Talysis insight shows price movements in Ireland's soft drinks category
DATE: 21 February, 2024 // BACK TO ARCHIVE »
The introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in Ireland has so far led to reduced
pack sizes and disguised price increases for consumers, data analytics experts
Talysis Ltd find.
As Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme concludes its first two weeks of operation, data provided
by Talysis offers the first insight into how retailers and manufacturers are reacting to the
industry change.
Introduced on 1 st February 2024, the scheme aims to increase the nation’s recycling of drinks
containers from its current level of 60% to meet the EU target of 90% by 2029. Plastic bottles
and cans featuring the Re-turn logo have a deposit applied at the store checkout of the
following amounts: 150ml to 500ml = 15c deposit and 500ml to 3 litres = 25c deposit,
refundable when containers are returned.
Analysis from Talysis’ PriceCube, which collects price and promotional information from
Ireland’s major retailers, highlights some key insights from the early implementation and
adoption of DRS. In the weeks leading up to the launch, Talysis had pre-coded over 180 new
skus, enabling them to see the impact of the scheme from day 1.
One category impacted by DRS is soft drinks and data shows that some retailers have taken
the opportunity to rationalise their range, with the removal of the largest of packs, which would have attracted significant deposit values and the introduction of reformulated “party packs”. It would also appear that the introduction of DRS has been used as an opportunity to disguise some price increases among the potential shopper confusion.
For example, in Tesco Ireland:
Britvic’s Pepsi Max (330ml cans)
- 24 can party pack was €17.50 (pre-DRS) replaced by
- 18 can party pack at €16.50 (excluding deposit value)
- Reduction in product of 25%, with shelf price only dropping by 6%
Similarly with smaller multi-packs of the same product
- 6 packs previously sold at €6.00 (pre-DRS) replaced by
- 4 packs at €5.00 (excluding deposit value)
- Reduction in product of 33%, with shelf price only dropping by 17%
Conversely, Tesco Ireland’s reintroduction of some 2litre soft drinks bottles actually helps
shoppers, for example replacing 1.75l Coca-Cola with the 2l variant offers more product for
the 25c deposit.
Tesco Ireland looks to be the first major retailer out of the blocks on DRS, with almost a clean
switch over from pre to DRS skus since its launch at the beginning of the month. Similarly, SuperValu
seem to be implementing range changes and a price increase, with more than 17% of their
non/pre-DRS (soft drink) skus seeing higher prices in the latest week, ahead of DRS barcoded
lines potentially hitting their shelves.
Talysis’ Irish convenience data shows that some DRS skus are also beginning to appear across
Ireland’s convenience channel, although it will take time to fully sell through pre-DRS skus.
However, so far pricing within convenience retailers appears not to have followed the same
route as the supermarkets, with many (c.65+%) of comparable skus (eg same product and pack
size) seeing a lower price in its new DRS format than pre DRS, suggesting convenience
retailers are conscious of supporting their customers in the current cost of living crisis.
Ed Roberts, Managing Director of Talysis, comments:
“Working closely with our retailer and supplier partners means we are better prepared to
provide early insight into events which have the potential to affect Ireland’s retail market. We
will continue to support our partners to better understand the impact of DRS in their business
and on their brands, packs and customers as the weeks unfold. Early detection of trends,
problems or opportunities is critical to making data and insights actionable and this is the
essence of what Talysis is about.”