London, March 12 - Soft drink sales in Britain rose 2.4 percent to 8.5 billion pounds ($17.2 billion) in 2007, as strong demand for premium and healthier drinks offset a 2 percent volume decline caused by poor summer weather, a study showed on Wednesday.
Take-home sales of soft drinks, which account for three quarters of the industry, grew 2.8 percent to 6.07 billion pounds, while on-premise outlets such as pubs and bars showed 1.2 percent growth, a report by soft drinks group Britvic said.
"The past year has seen the slowing of long-standing trends such as those towards diet or no-added-sugar variants and away from carbonates... Health and wellbeing trend is the most powerful driver shaping the soft drinks market," the report said.
It said smoothies were the fastest growing sub-category, while pure fruit juice gained ground on cola.
Still cola remained the top selling take-home drink with 21 percent market share worth 1.2 billion pounds, followed by pure juice, whose sales grew 5 percent to 1.0 billion.