Cold Drinks: The Curse of the Bottles

Cold drink beverages are one of the few product segments that repeatedly report a gain in machine placements. Cold drinks have always remained a favorite with the American population whether in cans or bottles. Antares vending machines sell canned cold drinks.

Supplier subsidized equipment and the growth of higher priced bottles over cans usually is enough to compensate for any weakened demand. But this is not always the case.

While bottles gained market share at the expense of cans, pricing of single serve bottles remained flat. This is largely because of competitive pressure from retailers, and in many cases, competition from bottlers who operate their own vending business.

While the 20 ounce bottles commanded a higher price point than the 11. 5 ounce cans, Antares vending operators quickly realized the profit margins were lower due to the competitive situation noted above. Many vending operators, including Antares operators, prefer selling cans because they were more profitable and easier for employees to work with. Consumer demand, fed by bottler driven marketing, forced the continued move to bottles.

Antares vending machines sell both cans and bottles. The bottles are for juice, while the cans are for cold drinks. Bottles still remain a favorite with the consumers, but there has been a decline in the manufacturing of bottles. The reason for this is because they are more expensive to produce than cans. Antares vending operators have also found that cans are much easier to handle during transportation, than bottles. Bottles are made of glass and can easily break during transportation. When it comes to shelving the Antares machines, the cans are always easier to place than bottles. All this still doesn’t put an end to the popularity of bottles with he consumers.

For the first time in 2003, bottles displaced cans as the top selling package configuration in cold drink vending. Following this, vending operators did raise the price for cans slightly, indicating less competitive pressure for this package.

Cold cup beverage vending, despite being highly profitable as compared to bottles and cans, continued to decline.

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