Wells Fargo finds weather, promotions driving cold vault sales.
Wells Fargo Securities’ recent Beverage Buzz survey found that c-store beverage sales were up 4% during the 2014 Memorial Day holiday, compared to 2% in 2013.
The survey of beverage retailers represented tens of thousands of c-store locations across the country.
Wells Fargo attributed the growth to improved weather conditions, as well as heavy promotions (particularly multi-purchase promos), and noted that while the carbonated soft drink (CSD) category remains squeezed, energy, waters and non-carbs all appear to be growing.
“Based on our survey results, we think promotions increased +5.4% yr/yr during the Memorial Day Holiday, above the +4.6% increase during the same Holiday weekend last year,” noted Bonnie Herzog, managing director, beverage, tobacco & convenience store research, Wells Fargo Securities LLC. “Two-thirds of our respondents stated that promotions from beverage manufacturers/distributors increased for Memorial Day 2014 yr/yr. In particular, Coca-Cola appeared to promote the most during the Holiday with 59% of our respondents indicating higher promos for Coca-Cola compared to 46% for Pepsi, 33% for Dr Pepper Snapple, 46% for Monster, and 33% for Red Bull.”
“Following last year’s particularly bad weather conditions throughout most of the country, the majority of the country experienced significantly improved weather conditions during the Memorial Day Holiday with two-thirds of our survey respondents indicating weather was better in their markets this holiday,” Herzog added. “Further, the majority of our respondents believe that weather has been the most important factor in driving beverage sales growth so far in Q2 2014.”