According to a recent snapshot report, from symphony ri group, an industry frontrunner in fmcg market measurement, reveal that, despite the recent increase in prices, the uk consumers are increasing their spending on the nation&rsquos favorite comfort foods. It is found in the report that, the main drivers of growth are comfort, innovation, snacking, tastes and health. For instance, an extra £200 million is spent on the convenience products which grew by almost 11 percent in volume over the last year.
According to the reports, convenience and comfort always go together, as britain&rsquos most preferred foods such as cottage pie, mashed potato, cumberland pie and shepherd&rsquos pie are named as some of the nation&rsquos top picks by value sales. Not only the comfort foods but also the nonalcoholic beverages like, cola, energy drinks and mineral water have thrived well too. Alcohol sales have experience a brief boost from the royal wedding and the diamond jubilee, though these two events did not generate any upsurge in the sales of party food and this sector remained flat as in the last year.
Bad weather conditions may be blamed for this. Innovations and change in tastes have been drivers of growth. There have been contributions from the new food enterprises like, colman&rsquos season & shake, belvita, monster energy drink, maggi so juicy, lynx attract for her, regaine, and cadburys twirl bites. With the change in uk consumers&rsquo tastes, there has been a rise in bread foods, like bagels, wraps, and brioche rolls, and also in the demand for almonds, walnuts and pistachios. This shift may be due to the rising interest in baking, inspired by the diamond jubilee celebrations. Uk seems to be shifting to healthier foods, with the celebration of athleticism.
The sales of unflavoured mineral water by 6 percent £22 million and that of flavoured water rose by 7 percent £14 million, totaling to almost 65 million litres. Preference for porridge for breakfasts also rose by 4 percent in this period. Reportedly, there is a strong preference for a healthier lifestyle, as smokers have bought 8 more smoking cessation products worth £31 million. Apart from food and drinks, pet food is found to be one of the best performing sectors, with 4.4 percent growth coming from the dry sector.
The sales of ladies toiletries have also increased. According to the reports, there has been an increase in the purchase of female toiletry gift sets, costing £17 million. With a gain of £6 million, dry shampoo is making an impact in the market. There has been a rise of 9 percent in terms of volume, and there is new emerging sector in hair color removal. Although, two thirds of the categories have been experiencing a value growth, half of this has been driven up by the price increase alone.
Since august 2011, there has been an excess rise of 3 percent in the prices of packaged groceries, reaching a high of 5 percent in march 2012and falling back to 3 percent in july 2012. Now, the prices of packaged groceries are 8 percent higher than that of january 2010. According to the statement made by tim eales, who is the strategic insight director at symphony ri group, when price inflation remains above wage inflation each day, somebody, somewhere, is worse off, causing the shrinkage of packaged grocery by volume. According to him, we are forced to spend more and buy at higher prices. There are still opportunities to take advantage of the changing tastes and craving for new ideas, in spite of all these problems. Snapshot report by symphonyri group presents data extracted from 300 reported categories that include packaged foods, alcohol, nonalcoholic drinks, household products, personal care health care, pet food and confectionary. Httpwww.internationalsupermarketnews.comnews7449
