Spreads

Source: Pexels

Focus On: Jams & spreads by Rob Brown and Natalie Brown

Download feature synopsis PDF here

Publishing: 18 January

Advertising deadline: 3 January

Submissions deadline: 17 December

The Story

The sweet spread is getting fancy. No longer are consumers content to put any old sugary stuff on their toast. Innovation over the past year has included chocolate-based spreads, a white chocolate hazelnut spread and salted caramel spreads. Even some long-running spreads have received a sudden burst of attention. Clearly, high-end spreads are where it’s at. That is helping to push up both volumes and prices of chocolate and sugary spreads. So who is winning from this trend? Where will it lead? And where does this leave the likes of jams and honey?

Key themes:

Premium: What is fuelling the increased appetite for premium fare? What have been the key innovations in this area?

New entrants: Brands that haven’t traditionally been in spreads are venturing into the category. What success are they seeing?

Nut butters: The sector has continued its upward trajectory with volume and value gains this year, despite an average price hike of 2.6%. To what extent are higher end lines responsible for nut butter growth? And what else is driving value into the sector?

Spreads: As consumers look to more adventurous, premium fare, where does that leave standard sweet spreads?

Honey: Price drops are largely to blame for the decline in honey this year. Still, volume growth has slowed. Why is this?

Jam: Jam is in solid value growth thanks to price rises. What is the story here?

Sugar: So far, the PHE criticism of sugar content in jams and spreads hasn’t had had much impact on the category. Will that all change in 2020, the target year for the sugar reductions?

Kantar data: Using Kantar commentary, we explain the factors affecting the different areas of the jams and spreads market.

Nielsen data: Using Nielsen commentary, we explain the factors influencing the performance of the top 10 spread brands.

Innovations: We identify eight new products that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before including launch date and RSP, and a picture of each.

 

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