Lockdown has helped drive growth of 9.1% in cereals in convenience and there’s plenty of room for further growth, says Susann Heinz of Kellogg’s.
How are breakfast cereals performing in convenience?
Cereals within Convenience were worth £235m in 2020, with the channel growing ahead of the total market at 9.1% vs 7.2% thanks to more consumers shopping locally during lockdowns, especially for top-up missions. In the past year, the Cereal category has gained share of +0.3ppts within Convenience, with Kellogg’s growing ahead of this at +0.6ppts. To put this into perspective, 70% of sales came from the top 40 products and Kellogg’s accounts for 39.5% of these, with Crunchy Nut being our biggest brand [IRI, Dec 2020].
How has the pandemic affected the category within AFH?
At the height of the pandemic in April, 74% of Kellogg’s Cereal growth in Convenience came from new shoppers entering the category and Crunchy Nut saw +1.4% penetration growth from Convenience alone [Kantar, Aug 2020]. This is no surprise considering that during the pandemic 29% of consumers began using their local corner shop, with 41% saying they want to continue doing so after [Hubbub, Apr 2020]. As a result, Symbols & Indies benefited from a surge in sales of large pack cereals, with most coming from shoppers that were buying cereals in their local store for the first time [Hubbub, Apr 2020].
What are the key trends?
In 2020, taste became an even more important purchase driver, prompting growth in Everyday Family Cereals, with brands such as Crunchy Nut adding a substantial +£6.5m RSV to the Convenience channel [IRI, Dec 2020]. The main mission in a convenience store is usually a top-up shop, which increased in relevancy as shoppers visited their local store more frequently and basket size expanded. But there was also a rise in consumers using stores to do their full shop. As we return to normality, frequency has dropped but with more people working from home, the top-up shop mission remains hugely important.
What’s new?
Our new Crunchy Nut Bites cereal launched this summer, comprising crunchy cereal pillows filled with a smooth nutty filling, with flavours of hazelnut and honey. Sales of Crunchy Nut, our flagship taste brand, increased by +26% in 2020, with nut-flavoured cereals worth £205m, having grown in popularity by +14% at a total market level [IRI, Dec 2020]. With this launch we are bringing the nutty taste profile to a new, growing food format for our best-selling cereal brand.
How should retailers stock the range to maximise footfall, sales and profits?
A great starting point would be to make sure they’re stocking all the recommended best sellers and use NPD to drive incremental sales. It’s also a good idea to group similar products together (i.e., chocolate/flavoured, plain, health, muesli and granola etc.) to make it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for. Cereals are best located next to categories such as tea, sugar, bread and canned foods, with on-the-go cereals merchandised next to other on-the-go breakfast products like cereal snacks or fresh fruit, or next to a coffee machine. Using the recommended PoS material is another great way to grab shopper attention and grow sales.
We created www.KelloggsVantage.co.uk to help retailers maximise sales and get the most out of their cereal fixture. It features a range of advice tailored to store type and size, providing detailed advice on demographics, priority locations, as well as suggested must stocks and merchandising advice, including planograms.
For further information, please visit www.KelloggsVantage.co.uk or contact Publicasity on Kelloggs@publicasity.co.uk.
