Bottled water is the second largest saleable beverage, by quantity, in the United States. Its popularity is on the rise, on a global scale. The importance of this basic necessity has increased manifold and the sale statistics reveal the fact.
It is observed that in the year 2004, the total U.S. category quantity surpassed 6.8 billion gallons. This makes it clear that the per capita consumption of bottled water has been growing by at least one gallon annually. It has doubled in a decade. Bottled water volume was nearly 2.2 billion gallons larger than the diet CSD, 4.6 billion gallons. The use of bottled water grew at a rapid clip than the diet CSD, 6.2% growth rate in 2004. The U.S. bottled water market reached new heights not only in volume but also in general dollar sales. It touched approximately $9.2 billion in 2004. Domestic non-sparkling water was by far the biggest component of the U.S. bottled water market.
The most significant piece of the non-sparkling segment is the retail PET segment. It reports for almost half of total bottled water volume in the U.S., in 2004 and over 50% in 2005. Most consumers opt for convenient PET multi-packs, in large format retail channels, instead of the larger, 1 to 2.5 gallon sizes. Ever since, retail bulk volume has slowed. Domestic sparkling water has rejuvenated, with the market beating 9.3% volume increase in 2004. Imported water attained the third consecutive year of double-digit volume expansion, growing by 18.3%. Imports grew at a lesser rate than the muscular PET division, which inflated by 20.4%.
Nestl:%$eacute; Waters of North America, NWNA, Pepsi-Cola's "Aquafina" brand and Coca-Cola
s "Dasani" brand are the leaders in the US market.