| | | Almost Eight in Ten Households Drink Mineral Water | | -January 27, 2005- | Number of those buying more at a time increases
Budapest, 27 January 2005 – More and more people drink mineral water, of which households' purchases increased by 36% in two years both in volume and value. While 71% of the households purchased mineral water at least once between January and October two years ago, it was up to 77% last year. This means that penetration increased by 6%.
In addition to penetration, the frequency of purchases also increased. Households buy mineral water biweekly on average.
The main sources are still discount stores, where 31% of mineral water was bought between last January and October, though, it is a lot less than two years before.
The volume lost by discount stores has gone over to hyper- and supermarkets. The proportion they had last January-October was 28% and 15% respectively.
On the whole, 59% of the volume turnover is realised by 350 discount stores and nearly 70 hypermarkets. The remaining 41% is distributed among over 21,000 food shops. The reason for the concentration is that many people buy a lot of mineral water at a time taking advantage of the attractive prices of the modern shop types of large selling area.
Purchases have spectacularly rearranged among small shops. Independent small shops had a 15% share of the sales volume of mineral water two years ago, but only 9% during the first ten months of last year. However, the proportion has turned round in small shops belonging to chains: the volume of their market share increased from 8% to 13% during the above mentioned period. The changes reflect the trend that more and more independent shops join one of the supply cooperatives or chains.
Changes in eating habits also play a role in the increase of the turnover. The number of those who especially like to consume mineral water has tripled, and it is now the most popular thirst quenching drink. While 29% of Hungarian adults liked mineral water in 1989, it was up to 68% in 2003.
In 2003, GfK also explored eating habits by personally interviewing 1,000 people representing the adult population. These researches have been conducted biannually since 1989, the foundation year of the institute, which makes the identification of consumption trends possible.
Consumption frequency has also changed a lot. A Hungarian adult consumes mineral water three days a week. Consumption frequency has more than doubled in fourteen years.
When the details are examined, different groups of mineral water lovers can be established. There are no differences between men and women. As regards age, 30-to 49-year-olds are overrepresented. As regards the level of education, mineral water is almost exclusively the drink of college and university graduates. |
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