Total value sales in the crisps and salty snacks market (excluding nuts) increased by 4.4% between 2012 and 2013 to reach £3 billion. Price increases, such as those caused by the poor potato harvest, have fuelled this growth with volumes climbing just 0.6% over the period.
In the nuts market, value sales increased by 4.1% to reach £379 million which marks a slowdown on the 7.7% growth of 2012. Volume growth remained the same in 2013 as 2012 at around 2%, suggesting prices have eased, which correlates with the bumper US peanut crop of late 2012.
This report reveals that the large minority of crisp users are prepared to pay more for crisps featuring British ingredients, and highlights interest in trying sweet flavours and also variants inspired by high street restaurant chains, such as McDonald’s.
Highlighting an NPD opportunity to potentially appeal to consumers who are looking for new, nutritious crisp and crisp-style snacks, nearly one in five (18%) users claim they’d be interested in buying non-potato or grain-based crisps, such as those made from chick peas and lentils.
Crisps and crisp-style snacks enjoy almost universal penetration, eaten by 88% of adults in 2013, with standard potato crisps the most popular type, eaten by 72%.
Despite their high overall usage of crisps/crisp-style snacks, under-35s have relatively low usage of standard potato crisps, likely reflecting their more varied repertoires and perception of grain-based crisps as healthy.
That two thirds of male users eat crisps and crisp-style snacks at least once a week compared with 59% of women is likely to relate to men being less concerned about healthy diets. Indeed, men are more likely than women to agree that the nutritional information of crisps does not matter to them.
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