Products from almost every convenience store category were introduced last month at the annual NACS Show in Las Vegas.
Among the innovations were new frozen drinks from Sunny Sky Products. “We launched two new Sour Patch Kids [drink] flavors—lemonade and red berry—in both frozen uncarbonated and frozen carbonated,” said Isabel Atherton, vice president of marketing for Sunny Sky Products, which anticipates good things from the new options.
“Our customers have had great success with our branded LTOs,” she said. “In fact, a top c-store chain launched the Sour Patch Kids watermelon frozen carbonated, and it overperformed any of their prior LTO flavors.”
Last year, sales of frozen dispensed beverages increased to $4,134 from $3,501 in 2022—the largest increase in sales of all foodservice categories, according to the NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2023 Data. While the category made up only 5.8% of foodservice sales in 2023, it generated the kind of margins that retailers want to see.
“Frozen dispensed is typically the smallest contributor to foodservice sales, but it boasts the highest margin,” said Emma Tainter, research analyst/writer at NACS. “From 2022 to 2023, category margins increased from 63.35% to 65.31%.”
7-Eleven made beverage history with the Slurpee drink, trademarked the word “brain freeze” and continues to entice customers with unique new flavors.
Read more from “Thrill of the Chill” from the November 2024 issue of NACS Magazine here.