Coca-Cola fizzes to top of league with £1bn in sales

Coca-Cola has become the first brand to top £1bn in annual UK grocery sales.

By The Newsroom

Published 19th Mar 2010, 22:07 BST

Updated 19th Mar 2010, 22:07 BST

Sales of the drink rose 47.6m in the past year, taking the total to 1,011.1m, according to figures compiled for The Grocer magazine's Britain's 100 Biggest Brands annual survey.

Warburtons was the second highest-selling brand with sales of 706.1m followed by Walkers crisps at 511.2m.

Hovis was the biggest growing brand with sales of 458.7m, up 53.8m on 2008. The brand to suffer the biggest decline was Tropicana, down 19m to 269.4m.

Grocer editor Adam Leyland said: "Amid all the talk of retro brands, no-one talks about Coca-Cola. But a retro brand implies it went out of fashion, while Coca-Cola is somehow timeless."

New entries to the top 100 include Glade, Quavers, Heinz pasta, Rowntree's, Philadelphia, Clover and Twinings.