Staying in is still the new going out for consumers in Covid-challenged times.
The nation’s social calendars may well once again be brimming with nocturnal niceties (especially in the run-up to Christmas) but with consumers having invested in, and grown more attached to, their home comforts over the past year, the Big Night In occasion still offers a truly tasty opportunity for convenience store profits.
In fact, as Britvic’s Out of Home Commercial Director Phil Sanders says: “Over the past year, as we’ve progressed through varying levels of restrictions, we’ve observed the ‘Big Night In’ opportunity continue to grow as people meet up with friends and family they’ve not seen for some time.”
However, with stay-at-home socialites certainly not keen to sacrifice flavour, recent months have seen an explosion of new and innovative hospitality-style flavours driving new product development and sales within convenience, with sweet and spicy on-trend ingredients such as sriracha, chilli, lime and cherry featuring highly.
In fact, according to insight from KP Snacks, 51% of shoppers say that ‘flavour’ is the number one purchase driver when buying crisps or snacks.
The manufacturer’s McCoy’s Fire Pit range inspired by the trend of ‘wood fired’ cooking has gone from strength to strength in 2021 with options including Flame Roasted Peri Peri, Flame Smoked Chorizo, and Flame Scorched BBQ Ribs.
This insight also fuelled the arrival of McCoy’s spicy new Fiery Steak flavour and a new British Beef & Ale flavour for its premium hand-cooked Tyrrells crisp brand.
The focus on flavour has been equally pertinent within the soft drinks category where fruity and tropical flavours, which offer a taste of the exotic and a swig of sorely-needed escapism, have dominated in 2021.
Suntory Beverage & Food unveiled an array of new tropical-tasting drinks across its portfolio in 2021 including Lucozade Zero Tropical and the addition of a new Raspberry Ripple flavour to its Lucozade Energy range.
A new special edition Ribena Cherry Twist variant also tapped into increasing demand for cherry-flavoured drinks, which are growing at 20.2% year-on-year according to Suntory.
The manufacturer has also recently launched Lucozade Alert in both Tropical Burst and Cherry Blast flavours.
Containing naturally-sourced caffeine and vitamin B3 (which helps to reduce tiredness), the new drink also offers a low-calorie option, also in-line with growing consumer demand for lower sugar and calorie products across the convenience gamut.
Britvic also catered to the trend with the launch of Tango Sugar Free Dark Berry earlier this summer following insight which revealed sugar-free choices have driven two-thirds of the overall growth of the fruit carbonates category in the two years to 26 June 2021.
- Give drink-later drinks more prominence: Drink-later drink sales have grown by 8% during lockdown, so bringing these formats into the main chiller can help to drive sales.
- Give your biggest sellers the prime position: To drive sales, put the biggest sellers on a priority shelf in line with where shoppers’ eyes will naturally be drawn.
- Range drinks by category, not supplier: Range products together by type rather than by supplier – colas with colas and all flavoured carbs together, so shoppers can easily find what they want.
- The importance of healthier options: With diet continuing to outperform regular soft drinks, (with a 63% volume share of total soft drinks) retailers should stock up on price-marked formats of lower-sugar drinks.
- The growing role of sustainability: With one third of shoppers now choosing to buy from brands that they believe are doing social or environmental good, stocking sustainable brands is a positive move for the planet and store profits. Suntory recently unveiled new transparent sleeves to enable bottle-to-bottle recycling on Lucozade Energy.
Source: Lucozade Suntory Beverage & Food
