Energy drinks, coffee and bottled water: The top performers in the center of the store

While unit sales of cold cereal; fresh bread & rolls; chocolate candy; and salty snacks declined 3%, 3.3%, 3.7% and 0.6% respectively in 2012, unit sales of energy drinks, bottled water and coffee surged 18.7%, 4.6% and  4.5% respectively over the same period, reveals the report ‘Center Store: Driving Growth from the Inside Out’​.

2012 was also a good year for unit sales of weight management products (up 15.1%); ready to drink coffee and tea (up 7.8%); crackers (up 5.1%); snack/granola bars (up 4.3%); and vitamins (up 4.5%), said Steven S. Ramsey, executive, client insights, at SymphonyIRI.

However, the declines in most other categories reflected an "ongoing wariness​" among consumers, he said.

“These declines are reflective of an ongoing wariness of many shoppers to open their wallets despite a rash of good news, such as the Dec. 7 report that U.S. unemployment dipped from 7.9 to 7.7%, the lowest rate in several years.”​

Sales across all outlets up 3.4% in 2012, but unit sales (volumes) down 0.3%​

As to where shoppers are spending their dollars, there has been a continuing shift from grocery and drug stores to dollar stores, c-stores, supercenters and club stores, said Ramsey.

“During the past year, industry average dollar sales grew at a 3.4% rate, while convenience store sales grew at a 3.9% pace.”​

Convenience was also the only channel to demonstrate volume growth, seeing a 2.6% rise in unit sales in the 52 weeks to Sept 9, 2012 compared with a 2.5% decline in the drug channel and a 2.7% decline in the food channel, he said.

To download the full SymphonyIRI report, click here​.