“Mini” Soda Sales Growing, Still Tiny

As has been noted on this blog previously, among the ways soda manufacturers are revamping their portfolios amid slumping sales is to offer smaller portion sizes around 1/3 smaller than typical 12 oz. cans. A recent AP story suggests this initiative is picking up steam:

7.5-ounce “mini-cans” and 8-ounce and 8.5-ounce glass and aluminum bottles are taking up more space on supermarket shelves. The cans and bottles have been around for a few years, but Coke and Pepsi are making them more widely available and marketing them more aggressively.

As part of its “Share-a-Coke” campaign that printed popular names on cans and bottles last year, for instance, Coke says it distributed a million mini-cans…

The focus on smaller sizes isn’t a detriment to the bottom line, either, thanks to selling for a higher per-ounce price on shelves:

[Coke’s North American president Sandy Douglas] noted a regular 12-ounce can of Coke on average sell for 31 cents. By comparison, a 7.5-ounce mini-can sells for 40 cents. That translates to 2.6 cents-per-ounce for a regular can, versus 5.3 cents-per ounce for the mini version.

A look at Coke and Pepsi’s estimated mainstream U.S. retail sales for the past two years backs up the idea that the companies’ focus on smaller portion sizes is a smart bet. For portion sizes of cans and bottles between 7.0-8.5 ounces, Coke sales (including Coke Zero) increased nearly 9% on a dollar-basis from 2013 to 2014, while Pepsi (including Diet Pepsi) saw sales of those sizes rise over 13% over the same period. Coke outsold Pepsi among these sizes by an approximate 2.7-to-1 basis.

While smaller bottles and cans are seeing sales growth and carry higher margins, they represented just 2.6% on a dollar-basis of Coke’s U.S. retail sales in 2014, and 1.2% for Pepsi. While consumers may be gradually warming to smaller portion sizes, retail sales of soda are still dominated by the “big” boys.