Yogurt Drinks Poised for Further Growth

The yogurt drinks market is set to grow substantially in the United States, according to a new report from Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets.

With its current market size of $450 million at Food, Drug and Mass, excluding Wal-Mart, the yogurt drinks market had sales growth of 16 percent in 2005. Yet, the market is far from saturated with relatively low consumer penetration, the report found.

Thus, as manufacturers and retailers begin to put more effort into their marketing campaigns for yogurt drinks, Research and Markets said sales will remain healthy and should continue to experience well above 10 percent annual growth.

The report -- which contains US IRI InfoScan data from The Dannon Company Inc., General Mills Inc. (Yoplait), Stonyfield Farm, HP Hood, Marquez Brother and Lifeway Foods -- shows that the yogurt drinks market is slowly beginning to come into its own, though it has yet to entirely live up to expectations of an industry that has long been predicting the mainstream acceptance of such drinks as a viable snack or beverage.

Yogurt drinks suffer from an awareness problem, in that they are a product not necessarily top of mind for most consumers. In fact, the key reason stated as to why consumers do not drink yogurt drinks is simply because they did not think of it.

Mainstream yogurt drinks are a relatively new phenomenon, having emerged onto the American market only within the last six years. While they have benefited from their association with yogurt and its health benefits, they have yet to find a focus and anchor segment among consumers, perhaps due to their potentially broad appeal, the report revealed.

Yogurt drinks are in many ways the perfect answer to the problems consumers face in today's hectic society: they are portable, nutritious, easy to consume with just one hand and relatively low in calories. They also have considerable health benefits and are easy on the digestive system. While they may be relatively expensive compared to many beverages and need to be refrigerated, it seems within reach that the industry can show that the benefits outweigh these considerations, thus leaving yogurt drinks poised to grow even more substantially than they have in recent years, the report said.

Drinkable yogurt is defined as a dairy-based yogurt that is drinkable and in a liquid form that may or may not include fruit or fruit flavoring. Some yogurt drinks are further described as smoothies, such as Yoplait Nouriche, which are also included.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c38282
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