just the Facts: The world’s top drinks brands

Consultancy group Interbrands has published its list of the top 100 brands in the world by value this week. Here, just-drinks picks out the best performers from the drinks sector.

• The Coca-Cola Co’s namesake CSD retained top spot for the tenth year, having grown in value by 2% to US$70.45bn. It is, however, facing stiffer competition from technology firms. IBM, Microsoft and Google took the next three places, with Google’s value having risen by 36% in the last 12 months.

• PepsiCo’s Pepsi-Cola was the second highest-ranked drinks brand, having increased by 3% in value to $14bn. It retained 23rd place.

• Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Budweiser broke up the soft drinks industry’s hopes of a one-two-three finish, by retaining 30th spot. It rose by 4% in value to $12.25bn.

• Coca-Cola’s Sprite came fourth out of the drinks brands, achieving 61st place and entering the rankings after a no-show in 2009. However, Sprite did not grow in value over the last 12 months and remained at $5.77bn.

• Brown-Forman’s Jack Daniel’s was the highest ranked spirits brand, in 78th place with a value of $4.036bn. Again, it did not grow in value.

• ‘Jack’ was almost pipped by Moet & Chandon Champagne, which rose in value by 7% to $4.021bn. The LVMH-owned brand climbed three places to 79th, perhaps reflecting improved demand for Champagne in the first half of 2010.

• Corona Extra and Heineken provided the only competition to Budweiser in the top100, albeit in a limited sense. Neither brand grew in value in the last year and Corona Extra achieved 85th place with a value of $3.8bn, while Heineken took 93rd spot on $3.5bn.

• Sandwiched between those two beer heavyweights were Diageo’s Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker brands. Johnnie Walker achieved 92nd place after failing to figure in 2009, despite its value remaining flat against the year before at $3.55bn. The Scotch brand could soon pass Smirnoff, which fell in value by 2% to $3.62bn. Smirnoff fell by five places to 89th.

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