The Middle East and Africa is the fastest growing region for soft drinks, driven by urbanisation, tourism and rising demand for convenience. Energy drinks and RTD coffee are surging, especially among young people. Boycotts and price sensitivity are shifting consumers towards local brands, though many face production constraints. Small grocers remain the key retail channel, despite the expansion of modern trade.

The Coca-Cola Co remains the clear leader in the global soft drinks market. While legacy brands like Coca-Cola, Sprite or Fanta continue to account for a major share of its annual revenues, the company also continues to expand its reach through acquisitions such as fairlife, new brands or lines like Simply Pop prebiotic soda, or dipping its toe into the world of RTD alcoholic beverages.

Beverages are no longer just about refreshment and hydration - they’re about sleep, focus, gut health and beauty, delivered in cans and sold via algorithms. This report unpacks the global rise of functional drinks, from TikTok-fuelled demand to regulatory grey zones, and explores what brands must know to innovate safely, price strategically and lead credibly in a fragmented, fast-moving market.

Rapidly ageing populations present both a socio-economic challenge and a business opportunity. As wellness narratives shift from lifespan to healthspan, priorities centre on early-stage prevention, optimising healthy years, and enabling active ageing in later life. Creating value, improving health outcomes, and driving business growth requires targeted consumer segmentation aligned with a broad spectrum of longevity-led solutions and a holistic ecosystem of life-stage needs.

Soft drinks face slower-than-expected growth in 2025 amid income pressures and heightened geopolitical risks. On-trade categories are weakening, particularly in Europe and China, while real pricing power has faded. Input cost relief offers some margin stability, though coffee prices remain volatile. Fragmentation deepens as affordability and functionality reshape global competition.

Consumers are increasingly anxious about global stability and their own financial, social, physical and mental wellbeing. This is driving them to exert more control over the impact and fallout of their consumption. Protect your brand against downside risk and leverage growth opportunities by understanding and empowering this mindful, evidence-seeking and outcome-orientated shift.

Consumers no longer assess brands by price alone but by a shifting matrix of priorities – from health and convenience to sustainability and digital experience. As disruptors – including new platforms and non-traditional players – move faster and intensify competition, companies across industries must recalibrate their value strategies to maintain relevance, defend market share, and capture new growth opportunities.

GLP-1 usage is going to rise considerably across the world in the coming years, confronting food and beverages with both challenges and opportunities. The pressure on volumes is going to be considerable, but changing needs of GLP-1 users will at the same time boost demand in many categories.

PepsiCo remains the world’s second largest soft drinks company, with strong positions in carbonates, sports drinks, bottled water, and energy drinks. While mature markets show stagnant volume growth, emerging markets offer inflation-driven value gains. Strategic acquisitions like Poppi reflect a pivot towards functional, low-sugar beverages. Competitive pressure from Coca-Cola and private label brands continues to shape the landscape.

Off-trade sales of soft drinks were stagnating at a regional level in Western Europe in 2024, given the declines being seen in some of the biggest country markets like Germany and France. In addition to the maturity in major categories like bottled water and carbonates, the cost-of-living crisis due to high inflation in recent years has been putting pressure on consumer spending power. Nevertheless, health and wellness continues to play an ever increasing role in Western European soft drinks.

After seeing declining sales due to the pandemic in 2020, Latin America enjoyed three years of solid growth until 2024, when the increase in sales dipped at a regional level, negatively impacted by the shrinking of the Argentinian market due to the tough economic climate in this country. However, positive growth is expected across the region from 2025, boosted by Latin America housing two of the three biggest carbonates country markets globally in Mexico and Brazil.

After the blip that was the pandemic, resulting in declining sales in 2020, with the on-trade particularly badly hit, soft drinks has since been recording positive growth in Asia Pacific, which is expected to continue in the coming years. Bottled water will remain the dominant product in the region, with zero- and reduced-sugar options of other product types, eg still RTD tea, expected to generally continue outperforming the overall market.

