US consumers bought less carbonated soft drinks for the 10th straight year in 2014, with diet fizzy drinks shrinking more than their sugary counterparts, a report says.
An annual report by the industry tracker Beverage Digest found that overall volume slipped 0.9 per cent last year, moderating from the decline of 3 per cent the previous year.
And the poor performance of diet soft drinks in particular led to a shake-up in the top 10 US soda rankings; even though people bought less Pepsi, it managed to regain the No 2 spot from Diet Coke, which suffered an even steeper decline.
Diet Coke had knocked Pepsi off the No 2 spot in 2010.
Coke remained by far the most popular soft drink in the US, selling about twice as much as No 2 Pepsi.
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John Sicher, publisher of Beverage Digest, attributed the moderation in soft drinks' decline in 2014 to the continued growth of energy drinks.
He also noted that Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo and Dr Pepper Snapple Group have improved marketing for their fizzy drink brands.
Soft drink volume has been declining in the US since 2004 amid concerns that sugary drinks fuel weight gain, and a proliferation of alternatives in the beverage aisle.
More recently, industry executives have attributed an accelerating decline of diet variations to concerns over artificial sweeteners like aspartame.
The American Beverage Association, which represents Coke, Pepsi and others, is trying to address the shift away from diet drinks in part by funding studies showing the benefits of the drinks.
