The spotlight on supermarket promotions is this week turned on the dairy category where Danone and Müller are busy


Dairy is an active promotional category but generally finds itself trailing behind the top product groups and typically assumes less than 10% of total featured space in-store.
This week, dairy accounts for 4% of total recorded own-label and branded promotions, with Sainsbury and Asda the most active retailers, each with 36% of total share. Such modest results for the dairy category are not unfounded.
Less space in general is allocated to temperature-controlled cabinets in-store, perhaps due to the fact that, unlike with ambient grocery and household offers, shoppers are prevented from stocking up on a year's supply of dairy promotions because of its relatively short shelf life and special storage conditions.
Promotions in the dairy category primarily fall within the yoghurts and yoghurt drink sector, with trends tending towards ­promoting the new generation of better-for- you products that are lower in fat, with added vitamins and including 'good bacteria', particularly prebiotics and probiotics.
The two key players in this arena this week are Danone, which has deals on its Activia, Actimel and Shape brands, and Müller with ­current offers on its Light and Vitality ranges. Benecol, which claims to reduce cholesterol, also features across the retailers with bogof offers on its six-pack SKU.
Cheese is the second most promoted category with Cheddar a consistent favourite. This week, competition is recorded between McLelland Seriously Strong/Seriously Smooth and Dairy Crest's Cathedral City on bogof and multi-buy offers respectively.
Children's lunchbox and snack cheeses, including a number of Dairylea variants from Kraft, Bel UK's Laughing Cow cheese strings and Golden Vale Cheestrings were also recorded. However, Dairy Crest's offerings are the most notable, with visible promotions on cheese, milk shakes and butter.
Magdalena Korczak
Assosia

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