Drink makers give people ways to can the container

Beverage makers create ways to avoid buying bottles, cans

Soda cans and bottles may start to feel a bit quaint in coming years as Coca-Cola says it will soon let people make its drinks at home with a beverage machine being that¹s developed by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Soda cans and bottles may start to feel a bit quaint in coming years as Coca-Cola says it will soon let people make its drinks at home with a beverage machine being that¹s developed by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

NEW YORK — It keeps getting easier to ditch the soda can.

When Coca-Cola Co. said last week that it would let people make its drinks at home using a beverage machine, it became the latest company to take advantage of a growing trend: people turning to flavored drops or at-home carbonation machines that do away with the need to haul home bulky cans and bottles from the supermarket.

While such alternatives still represent a tiny fraction of the beverage market, they’re growing at a far faster rate than the industry’s traditional ready-to-drink business.

“It’s a mega trend we’ve seen,” said Charles Torrey, vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid unit, which last week introduced liquid drops that let people make juice drinks on the go. “Consumers want things personalized to their own tastes.”

Drinks that come in bottles and cans will still account for the bulk of the beverage industry for years to come, of course. And it’s not clear whether at-home beverage machines will catch on more broadly. Still, companies such as Coke and PepsiCo are looking for new ways to grow, with the traditional cans-and-bottles business seeing weak growth of about 1 percent annually.

Options that do away with cans and bottles are faring far better.

Revenue for the Americas region at SodaStream, which makes at-home carbonation machines, surged 88 percent in 2012 from the previous year, the latest figures available. And revenue climbed 13 percent for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which makes single-serve coffee machines and is partnering with Coca-Cola to make a cold beverage machine.

Flavored drops for water are also becoming popular. Kraft in 2011 introduced its MiO flavor drops in small bottles. The idea is that people can squirt as much or as little flavor as they want into their water. Companies including Coke and Pepsi have jumped in.