PepsiCo To Debut Premium Brand 'LIFEWTR' Next Year

PepsiCo is expanding its beverage portfolio to include LIFEWTR, a pH-balanced premium water brand with electrolytes, to debut in United States retail stores in February 2017.

The brand will uphold its name in the premium water category not only for its purified water, but also with "eye-catching" packaging. The new labels will feature rotating designs by emerging artists in series of three several times a year, according to Ad Age.

"Our Lifewtr artists will turn the traditional bottle label into a unique masterpiece that speaks to the creativity — and source of creation — linked to the brand's core," Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo's global beverage group, said in a statement.

The beverage giant is already home to water brand Aquafina, which claims $185 million in the global bottled water market, Fortune reported.

The strategic move to expand the company's water category indicates the rise in bottled water popularity as the consumption of soda and other beverages with additives declines.

"I think we are seeing a secular and irreversible trend toward healthier beverages," Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo's Global Beverage Group, told Fortune.

According to Beverage Digest, bottled water volume has increased from 1.8 billion cases to 4 billion from 2004 to 2015, whereas soda has decreased by 1.5 billion cases of volume.

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