Doing Hot Drinks well once meant ensuring a decent range of instant coffee and tea in the grocery section, but times change and so too must c-stores. These days a hot drink to go offering is becoming essential. Coffee machines are becoming more prominent in-stores with high street chain Costa offering one such popular solution.
Hot drinks complement food-to-go perfectly and retailers who offer multi-buy deals on hot rolls and coffee are reporting brisk sales. Of course, such an offering requires changes to the shop, but as convenience evolves, customers are demanding more from their local retailer and having such an offering while continuing to put the work into the main hot drinks section is the key to success. And in that section of the grocery fixture, ensuring the right range of tea in place is crucial.
The UK tea market is worth 630m and flat with 0% growth this period. Everyday tea, which accounts for 75% of total value tea sales shows a decline in value sales of 2.5%. The growth shown in all other sectors aside is currently not enough to offset this decline. The everyday black tea sector is made up of a clutter of brands with few offering consumers anything different. Market leader Tetley has several innovations here to meet clear consumer needs and generate a sense of interest and interest in this established area of the tea market; specifically Tetley Extra Strong, Tetley Easy Squeeze and Tetley Estate Selection.
Our aging population has the potential to benefit tea sales. Currently the 45+ age group drinks more tea than any other group. As these loyal tea drinkers age the appeal of healthier black teas like Tetley Decaf increases and we are seeing this benefit sales of decaf teas overall. Sales of decaf teas are up 3.6% in the market overall and up 5.7% in Scotland, they show a slight decline in the impulse sector of 2.2%. The impulse sector has been slow to make the most of the decaf opportunity.
With decaf SKUs having low distribution accounting for just 2.4% of tea sales, compared with over 5% in the rest of the market. With green tea also proving hugely popular Tetley recently launched Tetley Blend of Both, which brings together everyday Tetley black tea and green tea.
On the coffee side, sales in convenience are brisk at 2.5% – though overall the sector is growing 7.5% so there is room for improvement. One major change to instant coffee recently in the introduction of refill packs, which are experiencing much stronger growth than jars, and are driving growth for the Kenco brand.
Key products for convenience retailers include Kenco Smooth 100g Refill, Kenco Rich 100g Refill, Kenco Decaff 100g Refill and Kenco Millicano 85g Refill. And according to Susan Nash, Trade Communications Manager at Mondelez International, owner of Kenco, retailers “should look at cashing in on the premiumisation trends, stocking super premium brands like Carte Noire and innovative wholebean instant products such as Kenco Millicano.”
