n Brewers and retailers are confident they can avoid a repeat of last summer’s beer shortages as Euro 2004 gets underway.
n A sweltering summer has been forecast and supermarkets are expecting bumper lager sales as consumers take advantage of discounts to stockpile for barbecues and parties.
n Last year’s heatwave led to some retailers running out of major brands as demand hit a record high.
Only a couple of last year’s newcomers to the bagged snacks category managed to make much impact on the competitive market place, even though Britain has the reputation of being a society of snackers.
The launch that has emerged as the rising star is Walkers Sensations Oriental Crackers, closely followed by the brand’s Poppadoms.
Launched in May 2003, distribution of Oriental Crackers reached a peak of 82% of all possible outlets last December. This figure had fallen slightly to 78% by last month, according to ACNielsen. Nearly 13% of its consumer panel had tried the product, with an impressive 35% of those returning for a second purchase.
Sensations Poppadoms were launched in April this year and by the end of last month had already achieved 68% distribution.
However, less than 2% of the panel had tried the product and just under 7% of those had made a repeat purchase.
However, the snacking giant’s Shots - tiny ball-shaped savoury snacks in tube packs - has not repeated its siblings’ soaraway success and, in fact, is peering over the edge of an abyss after being de-listed by a growing number of retailers and wholesalers shortly after its launch in April last year.
Distribution of the impulse snack reached a peak of 65% at the end of June last year. However, this had fallen dramatically to 5% at the end of last month.

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