Sports Drinks in Finland

PROSPECTS

Sports drinks benefits from strengthening fitness trend, and from crossover products with both sports and energy drink properties

Maturity is increasing for sports drinks. Nonetheless, the fitness trend strengthened during the review period and it, as well as new product developments, continued to help the category maintain positive sales growth in 2019.

Diversification of sports drinks options focusing on maintenance, recovery and energy is a notable trend

Diversifying sports drink portfolios with maintenance, recovery, and energy options continues to be a notable trend, and more innovation and new product developments are expected to take place to offer more individualised solutions. Recovery drinks is also one of the most promising areas in sports drinks.

Innovation efforts fail to boost position of private label in sports drinks

Despite innovative efforts by private label towards the end of the review period, private label sales of sports drinks declined steeply in 2019. Kesko withdrew its private label Pirkka from the sports drinks arena in 2019 as it failed to gain traction after its 2017 launch.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Domestic player Olvi gains traction while multinational leaders continue to lose value share to new brands and more innovative players

Competition within sports drinks is harsh, but smaller brands still can carve out niche shares from the big multinationals. While Coca-Cola Finland, with Powerade, and Hartwall, with Gatorade, maintained their dominant position in the category in 2019, both players continued to lose off-trade value share to other players and the domestic player Olvi gained volume share at the expense of Coca-Cola over the year.

Volume sales of sports drinks boosted by wider distribution, especially online

Increased off-trade volume growth of sports drinks can be at least partly attributed to increased distribution, which has been widening to include health and sports centres, grocery retailers and online outlets. Online distribution has, for example, expanded via Lidl, Finland’s only discounter, which now has a portion of its webpage headlined Sportyfeel (Feel the Fuel) not only highlights the sports equipment it sells but its sports drinks as well.

Players expand their marketing efforts by supporting claims with science and by sponsoring sports-related charitable events

Backing up claims with science and co-sponsoring sports-related charitable events is a way forward in marketing, and at least two brand players are taking this approach. Gatorade supports its sports drinks very well on the Sports Science Exchange page of its Gatorade Sports Science Institute website, where one can find information under such titles as “New ideas about hydration and its impact on the athlete’s brain, heart and muscles”.

Files are delivered directly into your account within a few minutes of purchase.