2012 State of the Industry: Tea and Ready-to-Drink Tea
Last year, sales of tea and ready-to-drink (RTD) tea increased 5.1 percent, reaching $4.3 billion in food, drug, convenience stores and mass merchandisers, excluding Walmart, according to Mintel’s July 2011 “Tea and RTD Teas – U.S.” report. Canned and bottled tea as well as refrigerated RTD tea drove growth in the category, the Chicago-based market research firm reported.
The canned and bottled RTD tea segment accounted for just more than 50 percent of the market share in measured channels and showed the largest growth in the category from 2009 to 2011 at 19.2 percent, Mintel noted. The second-largest segment, refrigerated RTD tea, made up