The US liquid refreshment beverage market grew in both volume and sales in 2017, according to research by the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC). Retail sales grew by 3% to reach a total of $180bn and volume increase by 2% to 34 billion gallons.

The liquid refreshment beverage market is comprised of non-alcoholic drinks and includes the categories bottled water, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, fruit beverages, ready-to-drink (RTD) tea, RTD coffee, sport drinks and value-added water.

RTD coffee saw the greatest growth in volumes and sales of 12.3% and 14.4% respectively. It was closely followed by value-added water with 11.7% growth in volume and 10% in sales.

BMC chairman and CEO Michael C Bellas said: “The beverage industry’s ongoing growth in both volume and retail sales indicates fundamental strength. Its response to changes in consumer preferences illustrates its ability to adapt.”

Only two of the eight segments declined in both volume and sales in 2017. Fruit beverages experienced a 3.9% decline in volume and a 2.2% fall in sales and sports drinks saw a decrease of 2.1% in volumes and 1.2% in sales.

Despite this decline for sport drinks, Gatorade was ranked as the sixth largest refreshment brand in 2017 in terms of volume with more than one billion gallons sold.

Carbonated soft drinks saw a 1.3% reduction in volume from 12.5 billion gallons to 12.3 billion gallons, which reduced its market share to below 37%. BMC say this was the result of companies downsizing packaging in response to consumer demand for less sugar in products. The segment experienced a 1.2% increase in sales during 2017.

Bottled water surpassed carbonated soft drinks as the first beverage segment in 2016 and it strengthened its leadership in the industry in 2017 with volume growth of 7% and sales increase of 10.8%. BMC attribute bottled water’s continued success to the segment’s focus on its healthy, natural and calorie-free qualities that are increasingly appealing to consumers and aggressive pricing.

Despite the continued growth in the bottled water segment, carbonated soft drinks continue dominate the top ten brands in terms of volume. It accounted for four of the top five beverage brands.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi held the first and second spot, Mountain Dew was third and Dr Pepper was fifth. Dr Pepper and Sprite, which was ranked seventh, were the only of the top ten brands in the carbonated soft drinks segment to experience growth in volumes in 2017.

Four bottled water brands were in the top ten; Nestlé Pure Life at four, Poland Spring at eight, Dasani at nine and Aquafina at ten. Nestlé Pure Life recorded the most volume growth with 9.2%, followed by Poland Spring with 8% and then Aquafina with 2.7%.Dasani experienced 0% volume growth.

In terms of companies’ control over the top ten brands, PepsiCo dominated with four brands: Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade and Aquafina. Coca-Cola had three: Coca-Cola, Sprite and Dasani and Nestlé owned two brands: Nestlé Pure Life and Poland Spring. Dr Pepper Snapple only had one entry.