To tie in with this week's Focus On cooking sauces, Promotrack has

assessed the featured space promotional activity for this sub-category since 2006.

Unsurprisingly, given the popularity of Italian sauces with the British shopper, these topped the chart and accounted for 45% of overall activity. Twelve brands recorded activity. The top five were Dolmio with 47% of featured space, Knorr Ragú with 11%, Homepride with 8%, Bertolli with 7% and Loyd Grossman with 5%. Own label was also active, taking 12% of the featured space.

Way behind in second place were traditional sauces, which were responsible for 23% of overall activity. Here, the top brands were Knorr, which took 68% of this space with ranges such as Chicken and Beef Tonight; Homepride's cook-in sauces, which took 16%, with its Chasseur, shepherds pie and red wine sauce varieties among others; and Bisto, which took 14% with lines such as its 500g jars of Irish stew and Lancashire hotpot. Own-label activity accounted for 2% with Crosse & Blackwell recording just 1% of offers.

Indian sauces account for 18% of overall promotions for cooking

sauces, taking third place. Patak's led the way with 51%, Sharwood's took 24%, Loyd Grossman 10%, Uncle Ben's 9% and Ken Hom 1%. Own label took 4%.

In fourth place were oriental brands with 14% of featured space. The most active brands were Sharwood's with 43% , Uncle Ben's with 28% and Amoy with 17%. Own label accounted for 6% of activity.

Mexican sauces were last in the category with only a 1% share. Uncle Ben's and Nandos shared the top slot, each recording 38% of activity. The only other brand was Old El Paso with 8%.

Overall, the top five brands were Dolmio with 23% of the overall activity, Knorr with 18%, Sharwood's with 11%, Patak's with 10% and Homepride with 8%.