Naturalness represented the coalescence of several key drivers: health, provenance, authenticity, sustainability, organic, fair trade, ethical and green.

The trend has expressed itself in some interesting ways in the past 12 months, not least of which was the resurgence of fat. Butter and full-fat cheese were two of the surprise beneficiaries of growing demand for natural products. Another was dark chocolate.

Consumers are turning away from 'low this' and 'reduced that' products in favour of foods that are perceived to be naturally good for you, even if only in small quantities. That was bad news for diet products across the board last year.

Functional brands also had a hard time, as consumers no more want things added to their food and drink than they want them taken away. Generally speaking, the consumer vibe is don't mess about, just give it to us straight.

The continuing success of Kettle Chips exemplifies this. It was the fastest-growing brand in the competitive bagged snacks market for the second year running, with sales up nearly 21% to £55m [Nielsen]. It is no one's idea of a healthy product, but it is made from all-natural ingredients, is authentic and is completely straightforward. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it also addresses the long-established trends in grocery of convenience, indulgence and premium quality.

Arguably the same could be said of three of the brands that were crowned shelf stars in 2006 and that retained the title in 2007.

Warburtons, Innocent and Magners are premium, convenient and indulgent products that also tick all the relevant boxes for naturalness. Between them they brought in £154m in extra sales and drove growth in their respective categories (see box on Innocent on p16).

The naturalness trend has been building on the fringes of grocery for some time and has been a clear driver in certain areas and for niche products. No one would call Warburtons fringe, though, as bread is part of the staple diet and the brand is far and away the dominant player in the market.

Equally, Innocent may have been a niche player a few years ago, but it is now a force to be reckoned with. With annual sales of over £131m it is bigger than stalwart Ribena and second only to market leader Tropicana in the £1.8bn pure juice and juice drinks market.

Rosa Wilkinson, a consultant at strategic brand specialists The Value Engineers, says: "It is interesting to see the amount of mainstream brands that have taken [the trend] on board. Both Walkers and McCain have gone back to potatoes, with Walkers' £7.5m campaign promoting the fact that it only uses British potatoes. McCain's It's all Good campaign puts emphasis on the value of the brand's core ingredient. Similarly, Wall's Milk Time, which highlights the milk content in ice cream, is another very interesting development."

Health remains an important underlying concern and seems set to continue to do so. "There is a continuing shift from negative to positive health. There will be fewer people on diets despite the increasing incidence of obesity and far more emphasis on the intrinsic value of ingredients," Wilkinson says.

Walkers Baked, which ranks as one of the most successful product launches of recent years, with sales up 1380% to £37m in 2007, is a case in point. Walkers says the brand was launched "for people who want a great-tasting, low-fat alternative to crisps, that isn't a diet product.

Walkers Baked contains 70% less fat than regular crisps, but outstanding repeat purchasing suggests it has addressed the consumer misconception that 'low fat means tasteless'. It is now the number one better-for-you brand in the category and is central to Walkers' plans to accelerate growth in the market.

While the rise of healthy wholesomeness continues, at the other end of the scale there appears to be something of a backlash against the health police, as cakes, biscuits, bagged snacks, chocolate and sugar confectionery have all had a good year, as have energy drinks.

It is as if the nation's collective subconscious has said 'sod the diet, bring on the crisp butties and chocolate chasers.'

"People want to have their cake and eat it," says Wilkinson. "If they are being healthy in other areas of their diet, they then want to treat themselves to a little bit of something nice."

This is demonstrated by the fact that cakes had a fabulous year, up over 6% to tip the £1bn mark.

The sports and energy drinks category registered the third highest growth rate across the entire grocery market, up 21% to a total value of £585.5m. In theory sports and energy drinks are supposed help one power through a high-intensity work-out or recover from extreme activity, but in real life they also come into their own mixed with vodka or as an alternative to a bacon sarnie as a hangover cure.

The harbingers of doom forecast troubled times for bagged snacks in light of restrictions on the advertising of high salt, fat and sugar foods to children and increasing pressure from the anti-obesity lobby. The market defied this and turned in a 3.5% increase to reach a value of £1.9bn. Cuts in saturated fat and salt levels have undoubtedly fostered growth, but it is too early to say whether the launch of wholegrain products - in the form of Hula Hoops and Sunbites from Walkers - will improve the sector's standing with health campaigners.

