Our consumers and customers
We believe in consumer’s choice. We want to help consumers make healthy or nutritious choices by always having an alternative to regular products, e.g., sugary, alcoholic beverages, etc. We want to provide transparency for the consumer when choosing beverages.
Royal Unibrew is aware of the global challenges formulated by WHO regarding overweight, obesity and the associated risks of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes as well as risk of alcohol abuse that are linked to excess consumption of food and beverages. We are not only aware of the challenges, but we also work to reduce the challenges.
With our THE PREFERRED CHOICE strategy, we strive to offer consumers a broad variety of beverages that complement the occasions that individuals participate in from music events, to exercising and dining with friends or family. Our goal is to offer no/low alternatives in all categories and in all our markets and hereby offering customers healthier choices. Royal Unibrew also wants to be the market leader by offering new products, more information and transparent communication about the products. Being perceived as #1 on sustainability by our customers remains a focus area. We are currently #1 in Latvia and #4 in Off-Trade in Denmark.
Our commitment to responsible marketing and products is unambiguous as stated on our policy, and it is our responsibility to prioritize quality over quantity for products containing alcohol and sugar. We display nutritional information at least per the legal requirements. As for energy drinks, we have a warning sign for children, pregnant and lactating women, and we display proper advertising practices by avoiding targeting school children, which is also our standard for other beverages. We participate in relevant multi-stakeholder initiatives to continuously improve the heathy choices for consumers. An example is The Danish Food Partnership with participation of NGOs such as the Cancer Association, The Diabetes Association, Food Authorities and representatives from the Food and Drinks Industry.
The revenue split between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages was 49% and 51% in 2023, and we hold a strong market position within the zero-calorie and zero-sugar segment for carbonated soft drinks. Driven by a strong emphasize on innovation, marketing regular and zero-products together and making sure both alternatives have great taste, we act responsibly. More than 40% of our marketing spend is allocated not only to no/low but sustainability in general. Promotion of responsible drinking is an integrated part of our strategy.
The volume growth in no/low sugar alternatives compared to regular products, e.g., in soft drinks, water and energy drinks, increased by 11% from 2019 to 2023, while regular products increased by 7% in the same period, indicating that we are on track with our 2030 target: no/low growing faster than average of the portfolio. In addition, the calorie content of the portfolio was reduced by 9.5% per 100 ml during the same period.
The no/low alcoholic segment (beer, cider and RTD] increased by 8% from 2019 to 2023 compared to a 4% decrease for regular and strong alcohol-containing products in the same period, which indicates we are on track with our 2030 target: no/low growing faster than average of the portfolio. In recent years, we have acquired new portfolios of wine and established additional partnerships on spirits, and we are working on applying our strategy and initiatives to these categories as well.
To protect consumers, we produce in accordance with the highest quality and food safety standards. 99.9% of our production volume is certified in accordance with the international recognized Global Food Safety Initiative’s (GFSI) standards such as FSSC 22000, IFS and BRC. Due to our diligent management of product safety, including staying on top of food alerts, we only experienced 16 withdrawals in total (microbiology, labelling and quality) and one recall in 2023.
We received three notifications regarding violations of labeling requirements in 2023, and we received one notification (promotion of alcohol to young people below the legal age limit) regarding non-compliance with marketing codes or regulations related to either advertising or promotion, including advertising to youth and other susceptible consumers. Consequently, we changed our marketing approach immediately.
