It's not often that a new product category comes along that's ideal for your trading sector but that's exactly what's happened with energy shots. They're the little brother to energy drinks smaller and easier to consume and ideal for placing next to the till. For consumers they offer instant energy and, for retailers, instant profits.

Cola and pure fruit juice may be the biggest sub-categories within the soft drinks market but it's the energy drinks sector that is the fastest growing. According to Britvic's Soft Drinks Report 2009, glucose/stimulant drinks achieved 12% growth last year, with sales amounting to £522m in the total take-home market and £314m in impulse outlets. It's good news, particularly for forecourts where energy drinks sell and sell. Indeed AC Nielsen data puts Red Bull as the number one soft drink through forecourts on a cash rate of sale basis (see box p30.

Despite the rise in popularity of fruit drinks and smoothies, the UK soft drinks market is still dominated by cola which, according to the Britvic Soft Drinks report, recorded sales of £1.2bn in the take-home market last year, up 2% on 2006. And fruit carbonates, though in decline, were still worth £438m, which is nearly double the size of the smoothies market.

When it comes to soft drinks, forecourts are different to every other retail channel. In multiples grocers, multiple convenience stores, independents and symbols, colas reign supreme, outselling every other type of soft drink. But in forecourts it's the functional beverages that do best. Think Red Bull, Lucozade and Relentless to name just three.

Consumers guzzled their way through more than 14 billion litres of soft drinks last year as the total market grew by 5%. For manufacturers the focus was on the increasing demand for healthier choices, which was reflected in the number of new products boasting 'better for you' credentials.

Mother Nature had a lot to answer for last year. Dismal weather for most of the summer months didn’t just make for a rather dull season, it also led to a disappointing soft drinks performance.

The soft drinks category should be high on every forecourt retailer’s priority list – after all, it’s worth a whopping £5.1bn in total with forecourts claiming £242m of that – and is growing at a rate of 10% (AC Nielsen MAT April 04). What’s more, the sector’s full of big-brand names and multi-million pound ad campaigns, which makes the job of selling them a whole lot easier.

As one of the fastest-growing categories in the FMCG market, soft drinks in the forecourt sector showed double-digit growth in 2003 – helping market sales break the £5bn barrier.

According to Britvic’s Soft Drinks Category Report 2002, forecourts have maintained value and volume in the soft drinks sector and reversed a significant decline that has been seen over previous years. “Soft drinks were worth £227m to forecourts last year,” says Sue Garfitt, director of category planning at Britvic. “Forecourts are at the heartland of convenience grocery, offering a fill-up when doing the weekly shop or a top-up shop when petrol is needed.”