Being the oldest of the major soft drink brands in the US, Dr Pepper was firstly created, manufactured and sold at the beginning of 1885 in Texas [1]. Founded 1 year before Coca-Cola, it was the first in a wave of 19th-century upstart soft drink companies.
For decades, Dr Pepper has emphasised its blend of 23 fruit flavours as a unique taste for discerning soda drinkers. It doesn’t fall neatly into a category like cola or root beer- it also combines popular flavours like cherry, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and many more that remain a mystery to us. Once labelled the ‘King of Beverages’ Dr Pepper is, arguably, one of the greatest inventions coming out of Texas.
Being outside of the cola dichotomy, the brand has found success as an alternative to Coke and Pepsi. Keurig Dr Pepper, along with The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, are the 3 major players dominating the USD 471 billion carbonated soft drink industry worldwide[2]. According to CNN, Coca-Cola controlled about 40% of the US retail market in 2022, followed by PepsiCo with about 29%, and Keurig Dr Pepper with roughly 25% [3].
While the carbonated soft drink industry is losing its fizz to the point of dropping 26% shares from 2013 to 2021, the sleeping giant, Dr Pepper, is waking up by growing its shares by 9% in this period of time [4]. Although the brand is still falling behind the 2 cola market leaders, it has been narrowing its gaps. In fact, according to Dashmote’s data, it is growing by a staggering 20% on food delivery in some of its biggest markets in 2022.
In this article, we analysed the performance of Dr Pepper in the global food delivery industry. After reading this article, you will have a better understanding of the food delivery market share, penetration rates and growth of the brand in the UK, US, Canada and Australia across 2022.
Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the US in 1904. Today, this soda giant has become one of the major players in the soft drink industry in North America. In the latest Q3 2022 earning call, Dr Pepper’s net sales for the third quarter of 2022 increased by 11.4% to $3.62 billion, compared to last year [5]. Moreover, PepsiCo’s share fell by 1% in 2022, while Keurig Dr Pepper’s ticked up [6]. The penetration rate of the brand was 31%. It indicates that 31% of all DSFs in the US listed a Dr Pepper product. Additionally, Dr Pepper saw a strong Q4 growth in DSFs listings of 11%. It was after 7UP (18%) and Pepsi (15%), but higher than Coca-Cola (10%).
Dr Pepper became available in Canada in early January 2008. 14 years later, it has overtaken Fanta in Canadian food delivery and has become the 5th top-ranking soft drink brand in 2022. Last year, Dr Pepper, with a 29% year-to-date (YTD) growth rate, controlled 8% of the soft drink market share on Canadian food delivery. It had a penetration rate of 13% in Q4 2022 - still much lower than Coca-Cola (48%) and Pepsi (33%). This gap indicates plenty of margin for Dr Pepper to expand digitally and grow in the Canadian food delivery industry.
Interestingly, in the UK, Coca-Cola company has been producing Dr Pepper since the late-90s. It is also manufactured with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup [7]. Our data show that Dr Pepper had a YTD growth rate of 29%. It was one the fastest-growing soft drink brands on food delivery in the UK in 2022. Remarkably, this growth has outstripped Coca-Cola (25%) and Pepsi (23%). Dr Pepper had a penetration rate of 18% in Q4 2022. This indicates that almost 1/5 of all DSFs in the UK listed a Dr Pepper product.
In Australia, only 1% of DSFs on food delivery sell a Dr Pepper product in Q4 2022. This penetration rate is extremely low compared to other popular soft drink brands, such as Coca-Cola (64%), Pepsi (23%), or Sprite (41%). In fact, Dr Pepper had a long and tough way breaking into the Australian market. In 1997, Cadbury bought distribution for Dr Pepper and spent $7 million marketing the brand. However, it was hard for them to persuade people to switch flavours as “Australians are used to soft drinks that taste like cola or orange or lemon” [8]. Up to now, Dr Pepper has never been manufactured in Australia and is only sold as an imported good. This explains the low penetration rate of the brand on food delivery.
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