Soft Drinks Step Up

Overall sales of soft drinks through foodservice were worth a massive £2.9bn in the year to January 2026¹, the largest impulse category. In line with wider trends in the out-of-home market, volumes where challenged as they declined by 4.7% YoY¹. Cola remains the most bought soft drink in foodservice – accounting for 36.8% of market value and 37.3% of volume¹ – followed by fruit flavoured carbonates (18.7% Val)¹. Previous value growth has slowed as the rate of inflation has slowed in the past two years², however there is an opportunity to regain value growth with the growing numbers of people looking to treat themselves with better quality food and drink when they visit foodservice outlets³. More people are valuing quality over quantity with 64% of the population preferring to buy 1 or 2 quality drinks over four or five entry level/lower quality drinks (see chart)⁴.

Source:

1. CGA by NielsenIQ, Foodservice, Volume and Value Data, Soft Drinks Britvic Defined, MAT to 31.01.2026
2.  EY Item Club Winter Forecast, February 2025
3. Lumina Intelligence Eating and Drinking Out Panel – collected 52 w/e 12.04.26 vs Pre Year
4. CGA NOQ Reach 2025