PepsiCo Dips Its Toes Into the Sparkling Water Market<br />Sales of domestic sparkling bottled water — not including imports like San Pellegrino — doubled between 2015<br />and 2017 to $8.5 billion, according to the DrinkTell database.<br />Bubly marks the most direct attack yet on LaCroix, a brand of flavored sparkling waters<br />that has, in recent years, seen sales soar as it developed a near cultlike devotion among millennials.<br />In 2016, bottled water sales by volume surpassed carbonated soda for the first time, according to Beverage Marketing Corporation’s DrinkTell database.<br />On Thursday PepsiCo is introducing Bubly, a new brand of sparkling water<br />that comes in eight flavors, including apple, strawberry and mango, in brightly colored cans with lowercase lettering and greetings on the pull tabs.<br />But it is also an acknowledgment that sales of carbonated soda are falling as consumers<br />increasingly shun sugary drinks in favor of healthier options, including water.<br />“It just happened to be the right product for the right time.”<br />LaCroix’s growth surge hasn’t gone unnoticed on Wall Street, where some analysts predicted<br />that National Beverage could be an acquisition target for PepsiCo, Coca-Cola or another manufacturer looking to enter the market quickly with a well-established brand.<br />It has muddled along for years, and in regulatory filings by National Beverage,<br />LaCroix was often mentioned far behind two other brands, Shasta and Faygo.
