Publish Date: October 2026
Updated Tariff & Recession Risk Analysis and Forecasts
The 2026 Soft Drink & Ice Production Market Report covers the $53.5 billion industry which has undergone significant transformation as traditional carbonated soft drinks face volume pressure while alternative categories including enhanced waters, functional beverages, and premium craft options experience accelerated growth. Competitive structure encompasses global beverage corporations alongside specialized producers focused on emerging categories and premium positioning. Consumer preferences have shifted decidedly toward reduced sugar content, natural ingredients, functional benefits beyond refreshment, and premium positioning addressing specific lifestyle needs. Manufacturers face significant operational challenges balancing production efficiency, water quality management, packaging sustainability requirements, and tariff implications affecting both specialty ingredient imports and equipment sourcing. Successful companies are differentiating through proprietary formulation expertise creating satisfying low/no sugar options, specialized production capabilities for emerging beverage formats, innovative packaging enhancing convenience and sustainability, and strategic brand positioning addressing evolving consumer health priorities in a category experiencing simultaneous volume challenges in traditional segments and value growth in premium alternatives.
Soft Drink & Ice Production Industry Description
Soft Drink & Ice Production manufactures non-alcoholic beverages including carbonated sodas, bottled water, sports drinks, energy drinks, and packaged ice. Companies combine water with flavors, sweeteners, and functional ingredients or freeze purified water into ice through high-volume processing operations. Manufacturing processes include water treatment, ingredient mixing, carbonation, filling, freezing, packaging, and quality control operations that ensure consistent product quality and safety. These businesses serve retail, convenience, food service, and institutional markets. The industry continuously improves formulation quality, production efficiency, and increasingly focuses on reduced sugar content, natural ingredients, enhanced beverages with functional benefits, and sustainable packaging solutions that address environmental concerns while meeting consumer refreshment needs.
NAICS Code: 31211
Number of Companies: 772
Number of Plants / Facilities: 1,210
Total Employees: 73,733
Market Size: $53.5 billion
TARIFF IMPACT (Summer 2025 – Download Report for Updated Analysis)
This report has in-depth analysis on the recent US tariff changes on material costs, quantifying import dependencies, tariff exposure rates, and key source countries for the soft drink & ice production sector.
Estimated Tariff Cost: $1.5 billion
Relative Tariff Impact: HIGH
Soft Drink & Ice Production Report Format
The 2026 U.S. Soft Drink & Ice Production Market Report is 63 pages of deep insights into the trends, dynamics, and forecasts shaping the industry. You can use this market report to develop a comprehensive fact base on the industry for business strategy, planning, forecasting, benchmarking, industry analysis, valuations, identifying organizational inefficiencies, financial analysis, and more.
The report has over 100 industry statistical data sets with historicals (2017-2025), trend analysis, and forecasts for 2026 and the next 5 years. The report includes revenue & cost trends, detailed breakdown on 26 expenses, financial ratio benchmarks, forecasts on 100+ data sets, inventory statistics, 31 balance sheet benchmarks, company segmentation analysis, top 50 companies analysis, material costs benchmarks, profitability metrics, state metrics analysis, plant capacity analysis, organizational breakdown, inflation statistics, wage analysis, revenue per employee trends, and numerous other data sets.
Below are a few page images from the report and check out the table of contents for a complete overview.
Report Table of Contents
Evaluate the table of contents to understand the comprehensive insights in the report and why thousands of professionals and executives count on Kentley Insights for their industry research.
The sources for the report data include federal and private surveys completed by the majority of companies in the sector covering extensive financial and operational topics for the soft drink & ice production industry. Our forecasts take into account historical trends, industry dynamics, and our macroeconomic projections.
1-2 – Market Report Overview & Contents
3 – Market Overview
– Data Sources, Industry Definition & Market Commentary
4 – Market Synopsis – Revenue & Growth
5 – Market Synopsis – Costs & Profitability
SECTION ONE
REVENUE & GROWTH ANALYSIS
7 – Market Size Details
– Industry Revenues, Companies & Facilities
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
8 – Growth Benchmarks
– Sales per Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
9 – Product Lines Revenue
– Percentage of Revenue from Product Lines
10 – BCG Matrix – Net Income vs. Revenue Growth
– Subsectors vs. Industry
11 – Total Sales by Month & Year
– 2021-2025 Sales per Month
12 – Inventory Value by Month & Year
– Inventory Value per Month for 2021-2025
13 – Months of Inventory
– Months of Inventory per Month for 2021-2025
14 – Sector Revenue by Segments
– Concentration Segments by Top Companies
– Business Size Segments
– Business Structure Segments
15 – Market Size by State
16 – Market Size as a % of State GDP
17 – Sales as a % of State Manufacturing
18 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
19 – Market Segmentation by Business Size
– Business Size Segments – 1-4, 5-9, 10-20, 21-50, 51-100, 101-250, & 250+ employees
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
20 – Segmentation by Concentration (Top 50 Companies)
– Concentration Segments – Top 4, 5-8, 9-20, & 21-50 companies
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
21 – Market Share of Top 50 Companies
