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heinz
Over the past 10 years Heinz has invested in innovation in response to growing concerns over health, as well as convenience and taste drivers. Heinz has reduced salt levels in products and introduced healthier lines such as a multigrain pasta recipe and a 'hidden veg' variety of beans and pasta to get veg into kids' diets. The firm has also introduced single-serve pack formats and soup ranges for modern tastes. Heinz Beanz has grown value sales from £150m to £165m in the past three years IRI 52 w/e 26 January 2008.
warburtons
Warburtons, which has its heartland in the north, has gradually expanded its presence in the UK, so that its premium loaves now represent £47m worth of bread sales. With new bakeries opening 'down south' in 2003 and 2005, and an unswerving dedication to quality and freshness, its 15.7% growth in 2007 was impressive against category growth of 5%. This from a firm that was far from 'mainstream' nationally in 1998. Warburtons now claims that it makes 70% of branded small white loaves sold in the UK.
dove
1990s-born Dove has established itself as the brand of 'real beauty' as opposed to unattainable media stereotypes. The Unilever brand is now the UK's top cleansing brand with 39% of the population having bought a product from its ranges in 2007, says the firm. 10 million women are thought to use Dove every week. The range now encompasses beauty baths, body washes, antiperspirant, haircare and a tanning range. The confidence-building 'Campaign for Real Beauty' helped the range to £25.8m sales in 2007.
innocent
'Quirky', 'twee', 'smug' even, whatever people might choose to throw at Innocent, they just keep on winning. The brand somehow piled on an extra £50m worth of sales in 2007 to make the smoothie specialist worth £131m. In 1998 the brand's two founders were selling drinks from a stall at a small festival. Now it is a mainstream brand in multiples that even had the gall to get its products into McDonald's and almost make it look like a cool thing to do. Smoothies for Kids was another great idea. (See also page 8).
walkers
Walkers was all-powerful in 1998, increasing its standard bag size, and seeing 1.7% growth in sales to £333.8m. But over the past 10 years Walkers has used its stranglehold on the snacks aisle (nearest rival Pringles had £120.7m sales) to take the higher ground on health in response to obesity concerns. The entire standard range was converted to sunseed oil in January 2006, meaning saturated fat levels are 80% lower than in 2003, and rolled it out to other ranges. At the start of 2008, Nielsen recorded sales of £426m
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quaker
Porridge has become fashionable over the past 10 years, with its slow release sugars providing a perfect morning solution for the GI-diet brigade. Quaker was well placed to capitalise on this trend and provide convenient options for shoppers. Thus Oatso Simple, a range of single-serve microwaveable porridge that became a brand in its own right. By 2007, it had the second-best growth in the cereals category, with 9.7%. Competitors have since launched oat options; like Kellogg's Optivita and Nestlé Oats and More.
danone
We made Danone's functional yoghurt brand Activia a Shelf Star in our February 2008 issue, due to its continued growth (30% in 2007), but it is not Danone's only big-hitter over the past 10 years. The firm has succeeded in communicating Activia's benefits clearly, but clarity of message for its other functional brand, Actimel, is tough against the plethora of other functional dairy drinks. Danone says that price promotion hasn't helped (Actimel dropped 4.2% in 2007). However, both skus are winners, right across the decade
coca-cola
Predictably enough, Coca-Cola bottles were at the top of the tree in the soft drinks market in 1998 and even managed to grow value sales by 9.7% to £382m. Sunny Delight came in with a bullet, beating Diet Coke (bottle) to the number two spot. However, Diet Coke managed to ride out the decade strongly, albeit suffering last year, possibly due to the launch of Zero in 2006. That well-targeted play for diet-averse male consumers is now seeing growth of 137%. Coca-çola as a whole currently has sales of £940m.
mccain
In 1998 McCain was simply a very big seller - £83.6m value sales overall in that year. By 2007, the brand had grown sales to £196.4m. It had huge success in 1998 with the launch of Homefries, which saw 420% growth (possibly at the expense of Oven Chips, down 8.5% that year). That's not the real story though - the firm has now positioned Oven Chips with a 5% fat platform, the 'It's All Good' campaign and three green traffic lights. In a declining market, it reversed the trend, with 10% growth in 2007.
flora
Flora was created in the 1960s as a healthier spread and became a huge success. In 1998 it was outsold by Anchor block butter, sitting at number three overall in the category, which, oddly, included Müller Corners at number one. Now better segmented, the butter and spreads category has seen Flora grow from £120m sales value in 2000 to £182m in 2007. With its recent excellent heart-health positioning, regular London Marathon sponsorship, and the Flora pro-activ launch, the brand has built on its strengths.
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