The overall bottled water category reported nearly $6.7 billion in sales and a 3.4 percent increase in dollar sales during the 52 weeks ending April 14 in food, drug and mass merchandise stores including Walmart, according to New York City-based Nielsen. Leading the category’s growth was the sparkling/carbonated water segment, which overall reported 17.3 percent growth to $825 million in Nielsen’s measured channels during the 52 weeks leading up to April 14. Within the segment, low-calorie sparkling/carbonated water experienced a nearly 29 percent increase in sales in Nielsen’s measured channels for the same time period.
Making up the bulk of category sales is the still/non-carbonated bottled water segment, which reported a 1.7 percent increase and a total of nearly $5.9 billion in sales in Nielsen’s measured channels for the 52 weeks ending April 14.