22 – Subsector Market Share of Top 50 Companies
23 – Segmentation by Business Structure
– Business Structure Segments – C-Corporations, S-Corporations, Partnerships, & Sole Proprietorships
– Companies, Facilities, Sales, Employees & Payroll
24 – Revenue per Company by State
– Revenue per Company
25 – Revenue per Company by Segments
26 – Revenue per Facility by State
27 – Revenue per Facility by Segment
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
28 – Subsector Growth
– Sales and 5-Year Growth
29 – Subsector Statistics
– Sales per Company & Facility, and 5-Year Growth
30 – Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Companies & Locations
31 – Employment Consolidation Analysis
– 5-Year Growth of Employee Statistics
32 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Number of Companies & Facilities
– 5-Year Growth
33 – Subsector Consolidation Analysis
– Facilities per Company
– Employees per Company
– 5-Year Growth
SECTION TWO
COST, CAPITAL & PROFIT BENCHMARKS
35 – Profitability & Financial Ratio Analysis
– Percent of Companies that are Profitable
– Average Net Income as a Percent of Revenue
– 10 of the Top Financial Ratios
– Assets and Liabilities indexed to industry revenue at 100
– Current & Non-Current Assets: 14 Categories
– Short-term, Long-term Liabilities, & Net Worth: 13 Categories
37 – OPEX
– Industry OPEX
– Revenue vs. OPEX Growth
– OPEX as a Percent of Revenue
– Trend Analysis 2017-2025
– 2026 & 2030 Forecasts
38 – OPEX by Company & Plant
– OPEX per Company & Facility
– Revenue vs. Expenses Growth per Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
Page 39 – OPEX Detail
– Employee Expenses: payroll, insurance, pension, defined contribution plans, fringe benefits, temps
– Cost of Materials: materials, parts, containers, packaging, cost of resale, electricity and fuels, contract work
– Buildings and Equipment: capex for equipment, rental or lease for equipment, capex for buildings and structures, rental or leases, repair and maintenance
– Other Operating Expenses: professional and technical services, IT software and hardware, data processing and communications, advertising, refuse removal, taxes and license fees, other
-Inventory Breakdown: finished goods, work-in-progress, materials and supplies
40 – Production Material Costs & Tariff Analysis
– Top Production Material Costs Breakdown
– Industry & Material Tariff Analysis – % of costs, import %, tariff costs, source countries
41 – Producer Pricing Index
– Annual PPI – Indexed to 2006
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
– Monthly PPI Figures for the Past 4 Years
42 – Plant Utilization & Hours
– Plant Utilization Rate
– Plant Operational Hours per Week
– 2022-2025 Historical Figures by Quarter
43 – Reasons for Non-Full Production
– 7 Categories Quarterly Survey Results for Past 2 Years
44 – Productivity & Employment
– Revenue per Employee
– Total Employees
– Employees per Company
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
45 – Employee Productivity by Segments
– Business Size, Concentration, & Structure
46 – Employee Productivity by State
47 –Subsector Sales & Payroll per Employee
– Absolute & 5-Year Growth
48 – Payroll Analysis
– Payroll per Employee, Company & Plant
– Trend Analysis & Forecasts
49 – Payroll per Company by Segments
50 – Payroll per Plant by Segments
51 – Payroll per Employee by Segments
52 – Payroll per Employee by State
53 – Organizational Composition
– % of Employees for 27 Job Categories
– Management & Finance
– Sales & Marketing
– Technology, Engineering, Science
– Service, Support & Training
– Operations
54 – Job Categorization Pay Ranges
– Management & Finance
– Sales, Service & Marketing
– Operations
– Pay Bands – Bottom 10% & 25%, Mean, Top 25% & 10%
55 – Top 20 Jobs Breakdown
56 – Top 20 Jobs Pay
57 – Employees per Company by Segments
58 – Employees per Plant by Segments
59 – Facilities per Company by Segments
60 – Total Employment by State
61 – Population to Every Employee by State
62 – Employees per Facility by State
63 – Overview of Kentley Insights
Download a Sample Report
Below is a free sample report download. The 2026 Soft Drink & Ice Production Market Report has the same layout and data sets as the sample report.
Product Lines, Materials, and Jobs Covered in Report
PRODUCT LINES
Soft drink manufacturing
Bottled water manufacturing
Ice manufacturing
MATERIAL COST CATEGORIES
Materials, ingredients, containers, and supplies, nsk
Cost of all other materials and components, parts, containers, and supplies consumed
Concentrated liquid beverage bases
Plastics containers (including bottles, jars, tubes, tubs, etc.)
Plastics products (including packaging, foam products, film, sheet, rod, tube, fabricated shapes, bottles, etc.)
Metal containers, cans, lids, ends, and parts
Paper and paperboard products
Beet and cane sugar
Wet corn milling products, including corn sweeteners, corn flour, corn meal and feed, and starch
Canned fruits and vegetables, including tomato paste, concentrated fruit juices, jams, jellies, and preserves
Aluminum and aluminum-base alloy sheet, plate, foil (including packaging products), and welded tubing
Glass and glass products
Water purchased
Honey
INDUSTRY JOBS ANALYZED
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders
Chemical Processing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
Driver/Sales Workers and Truck Drivers
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing
Bartenders
Models, Demonstrators, and Product Promoters
Retail Salespersons
Waiters and Waitresses
Laborers and Material Movers, Hand
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Industrial Machinery Installation, Repair, and Maintenance Workers
Designers
Miscellaneous Agricultural Workers
First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers
General and Operations Managers
Miscellaneous Production Workers
Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
Miscellaneous Food Processing Workers
About Kentley Insights
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