Liquid Gold: How Flavoured Water Became the Soft Drink Industry's Quiet Winner, and Why Africa Should Be Paying Attention

*Africa Brew Brief | Africa One Media*

---

Walk down the soft drinks aisle of any UK supermarket and the change is easy to see. Cola and full-sugar fizz now share the shelf with rows of strawberry, lemon-and-lime, cherry and summer-berry waters, most of them sugar-free and many of them premium-priced. What used to be a niche product is now one of the fastest-growing parts of the drinks market.

This investigation looks at why this is happening, how much money is involved, who is making it, and what it means for African producers and investors.

---

## Part 1: The UK, a category in rapid growth

The latest NielsenIQ data shows how fast the category is moving. Water ranks among the fastest-growing soft drinks categories in the year to May 2026, and within it flavoured still water is the fastest-growing segment, with retail value up 15% and volume up 10%. The year before was even stronger: flavoured still water value sales rose 19% and volume 14%, with new shoppers entering the category as they switch away from cola and other flavoured fizzy drinks.

The most recent full-market measurement comes from Zenith Global. In 2022, UK consumption of flavoured and functional waters rose 16% to 530 million litres, 6% above the pre-pandemic peak of 2018, while sales value jumped 25% to more than £600m. Within that:

- Flavoured water is the largest segment, at 87% of volume and 68% of value. That is roughly £410m and 460 million litres.

- Functional waters grew to 7% of volume and 18% of value, and juicy waters made up the remaining 6% of volume and 14% of value.

- Still products account for over 70% of volume, with sparkling under 30%.

Zenith forecasts continued growth to 620 million litres by 2027, 16% above 2022. If prices rise in line with volume, the UK category is now likely worth between £650m and £700m. That figure is our own estimate, not a published one.

**The key point:** the growth is not only coming from more people drinking water. Shoppers are actively moving away from sugary drinks and into flavoured water, which makes this a long-term change in habits rather than a passing trend.

---

## Part 2: Why consumption is rising

### 1. The sugar tax changed the economics

The biggest single driver was government policy. The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy, introduced in 2018, was designed in tiers:

1. Drinks under 5g of sugar per 100ml pay nothing.

2. Drinks between 5g and 8g pay 18p per litre.

3. Drinks above 8g pay 24p per litre.

The industry reacted before the tax even started. Almost all major soft drink brands cut their sugar content to avoid the levy, and more than 80% of the resulting calorie reductions came from manufacturers reformulating in the two years between the announcement and the start date.

Sales shifted with it. Over a four-year period, sales volume of high-sugar drinks covered by the levy fell by 50%, while low- and zero-sugar drinks rose by 40%. Bottled water and other levy-exempt drinks grew by 23%. Flavoured water, which is naturally low in sugar and tax-free, benefited directly.

### 2. Health awareness and fear of sugar

Even before the levy, the trend was clear. Glacéau Vitaminwater was the only brand in decline among the UK's top 10 bottled waters at one point, losing £2.5m partly because of growing concern about sugar. The brands winning today are the ones that remove sugar entirely. Danone's stated strategy is that making water taste good helps encourage healthier habits.

### 3. Constant new flavours

Brands keep shoppers interested by launching new flavours. Radnor Splash added Cherry, one of the top five fruit flavours worldwide in new food and drink launches, and Highland Spring added Orange & Passion Fruit and Summer Berries in 2026.

### 4. Value packs and convenience stores

Even with household budgets under pressure, flavoured water has found a way to grow. Radnor Hills launched Radnor Splash in price-marked packs in March 2025. Over the following year, the brand grew seven times faster than the flavoured water category in convenience stores, with sales value up 77.4%.

### 5. Functional and "better-for-you" benefits

Functional water (waters with added vitamins, electrolytes or other ingredients) is the premium end of the category. Functional waters more than doubled their UK volume over five years while commanding a high price premium.

---

## Part 3: How big is the market across Europe and worldwide?

1. **UK flavoured and functional water (2022):** over £600m and 530 million litres, forecast to reach 620 million litres by 2027.

