The European soft drinks sector plays a key role in strengthening Europe’s competitiveness. With over 500 production facilities in Europe, the sector supports more than 1.8 million jobs and generates €242bn in value across its value chain. It maintains a strong local presence by manufacturing more than 97% of its soft drinks within Europe and sourcing more than 85% of its ingredients from European farmers.
The sector is represented by UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe, the Brussels-based trade association with 12 companies and 27 national associations in its membership. UNESDA members are involved in the production and distribution of a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages including still drinks, carbonated drinks, energy drinks, iced teas, flavoured waters and sports drinks.
We caught up with Andrew McMillin, the new President of UNESDA Soft Drinks Europe, to talk about the sector’s key priorities in this new EU legislative term. Andrew is President of Western Europe Operations at The Coca-Cola Company.
Congratulations on your new role as President of UNESDA. Can you share your key priorities for the sector during your tenure?
My top priority is to make sure the European soft drinks sector stays competitive and continues to lead in innovation.
The EU’s political focus on competitiveness and innovation is the kind of approach our sector needs to thrive, as we are a driving force for growth. From our farmers and factories, to distributors and retailers, we support millions of jobs and generate billions of euros in value.
Our sector is also very present across Europe. Whether it’s the well-known brands, or the thousands of niche beverages, we all produce soft drinks right here in Europe. This keeps us close to our consumers. We understand their needs and respond quickly to what they want, particularly when it’s about offering more balanced dietary choices.
As part of my Presidency, I’m looking forward to prioritizing growth and capitalizing on our close proximity with European consumers to spark innovation locally.
Considering the EU’s competitiveness drive, how can the soft drinks sector continue to foster growth and stay competitive?
I believe the path to growth should focus on two key levers: innovation and regulatory efficiency.
Innovation plays a critical role in many ways. We cannot thrive without it. Innovation enables our sector to create positive food environments that offer enjoyment and more choices to consumers, especially through sugar reduction. It's what allows us to support more balanced diets. At the same time, innovation is essential to drive sustainable practices throughout our businesses, whether it is by sourcing ingredients sustainably, protecting water resources or advancing packaging circularity.
Take beverage containers as an example. Our sector is making packaging more sustainable, resulting in increased fully recyclable and increasing recycled material content, because we are constantly innovating. We are also starting to scale other solutions, like packaging-free options such as dispensers. As a sector, we will continue investing in innovation to stay competitive.
On the policy side, our sector needs a regulatory environment that supports business growth and innovation. The new EU innovation push and regulatory simplification agenda are steps in the right direction. This is necessary to help businesses operate more efficiently and give them confidence to invest more in innovation. Our sector supports the EU’s efforts to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens and reduce compliance costs for businesses.
For example, the soft drinks sector is currently facing a major regulatory barrier that limits our sugar reduction efforts. By EU law, manufacturers are only allowed to add a low or no-calorie sweetener to foods and drinks if the energy value has been reduced at least by 30%. There is no technical or scientific reason for this requirement. It’s an outdated rule that our sector is proposing to eliminate in order to incentivize reformulation, align to EU legislation on the real challenge of reducing sugar intake, and meet the evolving expectations of Europe’s consumers.
There is another essential condition for us to stay competitive – policies based on solid science. The Commission’s action to look at Europe consumers’ dietary habits data, as announced in its Vision for Agriculture and Food through the Food Dialogues, is a positive step in the right direction and I welcome this. We need policies that support consumers to adopt healthier dietary habits while also promoting fairness across the food supply chain.
As highlighted in the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, the agri-food industry should ‘’remain a world leader in food innovation.’’ What role does innovation play in the future for the soft drinks sector?
Innovation drives everything we do and, at the end of the day, it’s what helps us stay ahead. For years our sector has been the most innovative in the food and beverage industry, as recently reported by FoodDrinkEurope. I want our goal to be that we keep leading the way.
One of the main areas where we are focusing our innovation efforts on is supporting healthier lifestyles. UNESDA’s members are actively responding to our consumers and meeting their changing needs in many ways. We continue to reduce the sugar in our drinks, increase our range of low- and no-sugar beverages and offer more small pack sizes to promote moderate consumption.
But innovation doesn’t just depend on us. I believe policies should be there to stimulate food innovation for the long-term.
In what ways is UNESDA’s collaboration with policymakers essential for shaping a more competitive and innovative soft drinks sector?
For me, open dialogue and constructive engagement with policymakers is the best way to find practical and balanced solutions for our consumers and businesses, and our sector embraces this approach.
We are proud to be part of the EU Code of Conduct on Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices since its launch to drive positive change. This EU voluntary initiative has been a real success in accelerating the transition to a healthier food system. I think the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food sends a clear message in supporting the continued implementation of this Code, and I’m proud to see support for voluntary initiatives that are making meaningful progress.
Our sector has long-proven that we don’t wait for legislation. We are proactive, take the initiative and step-up our efforts. Our strong track record of voluntary commitments and key milestones, such as achieving a 33.9% overall sugar reduction in Europe since 2000, demonstrates that we take that responsibility seriously.
Together, I’m confident that we can make regulation fit for competitiveness.
