The cereal category is worth more than £70m (Nielsen) in the total impulse category. Big cereal brands still dominate in the category, drawing shoppers to the aisle, and Weetabix remains the UK’s number one breakfast cereal brand (Nielsen).
Convenience is the number one need state when it comes to picking up a breakfast drink.
“This is why breakfast and dairy drinks continue to perform strongly in the impulse channel, with Weetabix On The Go accounting for 86% of breakfast drink sales in convenience,” comments Darryl Burgess, Head of Sales for Weetabix. “Although we see a lot of our consumption taking place in the home, the return of more on the move behaviours and more hectic mornings post-lockdown has helped to boost breakfast drink sales in the past few months.”
Changing habits certainly affected bar consumption with more people choosing traditional cereals during the various lockdowns. We have seen the on the go return, albeit with more of a hybrid focus from an office perspective. There are rising social occasions as well, where the humble cereal bar can play a key role: whether that’s the half-time pocket saviour when the queue for the snack bar is too long or as a mid-morning pick-me-up when out at the shops.
“We’re confident that Alpen can play a critical role in helping the cereal bars category build back up,” adds Burgess.
Weetabix has a plan to help bars recover by leading with tastier products, backing the right trends and introducing innovation, such as Alpen Oat Blends or Alpen Light White Chocolate and Raspberry – the latter of which is already worth more than £1.6m RSV since launching a year ago.
“The rise of hybrid working has meant people have more time to enjoy an in-home breakfast,” says Burgess. “Retailers should therefore ensure they stock the top-selling cereal brands, alongside exciting NPD such as our Weetabix Melts, available as a £2.99 PMP. For the significant on-the-go opportunity, breakfast drinks are key; our award-winning Weetabix On The Go Caffé Latte was launched exclusively in the impulse channel.”
The cereal category is worth more than £70m in the total impulse category. Big cereal brands still dominate in the category, drawing shoppers to the aisle, and Weetabix remains the UK’s number one breakfast cereal brand.
Weetabix is backing its big brands this year, with new on-pack campaigns for Weetabix and Ready brek, as well as exciting NPD for Weetos and Oatibix. Over 1 in 3 cereal purchases are decided instore (or online) and 2/3rds of shoppers are open to something catching their eye for purchase – therefore innovation is key to growth within the cereal category and following the successful launch of Weetabix Melts, more is in the pipeline for 2023.
In 2021 Weetabix began a long-term partnership with the home nations’ respective football associations and support of grassroots football. The brand has been offering a host of football prizes and epic money-can’t-buy experiences with national team players across its best-selling portfolio of products.
With a big year of football ahead in 2022 with the first-ever winter FIFA World Cup, Weetabix will have further on-pack football campaigns – offering a great opportunity for retailers to help the nation get active, celebrate the success of football in the nations, and make the cereal shelves stand-out.
“Retailers should ensure they’re stocking a variety of products, focused on a core range of best-sellers, including Weetabix Original, Alpen, Weetabix Minis, Weetos and Ready brek. We’ve seen multipacks increase in popularity during lockdown, especially for our cereal bars and drinks, and we expect this to continue with more people working from home,” Burgess continues.
Weetabix Original remains the biggest brand in the category by retail sales value – worth £112m (Kantar) and is UK’s number one breakfast cereal brand (Kantar). The Weetabix portfolio is present in 10m households – that’s 1 in 3 UK households who have bought a Weetabix product in the past 12 months (Kantar).
Weetabix Original is a low sugar cereal, and has all green traffic lights on pack to make it easy for shoppers to make a healthy choice. In the year ahead, Weetabix’s FA Partnership will come to life in 2022 with a bigger, better and bolder call to action to really get shoppers adding those packs to baskets.
Weetabix has recently introduced Weetabix x Lyle’s Golden Syrup, a HFSS compliant sweeter start to the day with the cult British brand baked into its original biscuits to elevate the flavour and tap into the ‘tasty cereal category’ which is currently dominating sales.
Weetos, the wholegrain chocolate hoops cereal, unveiled a fresh new look in 2021 and is the seventh biggest product in the tasty cereals category. Currently valued at £13m (Nielsen), it is the number seven ranked brand in the Tasty Choice category (Nielsen) and number five within the impulse channel. It also brings family shoppers to the category – over 60% of Weetos spends is through families.
Weetos has strong nutritional credentials, it’s fortified with vitamins and minerals, with no red traffic lights, and is HFSS compliant. Weetos Orange Chocolatey Hoops is the newest member of the Weetos family. The cereal is HFSS compliant like the original with no red traffic lights, and strong nutritional scores by being high in fibre.
“We’ll continue to see cost pressures throughout the industry in the next few months, meaning shoppers will be focussing on value for money more than ever. This is where cereal has a huge advantage compared to other breakfast options, it is by far the cheapest solution – offering affordability, convenience, and great taste in a bowl from big brands that consumers love,” adds Burgess.
“We’re pleased that we can continue to offer great value to customers in the convenience channel with the recent launch of our £1 PMP pack. In the spring, we brought back our £1 PMP offer by popular demand across the 250ml core range.”
Kellogg’s UK has added a mouth-watering, limited-edition Mint Choc Shake flavour to their American Style Rice Krispies Squares range.
The new bars are available now in Sainsbury’s, at an RRP of £1.99 (pack of four), with other stores to follow in the coming months.
The launch combines a well-loved, classic flavour in Mint Chocolate, whilst the milkshake twist adds a taste of America. These tempting bars are the perfect afternoon treat.
