By Daniel Selwood2020-12-18T00:01:00+00:00
This year’s appetite for indulgence has put better-for-you brands in a tricky position
Halo Top has lost its shine. Once the darling of the ice cream world, the better-for-you brand has shed 39.8% of its value in the mults. That’s a loss of £9.3m.
The performance – a stark contrast to the bonanza enjoyed by ice cream overall – was “due to reduced promotions in the past 12 months” says Nielsen senior client analytics executive Holly Lyford.
Nevertheless, the brand’s director Matt Fulbrook believes there’s still room in freezers for reduced-calorie ice cream. “We absolutely see this trend continuing as the focus on health and wellness increases each year,” he says. There’s some suggestion he’s right. Low-cal rival Oppo has seen its lower-cal tubs grow 29.9% in value.
By Ian Quinn2020-12-18T00:01:00+00:00
Source: Unsplash
Covid-19 has helped wipe £75m off chilled ready meals as millions of shoppers, either furloughed or working from home, picked up their pots and pans to practice their scratch cooking, and Brits made fewer trips to the supermarket.
These two factors helped drive a 3.7% value decline in fresh ready meals, the largest and most premium of the three ready meals sectors.
“Demand for ready meals purely on the basis of convenience, when an equivalent could easily be prepared from scratch, has sharply declined,” says Patrick Cairns, CEO of Charlie Bigham’s. “At the beginning of lockdown, total ready meals sales declined by more than 25%.”
By Ellis Hawthorne2020-12-18T00:01:00+00:00
Source: Unsplash
Brits have been obsessed with washing their hands this year. Sadly for the laundry category, the same can’t be said about washing their clothes. Sales of detergent are down by £15.1m, after 119.6 million fewer packs landed in shoppers’ baskets.
Own-label’s £9.8m loss is largely responsible for the value decline – although top 10 brands Ariel, Bold, Vanish and Daz have lost £17.1m between them.
Predictably, the increase in home working has been the most significant blow to the category. The effect of the first lockdown was felt almost immediately: the average number of weekly laundry loads in homes dropped by 6% between March and April, according to Ecover. The brand is one of the few laundry detergent success stories, up 13% in value.
By Daniel Woolfson2020-12-18T00:01:00+00:00
Can it be true? Are tinned goods really trendy again? It would seem so. After, all every sub-sector is in serious growth – marking a major turnaround for a category that was last fashionable in the Second World War.
A mostly stagnant 2019 has been followed by a year in which the category shifted an extra 62.2 million kg, pushing up value by £205.2m.
Naturally, pandemic-fuelled stockpiling played a large part. In fact, panicked shoppers swept up so much canned food pre-lockdown that availability stood at just 19% by 15 March, according to data provider Shepper.
Brits’ appetite for baked beans, for instance, was so intense that Heinz and Princes felt obliged to reassure shoppers that supermarkets were unlikely to run out. Backing up those promises meant extra work.
By Maddie Maynard2020-12-18T00:01:00+00:00
Source: Unsplash
Lockdown has played havoc with the nation’s teeth. With less socialising to do, Brits aren’t caring for their chompers like they used to.
“New routines were always likely to emerge, and some shoppers did take a more relaxed approach to their standards of personal hygiene,” says Craig Percival, marketing director at GSK Consumer Healthcare, which has seen its Aquafresh brand fall by £3.8m on the high street.
However, a carefree approach to oral hygiene is only one of a few reasons why the category has lost £34.3m across toothpaste, toothbrushes and mouthwash. Brushes were the main driver. They’re down £28.5m, as consumers bought 10.2 million fewer packs.