Lockdown Brits turn to favourite biscuit brands

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Biscuit consumers have turned back to old favourites during the coronavirus lockdown as remote working has led to more cups of tea and coffee being consumed at home, says the manufacturer of McVitie’s.

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“There’s been a real throwback to big shops and the consumption of family favourites,” said Scott Snell, vice president of customer at brand owner Pladis UK & Ireland. “Everyday biscuits are up 39%.”

Lockdown had also brought about a rise in sales of chocolate biscuit bars (up 23%) and crackers as consumers looked for alternatives to bread. Cream crackers alone had risen by 44% in the past 12 weeks, said Snell.

As the UK emerges from lockdown, Snell said price was likely to become more of a factor as recessionary pressures affect shopping behaviours, while continued working from home would help consolidate the growth in everyday and more luxury biscuits.

“We will see continued growth in staples and growth of everyday treats.”

Snell was speaking as Pladis unveiled the results of its annual biscuit review, which showed category sales up 2.5% during 2019. Sweet biscuits were up 2% and savoury by 4.8%.

“Biscuits are now worth £2.69bn and growing,” he said. “This shows retailers are successfully tapping into the changing shopper eating patterns we predicted.”

Further findings included:

  • McVitie’s is the biggest brand in sweet biscuits, with a market share of almost 13%
  • Growth of healthier biscuits slowed from 4.5% in 2018 to 1.3% in 2019
  • Sales of rice cakes grew by 10%
  • Private label growth remained strong but slowed slightly to 4.1%
  • 65% of biscuits are eaten with a hot drink.

Snell said the opportunity for convenience retailers lay in optimising ranges and driving availability on core lines.

In convenience, 80% of biscuit sales come from just 8% of products, he added.

Trials have shown that by optimising their merchandising based on Pladis’ “Better Biscuits” merchandising principles, convenience store owners could see their biscuit sales jump by almost 30%.

It was also key to showcase promotions clearly, said Snell. “When value is available, it’s about making it highly visible.”

While Pladis’ convenience teams had been redeployed to help the multiples keep shelves stocked during lockdown, they would be returning to convenience in the next few weeks.

Snell said the company had tried to keep supplies balanced throughout the crisis, not favouring one channel over another and making sure convenience stores received their fair share of product availability.

“We worked with the big wholesalers to make sure they had as much of the supply as possible.”

He thought consumers would continue to do more of their shopping in local convenience stores as lockdown measures were relaxed, as they still wanted to avoid too much contact with other shoppers.

“We will see convenience continue to grow and online continue to grow.”

Convenience top-sellers

  1. McVitie’s Milk Chocolate Digestives
  2. McVitie’s Milk Chocolate Hobnobs
  3. McVitie’s Plain Digestives
  4. McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes
  5. McVitie’s Rich Tea
  6. McVitie’s Dark Chocolate Digestives
  7. Kit Kat two-finger five-pack
  8. Private-label Jaffa Cakes
  9. Tunnock’s Milk Chocolate Teacakes
  10. Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers

Source: Pladis Annual Biscuit Review 2019