Biscuits had a good year, turning the sector's static performance in 2006 into 3.7% growth in 2007.

Overtly healthy lines, such as Go Ahead! and Kellogg's Special K did well, with increases of 20.4% and 26.7% respectively, while the covertly healthy did better. McVitie's Hob Nobs, which is seen as relatively healthy due to its oat and grain content, was one of the category's best performers, with sales up 28%. Perhaps there is some mileage in pushing the wholegrain message - as McVitie's has done with other brands - despite what cynics say. However, the other big winners in the category are based on pure indulgence: Maryland Cookies and Cadbury Time Out grew 20% and 29.2% respectively.

Chocolate turned a 1% drop in 2006 into growth of 5.2% last year despite pressure from several quarters, not least of which was the bad publicity dogging Cadbury. Mars-owned Galaxy turned in a sterling performance up 16.4% and dark chocolate sales boomed with launches, relaunches or extensions from the main manufacturers. Dark chocolate is lower in fat than its milk counterpart, and has some antioxidant properties, so it resonates with the interest in health, but also tastes nice and makes you feel better after a rubbish day at the office or when the kids have had you climbing the walls.

Launch of the year should probably go to Mars Planets, which tapped into growth in impulse, indulgence and interest in smaller portion sizes.

Mars trade relations manager Andrea Taylor says: "Mars Planets has been the biggest single launch in the past three years, generating over £15m worth of sales since launch."

Sugar confectionery also turned in an extraordinary performance, reversing a 3% decline in 2006 to achieve 3.2% growth in 2007.

The key factor here has been responding to health concerns with low-sugar versions, the removal of artificial additives and the inclusion of natural fruit and fruit juice in reformulations.

Praise also must go to the launch of Trident as the gum has racked up sales of nearly £24m from a standing start.

Wrigley, however, managed to grow its share of the market, with Extra up 7.8% YOY. While the firm may say it wasn't focusing on Trident, its arrival has certainly added excitement to the category.n

The store managers speak

Cadbury's Wispa was the most successful confectionery relaunch in terms of impact; it flew off the shelves. Cider sales more than doubled, including products from smaller producers, as well as Magners, Jacques and Strongbow. Niche lines such as Black Farmer Sausages are doing well as people get more interested in provenance and quality. Crisp brands such as Tyrells, Pipers and Jonathan Crisp are driving sales in the snacking category.

Mike Estlea

store owner, Budgens Newbury

SHELF STAR: Innocent

Innocent has succeeded in growing its sales by £50m over 2007, buoyed by product development

Innocent increased sales by £50m for the second year running, taking it to over £131m and vaulting it into the truly big league.

Innocent marketing director Gareth Helm attributes the brand's accomplishments to three factors: product quality, brand equity and ethics.

"We are constantly thinking about recipes and how to make them better and there's always something new in the fixture, such as smoothie of the month and our new breakfast thickie," he says. In addition to which, the brand's packaging is refreshed every three months to provide a little light-hearted entertainment and keep consumers interested.

Innocent displays a lot of marketing savvy, with a relatively small TV campaign generating a 30% sales uplift last January. The brand's distribution agreement with McDonald's raised eyebrows, but Helm says response from consumers has been split 50:50 for and against. "We want to provide good stuff for everyone and offering an alternative [to fizzy drinks] can only be a good thing. Being transparent is important to us and we want to involve consumers in decisions like that so we are monitoring response closely."

star performers

Bulmer's Original

With the cider sector still performing well in 2007, it was Bulmer's turn to reap the rewards put in motion by Magners. Launched in 2006 on the back of a record £45m investment in cider brands from S&N, it managed 1,102% growth.

Kit Kat

"The nation's number one biscuit", as Nestlé likes to call it, wasn't quite at the top of the tree in 2007, but with its new GDAs on front of pack, grew 6%, outpacing everything else in the top five. McVitie's digestives stayed at number one with £94m sales, but Kit Kat isn't far behind.

Walkers Crisps

Walkers' standard crisps - excluding its other Top 20 lines - enjoyed excellent growth of 4.9% in the tough bagged snacks category. The key to its success this year was its Sunseed oil credentials, as many consumers opted for healthier options.