Core categories of global soft drinks are slowing while functional, value-tier and lifestyle-led drinks rise. Affordability is vital in emerging markets of the future, while wellness and identity reshape consumption in mature regions. Tariffs, trade volatility and channel shifts demand agility. Future success will depend on brand relevance, retail strategy and resilience.

This report identifies key long-term megatrends shaping consumer behaviour in Latin America. Technological advancements and wider internet access drive digital living, offering solutions to regional challenges. Better access to financial services fuels e-commerce and s-commerce growth. Inflation and changing household dynamics are driving consumers to focus on saving time and money, while also prioritising their overall wellbeing in the face of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Significant shifts in US policies on tariffs, taxation, spending, regulation, migration, AI/tech, and energy are expected to impact the global economy and key industries like food and drinks, health and beauty, home and tech, travel, and automotive. Trump's policies can undermine global economic growth, affect consumer sentiment, risk higher prices, and disrupt production and distribution network. However, some opportunities will arise as the global supply chain rewires and consumers adapt.

In 2024, stable off-trade volume growth was maintained in soft drinks in Brazil, with sales increasing across most categories. Brazil is a significant player in the global soft drinks industry, with some unique characteristics that set it apart from other countries. Unlike the global scenario, in which bottled water is the largest soft drinks category in volume terms, in Brazil, carbonates is the leading category within soft drinks. This is largely due to a tradition cultivated by many families,

As use occasions fragment, categories blur and lifestyle patterns change in Asia Pacific, consumers are placing an even greater focus on the desired outcome of their consumption behaviour, making need states a powerful means of segmenting and targeting consumers for beverage companies in Asia Pacific. Throughout this report, we will uncover need states and quantify them, enabling beverage brands strategize and map need states to their product portfolio.

By 2029, Asia Pacific will host 56% of the global population aged 65+, representing a trillion-dollar opportunity. This report provides a critical framework to understand, develop and address the unmet needs of this rapidly growing demographic. Leveraging Euromonitor's Inclusivity - Empowerment - Indulgence framework, companies that act now will secure future growth and maintain relevance in a shifting consumer landscape.

Digital Living, Convenience, Pursuit of Value and Sustainable Living are key megatrends in Western Europe, shaped by technological advancements, demographic changes and shifting consumer values. Demand for multifunctional products is driving brands to simplify and optimise. Despite privacy concerns, AI-driven personalisation is gaining acceptance. Value perceptions are shifting toward functionality and affordability, while sustainability continues to influence purchasing choices.

Inhalation - one of the most common modes of consumption globally - is undergoing a rapid transformation. This report assesses the significant risks for those companies who fail to address that change and the huge opportunities for those who can leverage science, technology and new substance frontiers to reimagine inhalation’s role in future societies.

As investment and attention shifts towards GenAI, companies of all types must evaluate potential opportunities associated with this technology. Given its ability to go a step further than AI to create something new, it is viewed as being incredibly powerful. This report explores opportunities and challenges across common use cases such as marketing, product development, the customer journey, customer service and the supply chain.

On the surface, the outlook for on-trade alcoholic drinks is not a positive one. A cautious consumer spending mindset and changing priorities mean people are going out less frequently than in the past or drinking less when they do. Elevated input costs are adding to the industry’s difficulties. Yet, demand still calls for memorable experiences and spaces to connect – perhaps now more than ever. On-trade spending goes beyond simple purchase transactions, underscoring the nature of opportunities.

In addition to being a key player in its domestic alcoholic drinks market, leading in spirits, Suntory Holdings is the number two player in soft drinks in Japan, holding the top spot in both the RTD tea and bottled water categories. While its international coverage is relatively limited in soft drinks, it has a number of important brands in France and the UK in Europe as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

Soft drinks in Estonia has exhibited diverse patterns of development in 2024, reflecting the interplay of multiple economic, climatic, and consumer-driven factors. Economic uncertainty has remained a central theme, with the increase in VAT at the start of 2024 exacerbating consumer pessimism and contributing to price inflation. This trend has been especially impactful given the heightened sensitivity of consumers after the inflationary pressures of 2022 and 2023. Additionally, global inflationar