All articles by Rob Brown – Page 2
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Category ReportReady to drink trends 2024: Hard seltzer goes soft
The forecast hard seltzer craze hasn’t materialised in the UK, prompting brands to rethink their strategies. Does the future instead lie in canned cocktails?
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Category ReportKids’ lunch trends 2024: Obesity unpacked?
Childhood obesity peaked in lockdown. Today, it remains above pre-pandemic levels. So do our packed lunches need to change?
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Category ReportLunch trends 2024: Why lunch is going places
As food-to-go options get more adventurous, brands are looking to broaden the horizons of lunchboxes, too. Who’s winning?
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Category ReportEnergy drinks trends 2024: Can Red Bull outrun Monster?
Energy drinks brands are racing ahead, with flavour innovation, festival appearances and keen pricing broadening their appeal
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Category ReportEnergy products trends 2024: Can challengers go the distance?
Can deals with influencers such as ultra-runner and ‘Hardest Geezer’ Russ Cook help challenger energy brands go the distance?
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Category ReportSnacking trends 2024: Brands fighting UPF allegations
As concerns about ultra-processed food change shopper habits, snacking brands are underlining their better-for-you credentials
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Analysis & FeaturesWorkouts, sugar and snacking: 10 charts explaining UK attitudes to protein shakes
Why are consumers buying protein shakes? And how can retailers cash in on protein’s pulling power?
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Category ReportSoft drinks trends 2024: Does big soda need another makeover?
As volumes sales fall, brands are turning to new looks, limited edition flavours and healthier reformulations to recover momentum
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Category ReportPersonal care & beauty trends 2024: Brands fight the ‘dupe’ boom
Beauty brands are losing out to lower priced ‘dupes’ and own label. How can they salvage sales?
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Category ReportLow & No trends 2024: Is alcohol-free the new cool?
Alcohol-free is continuing its upward climb with marketing aimed at trendy, young consumers
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Category ReportBBQ trends 2024: Can world food put the bang back in BBQ?
Ahead of summer’s big sporting events, spiced-up, world-inspired BBQ ranges are hitting the aisles to tempt adventure-seeking Brits
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Category ReportSnack bars trends 2024: Will fibre become the ‘new protein’?
Amid growing public attention on gut health and its link to brain function, will fibre be the ‘new protein’ in the snacking world?
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Category ReportFrozen trends 2024: Morrisons and Iceland face off
Using exclusive product launches and eye-catching PoS activity at freezers, supermarkets are fighting hard for shoppers’ attention
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Category ReportIce cream trends 2024: A cone for every season
With unpredictable summers, suppliers are vying to make frozen dairy a year-round treat with the help of TV ads and trendy NPD
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Category ReportEaster & spring trends 2024: The rise of the mega-egg
Brands and retailers are super-sizing Easter eggs for this year’s festivities – at a higher price per kilo than smaller treats. Why?
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Category ReportJams, spreads & honey trends 2024: Who’s put the buzz back into honey?
Honey has turned in the strongest growth in spreads, as brands beat own label with a mix of NPD, larger packs and featured space promotions
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RankingsBaby & infant products 2023: Babyfood’s leading five brands falter
The category has mustered value growth of just 2% on volumes down 6.1%
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RankingsConfectionery - sugar 2023: HFSS rules keep candy on its toes
Not only have confectioners faced the same supply chain challenges and cost pressures as everyone else, they’ve also had to get to grips with the ban on HFSS lines in impulse fixtures
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RankingsBiscuits & cakes 2023: Brands lose out as biscuit NPD slows
Convincing people to buy brands in a cost of living crisis is the very definition of a tough sell. That’s proven in sales of branded biscuits
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RankingsConfectionery - chocolate 2023: Choc treats are out, but gifting is in
Chocolate has had a bitter pill to swallow: HFSS regulation, which has banned treats from prominent display areas in store