They may be among the most frequently-shopped categories in convenience, but retailers shouldn’t get complacent over Cakes and Biscuits: it always pays to keep up-to-date with the latest NPD.
With 44% of UK adults planning more quiet nights in, it’s clear that sharing and more indulgent treats are becoming an increasingly important part of the Cake & Biscuit category. The everyday treat segment, worth £432m, is currently driving the category at +5% [Nielsen, Oct 2017].
To help retailers home in on the products that are creating excitement in this segment of the category, SLR has had a look at some of the biggest NPD to hit the market recently.
- Make biscuits impossible to miss: Locate the fixture towards the front of store, close to high footfall areas and adjacent to complementary categories.
- Stock the best-selling lines: Ensure you are stocking the nation’s favourite biscuits to boost your category sales.
- Draw shoppers to the fixture: Merchandise key brands in clear brand blocks to create standout. Place similar product types together so shoppers can easily find what they want and use branded POS to highlight and attract shoppers to the fixture.
- Make prices easy to see: Give shoppers confidence by clearly displaying prices on fixture and use PMPs to demonstrate value for money and fair pricing.
- Maximise impulse and events: Use off-shelf display to drive impulse sales on biscuit promotions. One in five biscuits sold in convenience are for immediate consumption.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Sandwich and Cadbury Oreo Bites
Cadbury and Oreo unite once again in both tablets and bags this month with two new sharing products. Building on the success of Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo in tablets, Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Sandwich sees a layer of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate sandwich between mini Oreo biscuits (RSP £1.49).
Cadbury and Oreo will also be looking for a bite of the chocolate bags category with the launch of Cadbury Oreo Bites (RSP £1.99). The new bags will include small Cadbury bitesize pieces filled with a creamy and crunchy Oreo filling.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo has been a power co-brand which continues to grow (+16%). It is now worth almost as much as the Oreo brand in the UK – £49m [IRI, Jul 2017].
Mikado Dark Intense
Mondelez International’s fastest-growing biscuit brand, Mikado, has brought an elegant and intense new flavour to the market with the launch of Mikado Dark Intense (RSP £1.45). The new product combines the Mikado biscuit with melted cocoa, layered with intense 70% dark chocolate and sprinkled with a hint of salt.
Cadbury Freddo Face Cakes & Cadbury Freddo Biscuits
Cadbury Biscuits welcomes the Freddo brand into its range with two new products for families to share. Cadbury Freddo Face Cakes (RSP £1.50) – a soft cake sandwich with a creamy chocolate chip filling and a variety of Freddo faces.
Cadbury Freddo Biscuits are available in both plain and PMPs (£1.29). The iconic Freddo character shape makes its debut in biscuit form and will be half-coated in chocolate, ideal for the entire family to share.
McVitie’s Digestives Thins
Launched last year, this product already worth £15m [Nielsen, Dec 2017]. Available in three variants – Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate Cappuccino and Dark Chocolate – and also as PMPs, McVitie’s Digestives Thins was developed to attract a younger consumer seeking indulgence.
McVitie’s Digestives Nibbles
McVitie’s Digestives Nibbles was crowned the biggest sweet biscuit launch of the decade, adding £17m to the category in its first year since launch [Nielsen, Mar 2017]. A new variant – Orange – was launched in August and the products are also available in £1 PMP.
Maryland Big & Chunky Cookie range
Burton’s Biscuit Company has added new Big & Chunky lines to its £50m Maryland cookie brand. The range includes two products: Milk & Dark and White Choc & Caramel (RSP £1.49) – with Big & Chunky Milk & Dark also available as a £1.39 PMP. Maryland is the number one branded cookie in the UK, growing at 9.5% year-on-year [Nielsen, Dec 2017].
- Cake is an impulse purchase for many shoppers so give it plenty of feature space and promotion support.
- Group together products that deliver on the same eating occasion.
- Offer as broad a range of products as possible and try not to duplicate the same product type/recipe.
