The latest figures from market research firm Canadean on the soft drinks market reveal that metal cans achieved the highest volume growth of any packaging material in the water category.
While cans currently have a small share of the market, they have increased by 17% in the global packaged water market, and are beginning to register more significant regional volumes.
In West Europe, metal cans overtook HDPE packaging to take the third biggest share, while they expanded by over 34% in North America. Meanwhile, cans grew by 11% in Latin America, thanks to success of 23.7cl cans in Mexico and Perrier’s 25cl can launch in Brazil.
Analyst at Canadean, Chris Strong commented, “In an increasing range of markets the growth of metal cans is driven by the success of flavoured sparkling water, mimicking the look and feel of traditional carbonates.
“This is a development which is likely to continue as concerns over sugar intake increase and packaged water erodes further into the carbonates category,” he added.
Metal is expected to continue this growth trend in the packaged water category, with Canadean predicting a further increase of 9% in 2015. It adds that in a category where PET and other materials have generally held sway, there is great potential for metal cans to play a key role as new water products are developed.
