Fast and furious or smart and swift? Food-To-Go means different things to different shoppers, so how do retailers pitch their fixture for best returns? With continued growth in food to go offerings and high margins available, SLR takes a fresh look at the options available to local retailers.
by Émer O’Toole
From concessions and franchises to the benefits of creating bespoke solutions, Food-To-Go is an area of growth in c-stores. Snacking is growing, thanks to consumers’ increasingly hectic and busy lives. This is driving demand for snacks and on-the-go formats, and to greater choice when looking to pick up a quick bite away from home.
Retailers have a massive opportunity to drive snack sales through cross category merchandising displays – focused on consumption occasions throughout the day – to inspire their shoppers. For example, at breakfast, stores offering hot drinks to go could look to site on-the-go breakfast products, such as belVita breakfast biscuits or cereal bars, alongside the machine to encourage incremental sales.
Confectionery is a key category for retailers who want to grow their Food-To-Go sales, not only because of its scale, but because it is the most impulsive category stocked within convenience. This makes the category really important when it comes to driving incremental sales.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Big Taste Toffee Whole Nut is available in a 43g single bar that combines the textures of whole nuts with toffee covered in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate. The launch aims to drive penetration in singles, particularly among those looking for textured eats, chunky bites and intense chocolatey flavours when they’re on-the-go or during an afternoon dip.
Last month, Trebor, launched Trebor Mighties: a brand new, sugar-free mint that is ideal for on-the-go. Trebor Mighties delivers a continuous wave of cooling refreshment and, as health conscious shoppers are increasingly looking for sugar-free options, Trebor Mighties aims help to provide these consumers with greater purchasing choice.
It’s easy to boost the Food-To-Go spend by offering customers complementary hot or cold snacks and drinks as part of meal deal. They’re easy to manage, guaranteed to increase sales, and offer shoppers the value they’re seeking in the convenience channel.
Micro snacks are a must stock for retailers looking to meet shopper demand for easy-to-prepare hot Food-To-Go food. When it comes to a Food-To-Go, consumers are time sensitive. They want food and drink that can be prepared and served quickly and conveniently and that’s where micro-snacks such as market-leading Rustlers are particularly popular.
Angela Daulby, Channel Director of Kepak Convenience Foods, says: “All Rustlers products can be prepared in less time than it takes to boil a kettle, set up a board game or wait for a blockbuster to download.”
With continued growth, food to go is a key area to capitalise on. Drive sales through cross-category merchandising displays and meal deals.
Savoury snacking
Savoury snacks are increasing as sales of traditional fried potato crisps decline, with evidence suggesting that shoppers are switching to formats they perceive to be more permissible — according to Nielsen data. When done right, savoury snacks deliver on taste while offering a less guilty way to snack.
Ritz shook up the crisps and snacks aisle in April 2015 with an innovative baked and light potato snack – ‘Ritz Crisp & Thin’. New Ritz Crisp & Thin launched in four popular flavours, available single bags to meet on-the-go needs. Mondelez International is now growing the range with a new 30g bag and three promotional price-marked packs. To drive further value into the category, the brand will be taking the popular Sweet Red Chilli variant from its sharing bag range into its on-the-go format and promotional 59p price-marked packs will be introduced for all variants within the 30g range.
Mondelez’ top tips for on-the-go success
- Make it easy for shoppers to find the products they are looking for – time is of the essence as 70% of UK consumers purchase snacks whilst ‘on the go’.
- Customers expect on-the-go snacks to be at the front of the store, so site relevant products here to ensure ‘grab and go’ shopper satisfaction.
- The most consumed snack in Europe is fruit, followed by chocolate, with consumers choosing to go for sweet snacks (60%) over savoury (40%). In addition, coffee is consumed in a quarter of total out of home occasions. Think about this when planning where to place items on the shelf.
- Combine single serve beverages, savoury and sweet snacks within or near other fixtures to maximise shopper convenience and cross purchasing opportunities.
- Focus on impulse categories such as Chocolate, Candy and Gum at other high traffic areas.
- Focus on key categories to maximise return.
