UK: Water cooler market should "return to growth" in 2010

Last year proved to be a mixed year for the UK water cooler industry, recent figures have shown. Whilst plumbed-in mains water coolers, known as point of use, maintained solid growth, they were unable to offset the decline in bottled coolers. The total market fell by 2%.

Food and drink consultancy Zenith International's 2010 UK Water Cooler market report, shows that there were a total of 682,000 coolers installed at the end of 2009.

"Although this is the second year in a row that the overall installed base has seen a decline, the rate has slowed. Considering the challenging economic climate and the absence of a long hot summer in 2009, this is positive news for the industry," the report claimed.

According to Zenith director Mark Groves: "The concerted efforts of operators to maintain high levels of customer service, to promote the hydration benefits of water and to increase their focus on profitability benefited the industry in 2009."

The balance of UK water cooler dynamics continues to shift in favour of point of use coolers. With virtually all bottled water cooler companies now also offering this type of unit, its share more than doubled from 18% five years ago to 42% in December 2009.

Driven primarily by point of use placement, Zenith forecasted that UK water coolers will see a return to moderate growth in 2010, reaching 715,000 units by the end of 2014.