2. **Europe flavoured water (2025):** $7.05bn, forecast to reach $18.28bn by 2034, growing 11.16% a year. Functional flavoured water is the fastest-growing part, at 11.6% a year.

3. **Global flavoured water (2024):** $23.3bn, forecast to reach $45.8bn by 2032, growing 7.8% a year.

4. **Middle East and Africa (2025):** $1.24bn, forecast to reach $3.09bn by 2034.

Another way to see Europe: flavoured water made up 12.7% of a European bottled water market worth $75.74bn in 2025, and is growing fastest as younger consumers look for low-calorie drinks with more taste.

**A note on the numbers:** commercial research firms often disagree. One firm puts the European flavoured water market at only $4.92bn in 2025, about 30% lower than the $7.05bn estimate above. Any investor using these figures should check them against retail panel data before making decisions.

---

## Part 4: The price gap between flavoured and plain water

This is where the business case becomes clear. Current UK supermarket shelf prices, from cheapest to most expensive per litre:

1. **Tesco own-label mineral water, 6 × 2L:** £2.55, about £0.21 per litre.

2. **Tesco own-label mineral water, 2L:** £0.90, or £0.45 per litre.

3. **Volvic plain, 1.5L:** £0.85, about £0.57 per litre.

4. **Tesco own-label flavoured water, 1L:** £0.75 per litre.

5. **Volvic Touch of Fruit, 1.5L:** £1.45, or £0.97 per litre.

6. **Volvic Touch of Fruit, 750ml:** about £1.95, or £2.60 per litre.

7. **Volvic Touch of Fruit Sparkling, 330ml can:** £1.15, about £3.48 per litre.

**What this shows:**

- The same Volvic water costs **about 70% more** once it is flavoured (£1.45 compared with £0.85 for the same 1.5L bottle).

- Per litre, branded flavoured water costs **more than twice** as much as own-label plain water, and **about 4.6 times** as much as bulk own-label packs.

- In small, on-the-go formats (750ml bottles and cans), the price per litre rises to **12 to 16 times** the cheapest plain water.

The cost of adding flavour (natural flavourings, a little stevia or sugar, a label) is small compared with the price increase. This explains why every major water company is investing in flavoured ranges.

---

## Part 5: Who is profiting from the boom

### 1. Danone (Volvic)

The category leader is investing heavily. Touch of Fruit Sparkling was backed by a £5m marketing campaign covering both still and sparkling ranges. In convenience stores, Volvic remains the leading water brand, with Touch of Fruit outperforming a total market that grew 12.4%.

### 2. Highland Spring

Highland Spring is the fastest-moving challenger. It accounts for more than half of all new product sales in flavoured water, has sold 12 million units, and aims to reach £100m in UK sales. Its 2026 launches came with a £2m campaign including outdoor advertising and national sampling.

### 3. Radnor Hills

This independent Welsh producer is growing faster than its larger rivals. Radnor Splash is growing almost four times faster than the overall flavoured water category and seven times faster than the market leader.

### 4. Coca-Cola and Britvic

Both soft drink giants entered water to protect their positions. Glacéau Smartwater delivered £16.6m of growth at one stage, and Britvic's Robinsons Hydro helped its flavoured waters grow 32.5% to £8.1m.

### 5. Waterdrop, the challenger format

Waterdrop, founded in Austria, sells dissolvable flavour cubes rather than bottled water. It serves more than 5 million online customers, earns about €150m a year, is profitable, and sells through over 20,000 retail outlets and around 50 branded stores. In 2026 it closed a funding round of more than €100m, the largest in its history, and Croatian food group Atlantic Grupa paid €11m for a minority stake. This matters for Africa because it shows the flavoured water idea can be sold without shipping heavy bottles.

### 6. Supermarkets

Retailers are also benefiting. Own-label flavoured waters at around £0.75 per litre undercut branded products while still earning good margins on what is mostly tap or spring water.

---

## Part 6: Africa, a market just getting started

### The size of the market

No one publishes a figure for Africa alone. The combined Middle East and Africa flavoured water market was worth $1.24bn in 2025 and is forecast to reach $3.09bn by 2034, growing 10.69% a year. Much of that value currently comes from the wealthy Gulf states, so Africa's share is probably well under half. That is our estimate.

