2012 State of the Industry: Dairy Drinks & Alternatives
Soymilk continues to be the most popular dairy alternative beverage today, Virginia Lee, senior research analyst at Chicago-based Euromonitor International, told Beverage Industry in its November issue. However, the research firm estimates that sales of soymilk declined 5.8 percent from $981 million in 2009 to $924 million in 2010, and another 8.5 percent reaching $846 million in 2011.
Lee attributed soymilk’s decline to the increasing popularity of additional dairy alternatives such as almond milk and coconut milk. Broomfield, Colo.-based WhiteWave Foods, which offers the Silk soymilk line that continues to lead the dairy alternative category in sales and market share, launched Silk Pure Almond in 2010. Silk Pure Almond reported a nearly 59 percent increase in dollar sales for a total of $102 million in sales in U.S. supermarkets, drug, gas, convenience and mass merchandise retailers, excluding Walmart and club stores for the 52 weeks ending April 15, according to Chicago-based market research firm SymphonyIRI Group.