NEWS | Industry Updates UK water cooler market rises to £140 million
The value of the UK water cooler market has reached the £140 million mark in 2018, the British Water Cooler Association (BWCA) annual conference has heard from Zenith Global chairman Richard Hall. Last year the sector topped £133 million in value. The UK cooler market in 2018 increased in terms of the total
installed cooler base growth, to reach 678,000 units with 2.2% growth. The market has been driven by increases in both POU (mains fed) and BWC (Bottled Water Coolers) unit placements. Revenue grew by 4.9% compared with 2017. Conference delegates were presented with a sector report
summary, produced for the Association by Zenith Global. POU outstripped growth in BWC units for the second consecutive
year in 2018, up 3% to a total of 323,000 units. Even though the market continued its move towards POU, the BWC market grew at a faster rate than in 2017, growing by 1.5% to 355,000 units. The Zenith report comments: “A major factor behind this year’s
growth was the hot summer weather. This has resulted in an increase in throughput and rising unit placements. Some market players reported that throughput was up over 30% for select locations in the summer months. Therefore, bottled water cooler volumes rose 4.0% to 326 million litres. Furthermore, the general consumer move towards water consumption and the current economic prosperity have also driven the growth.” The continuing interest in healthy, calorie-free hydration is also a
contributory factor. Zenith links the strong growth of small pack bottled waters to the growth of consumption of water via coolers saying it has assisted, because people who pick up a small pack of bottled water are thought to be very likely to then consume water at
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work from coolers. The throughput of water for BWCs now stands at 924 litres – up from 901 litres the previous year. Looking to the future, Richard Hall said: “The UK water cooler
market is set to continue growing by close to 2% a year. We forecast 742,000 units will be in operation by 2023, with bottled water throughput per cooler reaching 980 litres. Mains coolers are likely to gain further share towards 50% of the total.” Despite the higher quality of mains water in the UK, there is still
seen to be a significant opportunity for growth in the residential sector. The opportunity may come from the placement of under-sink products and compact water coolers rather than BWC or POU water coolers. As predicted previously, another potential area for growth could be
hospitality as restaurants are looking for alternatives to bottled water. Zenith is noticing a trend towards restaurants wanting bespoke machines that allow them to provide a better product from a hygiene and aesthetic point of view. Phillipa Atkinson-Clow, general manager of the BWCA, said: “We
are pleased to see this continuing growth for the sector. However, the uncertainty around Brexit may undermine confidence and of course for all of us the level of economic prosperity is impossible to judge at present. The sugar tax which was introduced last year has enabled the BWCA and businesses to underline their positive health credentials. “In addition, cooler companies have been able to take advantage
of the increasing move away from single use plastics as people recognise the sustainability benefits of coolers which either use mains water or containers that are reused up to 50 times before being recycled.”
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