The total meat snacks market is worth £65.7m in the latest year, up 24.3% or £12.8m on 2008. The growth is largely down to new shoppers coming into the market, with about 30% of the UK population buying meat snacks at least once in the last year.

Average price per kilogramme has fallen to £7.50 this year, from £8.14 last year, but the additional 983,000 households that entered the market more than made up for this. The meat snacks market is dominated by brands, which hold an 88.7% value share. However, own label is experiencing faster year-on-year growth, at 27.5% compared with 23.9% for brands.

Salami and chicken snacks are the two biggest sectors in the meat snacks market, with a combined value share of 77.7%. Although they deliver the most incremental value gains, both of them are growing behind the market average and thus losing value share year-on-year. The fastest-growing sectors are frankfurters and chorizo, both of which have grown by attracting new shoppers.

The big four retailers dominate with almost 83.4% of the market value. Tesco demonstrates the largest overtrade in the category, followed by Sainsbury's, Asda, the discounters and Iceland, with Morrisons lagging slightly behind. The growth in the big four comes predominantly from larger volumes being sold year-on-year. Attracting new shoppers and increasing shopper basket size accounts for the most incremental volume gains in the market. The only two retailers in decline year-on-year are The Co-operative Group and Somerfield. Shoppers are either switching away from those retailers to others or simply visiting them less.

The meat snacks league table is headed by Peperami and Mattessons which have maintained their position in the past year.

The meat pies market, which also includes quiche, sausage rolls, pasties and Scotch eggs, has a total value of £911.8m, having grown 3.3% on last year. Pies are the top-selling sub-category, at £231.4m, while pasties are the fastest-growing, up 10.1% on last year.

Quiche and Scotch eggs have had a bad year, with sales down 1.3% and 3.8% respectively.

Focus On Pies & Meat Snacks