Hipp jars

Taking the top spot in the wet babyfoods category was Hipp Jars once more, with growth of 22.7% to £32.3m. Cow & Gate succeeded in making inroads with its Baby Balance jars launch, however Hipp held its £9.4m worth of sales at bay.

Carlsberg

The brand was up 17% in 2007 according to Nielsen data, probably due to price promotion. Three of the other top five brands (Stella Artois, Carling and Budweiser), all recorded losses in 2007, and Foster's grew only 4%.

the store managers speak

Guinness Marmite was a huge success in our store. Adding Guinness made the product different without diminishing either brand. Dorset Cereals has done well. It is a great product with lovely packaging that forms a visually cohesive range. Dr Karg biscuits did well as a healthy alternative snack. Poilâne is an exclusive bread that has an amazing following. It is a French sour dough recipe and is so flavoursome it makes people appreciate bread.

Neil Ovenden

Waitrose Bloomsbury

SHELF STAR: Activia

Functional yoghurts are established players in stores, which makes Activia's success even more impressive

While many functional foods are feeling the pinch of consumer cynicism, Activia is going from strength to strength. The Danone brand showed superb growth for the second year, up nearly 30% to £117m. Building on the previous year's £40.4m sales hike, Activia has overtaken Müllerlight as the second-biggest brand in the category.

Unlike other functional products, which struggle to present compelling claims, or become muddied with ambiguous science, Activia has cracked the task of communicating a clear message to consumers.

Customer development controller Bryan Martins says: "The brand became an overnight success following our TV advertising that communicates a clear and relevant benefit: beat that bloated feeling."

"People have moved away from diet products towards those with added functional benefits," he adds. "They want products that deliver additional benefits rather than those that have had things stripped away."

Danone will be spending some £11m on advertising in the coming year. It has already launched new variants, including 0% fat and new flavours and is committed to offering more in 2008.

star performers

Mr Kipling

The exceedingly good Viennese Whirls from this grocery staple may sound fairly humble, but racked up £12.1m worth of sales in 2007, with consumers clearly still wanting an old-fashioned treat. Its growth of 36.5% turned out to be unbeatable over the year.

Branston Baked Beans

Premier's Branston brand launched Bloomin Big Baked Beans to try and combat Heinz's still unassailable Baked Beanz, a brand that was innovating across its ranges. Although not quite rivalling Heinz yet, growth was 20% year-on-year for the newcomer.

Napolina

An established name in canned vegetables, Napolina still managed to grow 17.1% in 2007, closing the gap between it and leader Green Giant to less than £2m. Green Giant grew 7.1% this year, benefitting from strong marketing that focused on health.

Dorset Cereals

While not one of the big hitters in the cereals category, Dorset Cereals is a name to watch at the premium end of the market. With a strong range of high-quality natural cereals, it has risen to be the second-largest muesli brand.

Cadbury Dairy Milk

Having had a tough 2006, the extent to which Cadbury Dairy Milk came through its troubles was startling last year. The gorilla ad got consumers talking, and there were green pledges. Flat brand growth meant that Cadbury Dairy Milk was still way ahead of the pack.

the store managers speak

We have done really well with bottled beers, which is my particular area. We are seeing men and women purchasing, particularly local ales like Greene King. Herbal teas have done well in really years, but lines like green tea, jasmine and lemon teas have done a lot more business than ever before. Other successes have been functional yogurts, Greek style yoghurts, and cereal bars. Organic milk has also been a big driver.

Linda Alexander

sainsbury's, bury st edmonds

SHELF STAR: Warburtons

We pick Warburtons for special mention this year due to its consolidation of its lead over the competition

Last year was described by trade sources as one of the most challenging for bread manufacturers for a long time. The price of wheat doubled while price pressure from the multiples intensified.

But market leader Warburtons defied this and pulled further away from the competition with a 15.7%, or £64m, sales increase against category growth of 5%. With total sales of the brand now up to an impressive £472m, Warburtons' investment in marketing and distribution is paying dividends.

