In the battle for market share, increase in volumes and sales, alcoholic beverage manufacturers have expanded their taste segment by pushing out more flavours to entice Nigerian consumers around the country.
BusinessDay survey of some retail stores across Lagos State shows that within a period of more than one year, innovation has centred on flavours, as Nigerian Breweries introduced flavoured drinks such as Star Radler’s “Red Fruit” and Citrus flavour, while Guinness Nigeria introduced Tigernut and Ginger flavour.
Consumer experts have said the recent move is positive for the brewers as it will help boost volumes and sales by introducing more.
“In the course of exploring new flavours, you are able to create a new one that the market likes, thereby making consumers demand more which is good for their volumes,” Ayorinde Akinloye, a consumer analyst at United Capital Plc said.
Uchenna Uzo, a consumer expert and faculty director at the Lagos Business School noted that the traditional consumer segment is changing.
“Alcoholic beverages were traditionally seen as something for a masculine brand and older type of demographic. But lifestyle changes have started making it cool and nice for women and younger people to take a go at alcoholic beverages,” Uzo said.
He further added that each of the flavours speaks to different segments of the market.
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“So, it is about capturing the people and making sure that they are loyal to the brands for the lifetime period of the consumers,” he added.
The revenue (sales) of some top alcoholic beverage makers may have recovered from a deep plunge in 2020. According to their financial statements, sales of Nigerian breweries improved by 51 percent to N437.3 billion in 2021 from N337.1 billion in 2020, Guinness improved by 30 percent to N109.1 billion and International Breweries grew by 34 percent to 128.4 billion in the first nine months of 2021.
Data from Euromonitor International shows that the volumes of alcoholic drinks rose marginally by 3.2 percent from 2.1billion litres in 2020 to 2.3 billion litres in 2021, though this can not be attributed to the flavour revolution yet.
Before the alcoholic drink makers joined the flavour trend, BusinessDay had reported that non-alcoholic drinks makers were aggressively competing for market share by rolling out a lot of flavours in the market.
BusinessDay analysis of the market showed that when Bigi drinks came in 2016, it started the flavour trend by serving Bigi Cola, Apple, Bitter Lemon & Lime, Orange, Soda and Tropical.
Later, it expanded further by introducing more flavours like Bigi Tropical and Bigi Chapman, Cherry Cola, Ginger Ale, Ginger lemon and many more.
This move evidently prompted Pepsico in 2019, to introduce Pepsi berry, Pepsi lime and Pepsi mango flavours. La Casera Apple followed by introducing four new flavours – Bold Orange, Tropical, Bitter Lemon Extra and Ginger.
Coca-Cola Nigeria reintroduced its flavoured Fanta Apple and Pineapple Drink back into the market late that same period.
“Based on the survey from stores, we noticed that there was a high demand for flavour drinks,” an official at Coca-Cola Nigeria said.
Akinloye noted that this is something that is here to stay where you will continue to see brands evolve taste just to taste the market and drive volumes both for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
An article by Prepared Foods Flavour states that flavour creates excitement in the market about the offerings as most consumers are interested in trying new flavours of old favourites.
“Flavour is important to everyone because it is a method to partner with your customer. It is an easily understandable pillar with which the consumer, retailer, foodservice operator, manufacturer and grower can identify,” It further said.
