Providing an invaluable insight into 16 West European countries, Zenith's West Europe Bottled Water 2008 report is the industry standard for tracking market trends.

West Europe Bottled Water 2007 is broken down into 3 main sections:

• A full West Europe market commentary provides in-depth analysis of trends in such areas as industry structure, segment dynamics and forecasts.
• Comprehensive tables and charts interrogate the West European bottled water market looking into consumption trends to 2007, country rankings, sparkling and still water, bottled vs bulk water, types of packaging, leading companies, and forecasts of consumption to 2012.
• 16 country profiles contain expert market interpretation, tables and charts.

West European bottled water presents a reliable and steady growth opportunity, according to Zenith International's latest report on this diverse and dynamic market.

Although bottled water sales are becoming more robust against seasonality and changes in weather, there is still no substitute for a strong summer. 2007 has seen a slight decline on 2006 volumes due to poor weather across West Europe. The market fell by 128 million litres, equal to 0.3% to reach 46.2 billion litres, slightly below the volume reached in 2006.

Of the 16 West European countries covered in Zenith's report, 11 of these showed positive growth on the previous year, compared to only nine in 2004. The highest growth, at 15.3%, was reported by Greece.

2007 marked a challenging year particularly for the top five countries in terms of growth. Nonetheless, volume rankings for 2007 saw only marginal variations on the previous year, with Italy regaining first position, followed by Germany, France, Spain and the UK.

The European bottled water industry faces many challenges ahead. The question of 'water miles' may be endearing consumers to locally sourced waters, rather than those that have flown around the world. However, closer to home, the European bottled water industry still has some way to go in order to embrace consumers' environmental concerns. Returnable PET is meeting some of these challenges, whilst new 'compostable' plastic bottles are providing further scope for innovation.

Promotional activity through mainstream retailers and value driven discounters is likely to see price depreciation continue. Meanwhile, a widening of the EU should see further in-roads made by East European operators. A large number of consumers are increasingly influenced by price. Yet, bottled water volume growth should also be fuelled by consumer awareness of the health benefits of water, in addition to concerns over the quality of tap water.

As lifestyles become increasingly hectic, a bottle of water is more and more often perceived as a calorie free, refreshing beverage that can be picked up whilst on- the-go. Indeed, as consumers embrace the convenience hydration message that bottled water conveys, the European bottled water market continues to outperform the overall soft drinks category.

These remain challenging yet exciting times for bottled water across the whole of Europe.

Zenith International reports offer you the most reliable market figures and in-depth analysis of trends. This comes from a bottom up approach to the research process, and detailed discussions undertaken with industry players.