The Northern-based manufacturer has ploughed money into building bakeries and distribution depots across the country. "We gained national distribution last year and have been building market share in those distribution points," says category director Sarah Miskell. "We have also increased investment in the brand to £22m."

The company's stance is to deliver the freshest bread in Britain, which is a message that chimes with the nation's consumers.

Warburtons is perceived as a premium product, which explains why price hikes have hit sales of Hovis and Kingsmill harder: people expect to and are happy to pay more for Warburtons.

star performers

Galaxy

One of the big stories of 2007 was how Galaxy carved out 16.4% growth. Alongside other major brands, Mars launched a dark variant in 2007, which helped the brand's tasty sales. It still lags behind Cadbury Dairy Milk, with its multiple lines, but it's getting closer.

Lurpak

Manufacturer Arla invested £6m wisely last year, in persuading customers that Lurpak was the perfect ingredient in wholesome meals. This, plus a consumer perception that butter is more whole-some, led to sales of

£189.9m.

Cathedral City

Although the cheese sector was under the weather last year, Cathedral City rocketed to the top with 27% growth. The brand saw innovation such as a Lighter version, and it held off Dairylea, which was over £25m behind in value sales.

Bird's Eye

A new entry into the top five frozen fish lines, Birds Eye Oven Crispy Fillet Fish Fingers did well following a range overhaul, with sales of £11.2m, and 34% growth. As frozen becomes popular again, Birds Eye is perfectly placed.

McCain Oven Chips

McCain has managed to turn itself into a responsible, almost ethical, supplier in terms of health over the past few years. Innovation in the form of lines such as Potato Gourmet further helped its image with mums. Growth was a worthy 21.2%.

The store managers speak

Last year was very good for commodity products in this store - there was 25% growth in fruit and veg value sales; with Morrisons' price deflation the real growth was probably 35%. We had 25% on fresh meat too, with best cuts and organic driving sales, and multibuys really took off. In bakery we saw 33% growth, with instore baking around popular purchasing times. At Christmas, the Cadbury's rep said the volume of tins sales was outstanding this year.

John Volney

Morrisons weymouth

SHELF STAR: Peroni

Driven by its familiarity as an accompaniment to pizza on a night out, Peroni has been flying off the shelves

Peroni, the lager brand best known as the house beer of pizza restaurants, was bought by SAB-Miller in 2003.

Under Miller's stewardship Peroni has made leaps in distribution and sales, with Nielsen figures for the year to October showing take-home value sales ahead by 40% and the brand occupying a top 20 place that rivals such as Corona and Cobra once seemed likely to grab first.

The turning point for Peroni was arguably a PR stunt to take over a King's Road boutique and put a single bottle of the beer on display in the window, the door roped off and guarded by bouncers. At a stroke, the brand's cool rating and style points were doubled.

A global advertising campaign and UK-specific ads pairing the brand with iconic fashion items followed, and took it to new heights in 2007.

"What's changed since we took it on board is that it's being handled by someone that's not just interested in selling beer, but in building a brand," says Darren Tendler, director of sales for the off-trade at Miller Brands (UK).

"The market's moving away from standard and premium lager and we'll start to see new categories, such as 'treat beers' or 'prepared-to-pay-more for-beers', which Peroni will be part of."

and last but not least...

Data used for the Shelf Stars section has been sourced from AC Nielsen's Scantrack service, which monitors weekly sales data from a network of EPoS checkout scanners across the UK.

Coverage includes grocery multiples, co-ops, multiple off-licences, independents, multiple forecourts and symbol groups. The firm's Retail Measurement service provides comprehensive information on consumer purchases, market shares, distribution, pricing and promotional activities. The coverage of AC Nielsen's Scantrack service means it records 87p in every pound spent in UK grocery and impulse, with "full scanning inputs."

It is the only service currently available in the UK that offers such a fully comprehensive read of data. Personal care methodology varies. Data included is taken from AC Nielsen's Scantrack Health and Personal Care service, which includes sales from Boots the Chemist, Superdrug and a network of multiple and independent chemists nationwide, in addition to the outlets monitored by Scantrack.

AC Nielsen's services are constantly being improved to reflect what is happening in the marketplace.

All data featured in this Shelf Stars section of MB&R is copyright AC Nielsen and should not be reproduced without permission being expressly given.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend