Cola maintained its position as the licensed trade's largest sub-category, with value growth of 4% to £982m lifting its market share to 41% as consumers looked for value in cash-strapped times.

The two leading brands, Coke and Pepsi, accounted for 94% of value sales. Once again, Pepsi had the better year, taking 2.8 share points to knock Coke off the No1 spot. Pepsi's £475m sales included good performances from both regular and diet variants.

Draught cola grew significantly ahead of packaged cola, with 5% value growth taking 82% of the cola market, highlighting the demand from both licensees and consumers for draught soft drinks.

Lemonade − the second largest sub-category, with an 18% value share − was in good shape in 2009. Sales were up 4% to £437m, turning around the previous year's 6% decline.

No1 brand R Whites further strengthened its leadership, with sales up 9% to £209m, and increased its share of the sub-category to 48%. By comparison CCE Schweppes grew sales by just 1% and saw its share slip to 36%.

While diet variants represent just 1% of the market, sales of diet lemonade are growing swiftly – 39% in 2009 – reflecting consumer desire for healthier soft drinks options.

While the increased emphasis on providing meals in a family-friendly environment has done much to boost the soft drinks market, sales of juice drinks fell by 2% to £228m. J2O continued to lead the field, with a bold flavours portfolio and sales of £174m, but still declined in line with the market. Fruit Shoot saw strong gains as pubs focused on the family occasion to up spend, growing 9% in value to just over £14m as did Capri Sun, growing 55% off a small base to just over £1m.

Juice drinks' loss was probably squash's gain as consumers sought more value within their leisure spend. As a result squash returned to growth – up 5% to £178m – after declining 1% in 2008.

Britvic Cordial and CCE Schweppes Squash both saw increased sales. Brand leader Britvic Cordial grew 6% by value to £68m, but lost market share marginally to 38%. Schweppes Squash sales were up 7% to £38m, retaining a 21% share of the market.

Mixers picked up in 2009, transforming 2008's 4% decline into a 1% increase in sales value to £160m. Britvic’s star performance, with sales of £75m – 7% up against a decline of 4% in 2008 – put the brand in No1 position ahead of Schweppes, which saw sales drop 4% to £68m.

Pure juice turned its performance around, with sales up 1% to £153m, driven by 20% growth in managed pubs. Mixers, rather than free pour led the growth in this sector as licensees looked to packaged products for a premium serve.

Britvic juices held on to their No1 position with sales up 4% by volume and 6% by value to £54m. By contrast, second-placed CCE Schweppes juices saw declines in value (5%) and volume (8%).

Energy drinks continued to run out of steam although at a slower rate. Sales followed 2008's 7% decline with a 2% fall to £107m. Red Bull still leads the field with an 87% market share, but the brand is declining ahead of its peer group at 5%, as the "vodka and Red Bull" trend slides further out of vogue.

Sales of bottled water continued their downward trend, as budget-conscious consumers turned to tap water to save money. Water dropped 6% by value to £67m and 10% by volume. The biggest loser was Highland Spring, which declined by a massive 25%. Strathmore and Abbeywell – the sub-category's key players − declined by 5% and 1% respectively. Requests for tap water vs bottled water may to some extent reflect consumer confidence; if so, demand for bottled water might improve in line with economic recovery, as suggested by its return to value growth (+5%) in the last quarter 2009.

With sales up 10% to £57m, this was the top performing sub-category. Its startling turnaround after the previous year's 1% decline could be the result of flavoured carbonates' growing popularity as an accompaniment to meals in food-focused establishments.

Irn Bru achieved a creditable 5% growth in sales value, but this was no match for its 10% performance in 2008. The big success story was 7UP − up 26%.

2009 was a good year for smaller brands as Ben Shaw’s grew 19%, a 2% increase on the previous year, taking the brand to sales of £817k. Dispense soft drinks supplier Cabana also saw good growth, with sales up 74% to £7.2m.