Food and beverages giant PepsiCo is discontinuing its Quaker Oats breakfast drinks in the UK amid poor sales.
PepsiCo only introduced the range in July last year, in vanilla and red berry variants. At the launch, the company pointed to the 40% year-on-year growth in the UK breakfast drink segment, where rival products such as Weetabix, Fuel 10K and Up & Go are present.
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However, PepsiCo said it is now pulling the product as sales in the UK breakfast drinks sector decline, although it stressed demand is still holding up in the on-the-go cereal segment for the Quaker brand.
In a statement sent to just-food, the company said the UK breakfast drinks market dropped 10.7%, quoting the moving annual total (MAT) rate, but did not refer to a source for the data.
PepsiCo said: “As a business we have decided to de-list our Quaker Breakfast Drink offering due to market performance and the declining breakfast drinks segment (-10.7% MAT). Whilst the trend for breakfast drinks has reversed since the launch of our Quaker Breakfast Drink, we know the importance of the growing on-the-go breakfast market for retailers.
“We are currently experiencing strong growth on our Porridge To Go Squares (+97% value MAT vs YA), which were the second-biggest contributor to the total cereals category growth in 2018 and this is our focus going forwards.”
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By GlobalDataThe drinks, which contain 86% milk and 11 grams of protein, were rolled out last summer at a recommended retail price of GBP1.45 (US$1.91) for a 300ml serving.
