>>UK Take-home noodles market
It might seem that, with the number of carb-dodgers around, markets such as noodles would be suffering. On the surface this does appear to be true, with an overall decline of £8.2m wiping 6.4% off the value of this market within a year. But is this too simplistic?
The noodles market can be broken into two main sectors: plain, ingredient-type noodle products typical of many Asian dishes, and savoury, snack-type noodle products.
Plain noodles are experiencing strong growth of 16.1% in value year-on-year, driven mainly by 600,000 new households buying into the sector. Premiumisation is also occurring as average prices have increased to drive market value. Buyers of plain noodles tend to be more upmarket than the buyers of the savoury products, with 57% being ABC1.
The savoury sector makes up 85% of the noodles market with the pot and block sub-sectors both in decline. The issue is not one of a drop in buyers, however; value has been lost through decreases in the average price. Increased multibuy activity, specifically within savoury pot noodles, can explain some of this, but it does seem that the biggest contributor is price competition between retailers.
Within the savoury noodles sector, the two major manufacturers are Unilever and Campbell’s. Unilever’s strength lies in the pot noodle sub-sector with its Pot Noodle brand, while Campbell’s dominates block noodles with the Super Noodles brand. In the past 12 months Campbell’s has launched Super Noodles-to-Go to take on Pot Noodle head to head. Unilever recently countered with the launch of Peperami Noodles within the block segment.
Super Noodles-to-Go has been successful thus far, and is now the fourth biggest brand in the noodles market. The Pot Noodle brand has suffered overall, despite the large investments made in marketing and advertising.
Over the coming year, the noodles market will provide a great case study for business students. How will these giants of fmcg manufacturing tackle the actions of the price-cutting retailers, all the while battling each other in a classic tussle for market share?
Patrick Lyon, TNS Superpanel
Produced for The Grocer by TNS Superpanel. For more information call 020 8967 4521
It might seem that, with the number of carb-dodgers around, markets such as noodles would be suffering. On the surface this does appear to be true, with an overall decline of £8.2m wiping 6.4% off the value of this market within a year. But is this too simplistic?
The noodles market can be broken into two main sectors: plain, ingredient-type noodle products typical of many Asian dishes, and savoury, snack-type noodle products.
Plain noodles are experiencing strong growth of 16.1% in value year-on-year, driven mainly by 600,000 new households buying into the sector. Premiumisation is also occurring as average prices have increased to drive market value. Buyers of plain noodles tend to be more upmarket than the buyers of the savoury products, with 57% being ABC1.
The savoury sector makes up 85% of the noodles market with the pot and block sub-sectors both in decline. The issue is not one of a drop in buyers, however; value has been lost through decreases in the average price. Increased multibuy activity, specifically within savoury pot noodles, can explain some of this, but it does seem that the biggest contributor is price competition between retailers.
Within the savoury noodles sector, the two major manufacturers are Unilever and Campbell’s. Unilever’s strength lies in the pot noodle sub-sector with its Pot Noodle brand, while Campbell’s dominates block noodles with the Super Noodles brand. In the past 12 months Campbell’s has launched Super Noodles-to-Go to take on Pot Noodle head to head. Unilever recently countered with the launch of Peperami Noodles within the block segment.
Super Noodles-to-Go has been successful thus far, and is now the fourth biggest brand in the noodles market. The Pot Noodle brand has suffered overall, despite the large investments made in marketing and advertising.
Over the coming year, the noodles market will provide a great case study for business students. How will these giants of fmcg manufacturing tackle the actions of the price-cutting retailers, all the while battling each other in a classic tussle for market share?
Patrick Lyon, TNS Superpanel
Produced for The Grocer by TNS Superpanel. For more information call 020 8967 4521
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