The mint chocolate shake Rice Krispies Squares bar is topped with chocolate chunks and a drizzling of chocolate.
This latest launch joins the American Style range, including the Cookies & Cream flavour that launched last year.
Holly Moorhead, Kellogg’s senior brand activation manager, said: “Our American Style range of Rice Krispies Squares has gone down a treat, so we were keen to add some tasty new flavours. We think the addition of our limited-edition Mint Choc Shake flavour is something Rice Krispies fans will love.”
Chris McLaughlin, Commercial Director at St Pierre, comments: “The pandemic drove significant shifts in consumer behaviour. Shoppers are now accustomed to restaurant quality products in the comfort of their own homes.”
St Pierre is designed to ‘make everyday magnifique’ and British shoppers have really embraced the brand, experimenting with bakery staples given new life thanks to the versatility of brioche.
“The shift in consumer attitudes means we are developing products to help retailers capitalise on the boom in breakfast,” adds McLaughlin.
This year, the brand launched the St Pierre Brioche Bagel. Breakfast is a booming market – with Brits eating an extra half a billion breakfasts last year (Kantar) and consumption of breakfast staples like eggs and bacon are up.
The appeal of a bagel is two-fold though; an established part of the UK bakery repertoire, bagels are in growth and increasingly used for lunchtime occasions too.
Sales of St Pierre’s morning goods, which includes its Sliced Brioche Loaf, are up 23 per cent and its range of Brioche rolls are driving growth, with sales up 79 per cent year on year (Nielsen).
“Consumers across the UK have become more exploratory with at-home menus and that’s been key for St Pierre,” says McLaughlin. “Our best-selling products are labelled as ‘burger buns’, but consumers are not restricting themselves to the summer BBQ season – and our retail partners recognise this. The listings we’ve secured are permanent and our rate of sale is high year-round. All of our marketing is designed to communicate just how versatile the products are.”
St Pierre has a number of campaigns planned to support sales and also hopes to introduce its successful American merchandising techniques to UK supermarkets. Its innovative Eiffel Tower displays – already in market in Ireland and the US – are currently being trialled in ASDA stores whilst it has also launched branded bay fixtures in Co-op stores in the Midlands.
“St Pierre is all about providing an experience – and that starts in the store,” continues McLaughlin. “Communicating that St Pierre is an authentic brand, expert in brioche and an easy way to elevate your everyday meals makes that experience accessible to the masses. If retailers can help bring shoppers along on that journey, then everyone wins – increasing footfall, basket spend and ultimately, sales.”
Andrew Bradshaw, UK Sales Director at Dole Sunshine Company, comments: “Latest data from Mintel shows that fruit is the fourth most popular food to be eaten at breakfast, after cereal, bakery and porridge.”
Meanwhile, unsurprisingly healthiness is high on consumers’ radars, with 36% of breakfast eaters saying health reasons have prompted them to change what they have for breakfast over the last 12 months. This drive to be healthier is also apparent with the potential for breakfast foods to shout about calorie content, as 45% of eaters say they consider how many calories are in their breakfast as part of their daily intake.
“As the current cost of living crisis continues to bite and is likely to worsen as we head from Autumn into Winter, it’s safe to assume that consumers are likely to continue to change their shopping behaviours and be more conscious of product value for money incorporating quality, waste, convenience and choice which is where ambient products can increasingly have a role to play,” adds Bradshaw. “Shoppers understand that ambient goods not only offer good value and have longer shelf lives, but in the case of our Dole packaged fruit range, can also be one of your five-a-day and a healthy part of their overall diet.”
The pandemic and accompanying lockdown restrictions gave people more time at breakfast but as things slowly return to something more ‘normal’, so other factors are impacting choices. Consumers are now looking for breakfast items that are not only easy to prepare and healthy, but also convenient and can be consumed on the go. Dole’s fruit in juice cups range can be enjoyed while sitting around the breakfast table on their own or as a topping on yoghurt, cereal or porridge, but also as a snack on the way to work or even at your desk. Dole fruit cups are available in a range of pack sizes from single 113g, single 198g and of course multipacks.
Dole’s best-selling products are the Pineapple, Mandarin and Peach variants of its fruit in juice range which can be found in most major grocery retailers.
Dole recently announced two new additions to its Fruit in Juice range. The new flavours of Mango in juice and Pear in juice have arrived to complement the existing range of Tropical Fruit, Peach, Pineapple, Mandarins and Mixed Fruits in juice cups. Mango in juice and Pear in juice are now available to the grocery and convenience channels with immediate effect in convenient packs of four, meaning the great taste of these sun-ripened fruits can now be consumed either on the go or kept in the fridge or cupboard for a later date. Like the other Dole fruit in juice variants, both new products contain 100% fruit in juice with zero added sugar, have less than 100 calories per serving, and come in a handy four pack with an RRP of £2.19.
Dole Sunshine Company is the UK category leader in packaged fruit snacks, with the entire product range containing 100% real fruit, and no added sugar in any of its fruit in juice range. Its latest data shows Dole Sunshine Company has a 60% value share of the fruit in juice cups category and a 77% value share of the fruit in jelly cups category.
“We’ve used a variety of marketing mechanics to bring Dole further into the nation’s consciousness this year, including a social media campaign to promote the Dole range as a healthy choice, using the Shopmium app to offer coupons to our consumers in supermarkets, and soon we will have a very exciting advertising campaign to announce which will encourage consumers to think about making healthier snacking choices but I can’t share the details on this yet,” says Bradshaw.
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