Kerrygold is setting out to “revolutionise” Brits’ consumption of butter and honey with the launch of the UK’s first honey-flavoured butter.

The market for flavoured butters has been growing steadily recently, and is now worth £2.7m, up 9% on last year. But it has to date been ­restricted to savoury flavours, such as garlic and herbs or alcoholic butters at Christmas.

Kerrygold Honey Spread (rsp: £1.79 for a 250g tub) will be the first sweet flavoured butter spread to be launched in the UK, and will be positioned as an alternative to other sweet spreads such as jam, honey and conserves.

Adams Foods marketing director Alastair Jackson said Kerrygold’s honey spread would move sweet spreads from the “back of the cupboard” to “front of mind” by positioning them in the fridge, next to other everyday items such as milk and butter.

The product had the potential to “revolutionise consumers’ consumption of honey and butter,” he added, and would attract new shoppers to the butters and spreads category.

For shoppers who already bought a butter or spread, Honey Spread would probably be an additional purchase rather than cannibalise existing BSM sales, he said.

Consumer research prior to launch had suggested shoppers saw the product as a convenient solution to “sticky honey jars” full of crystallised honey and “great when you’re in a huge rush at breakfast”, Kerrygold said.

Kerrygold Honey Spread is made from Irish butter, can be spread straight from the fridge and has the same shelf life as butter about 75 days.

Packs will carry serving suggestions as well as the strapline ‘made to make you go Mmm’.

Kerrygold said it envisaged consumers using the product on its own, as an alternative to other sweet spreads, on toast, bread or crumpets but also as an ingredient in cooking or baking. The product will go into the multiples from 4 April, with listings details yet to be confirmed.

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