 2025. However, in the larger retail channel, the strengthening trend for natural beverages will continue to favour 100% juice, especially not from concentrate 100% juice, which is set to post another double-digit retail volume CAGR over the forecast period.

Packaging innovation and novel flavours unlikely to prevent declines for juice drinks and nectars

Juice drinks and nectars have continued to see off-trade volume and current value declines in 2020. The offer in these categories is already wide, but companies are competing by introducing new interesting packaging, or new flavours.

Strong gains still to be made from niche category coconut and other plant waters

Coconut and other plant waters is still quite a new category within juice in Poland, and therefore saw the highest off-trade volume and current value growth in 2019. In 2020, sales still grew but decelerated strongly as consumers focused on the core juice categories as the arrival of COVID-19 forced them to prioritise their essentials as well as diminished their purchasing power.