The plain bottled water market is far larger. The Middle East and Africa bottled water market was estimated at $25bn in 2025, with growth to about $37.6bn by 2031. Flavoured water is therefore a small share of a very large and growing market.

### Sugar taxes are spreading across Africa

The same policy pressure that built the UK category is beginning to appear in Africa:

1. **South Africa:** Since April 2018, the Health Promotion Levy has charged 2.1 cents per gram of sugar above 4g per 100ml, roughly 11% of the price per litre. Within two years, it reduced sugar from taxed soft drinks by about one-third.

2. **Kenya:** A proposed levy would tax locally made drinks above 4g of sugar per 100ml at KES 1 for each extra gram.

3. **Nigeria:** The Nigeria Customs Service is campaigning to bring back excise duty on all sugar-sweetened drinks.

Every new sugar tax makes low-sugar flavoured water more attractive to both producers and shoppers.

### Who leads in Africa

1. **South Africa: aQuellé.** It launched South African flavours in 1998 and now offers 10 flavours. Its Mzansi Mango Flavoured Sparkling Drink won Double Gold at two competitions, and aQuellé is currently the most scanned bottled water brand in South Africa. **Lesson: local flavours win.**

2. **Kenya: Keringet (Coca-Cola).** Coca-Cola relaunched Keringet to win a larger share of Kenya's premium mineral water market. The market is crowded but concentrated: over 350 players compete, but around six of them control more than 60% of sales.

3. **Nigeria: Eva (Coca-Cola/NBC) and Nestlé Pure Life.** Nestlé already sells a fortified product, Pure Life Protect, enriched with zinc. The market is heavily fragmented by sachet and low-cost bottled brands, and because bottled water imports are banned, local brands have a strong position.

### Where the opportunity is

1. **African flavours as the selling point.** Mango, hibiscus (zobo/bissap), baobab, rooibos, passion fruit, tamarind and ginger are flavours Europe now pays a premium for. aQuellé's Mzansi Mango shows local flavours can beat imported ones in their home market.

2. **Supplying the global brands.** UK and EU brands need natural flavours. African producers of fruit concentrates and botanical extracts could supply them, keeping more value at origin than exporting raw fruit.

3. **Low-cost formats.** Africa's water economy runs on sachets and small bottles. A low-sugar flavoured water in a 50cl bottle, or a flavour sachet or cube in the Waterdrop model, would suit African price points. The Middle East and Africa water enhancer market is expected to grow more than 8.59% a year to 2031.

4. **Getting ahead of sugar taxes.** Sugar taxes are expanding from South Africa to Kenya and possibly Nigeria. Brands that already have zero-sugar flavoured ranges will capture shoppers leaving taxed sugary drinks.

5. **Hotels and hospitality.** Hotels, airlines and events across East Africa's growing tourism sector need premium, locally made drinks with a story behind them.

### Risks to weigh

1. **Affordability:** Even in the UK, tighter household budgets are reducing use of flavoured and sparkling bottled water. In Africa, the price premium is harder to sustain outside wealthy urban consumers.

2. **Competition from multinationals:** Coca-Cola and Nestlé already control distribution in Kenya and Nigeria.

3. **Plastic and recycling regulation:** Packaging rules are tightening across the continent.

4. **Unreliable data:** Africa-specific market figures are thin and inconsistent. Investors should commission their own consumer research before committing serious capital.

---

## The bottom line

Flavoured water is a simple business: the product is mostly water, the flavour is cheap, and the brand allows a price premium of 70% or more over the same plain water. In the UK, a sugar tax, health awareness and constant flavour launches turned it into a £600m+ category growing at double-digit rates. Europe is worth $7bn or more, and the world market $23bn.

Africa has the same conditions beginning to form: sugar taxes are spreading, urban middle classes are growing, demand for safe packaged water is high, and the continent grows the fruits and botanicals that global flavour trends depend on. The risk is that, as with cocoa and coffee, Africa supplies the raw ingredients while the value is captured elsewhere. The opportunity is for African companies to build their own flavoured water brands, flavour supply chains and bottling operations so that more of that value stays on the continent.