Focus On Savoury Pastries & Meat Snacks: 18 November

By Mark Ludmon markludmon@hotmail.com

Publishing: 18 November 2023

Submissions deadline: 30 October 2023

Print, digital and sponsorship opportunities

Brands are heading for a big bust up in savoury pastries and meat snacks. The category’s rate of volume decline has accelerated over the past year amidst falling volumes across most grocery categories. To maintain share, the market-leaders are spending big on marketing, innovation and promotions. So what will it take to get ahead in the coming pie fight?

Promotions: This feature will pay close attention to the ways in which retailers and their suppliers are promoting savoury pastries, pies and meat snacks. Kantar data shows a slight rise in share of sales on deal, so what sort of promotions are proving most effective?

Occasions: Another area of interest is how brands and retailers are looking to expand the category’s usage occasions beyond main meals. How effective have category players been in driving snacking growth in snacking? What have their tactics been?

Flavours and other trends: There’s been no shortage of interesting product developments over the past year. This feature will include analysis of which products have been most successful and why, as well as exploring what the next big thing might be in the category.

The prickly issue of price: The average price of savoury pastries has risen by more than 15% in past year, taking the average take home price past the £2 mark. What are brands and retailers doing to mitigate price rises. Are they promoting more? Switching to frozen? Pushing own label?

Retailer ranging: This feature will also explore how retailer ranges have changed over the past year and the factors that have led to significant share gains for own label. Which retailer are in strongest growth and decline and why?

Innovations: We will profile four new products or ranges that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.