The canned goods category continued to flounder this year as "fresh" and "convenient" became watchwords on 21st century shopping lists. After 150 years' service, the tin can is more versatile, economical, and convenient than ever, with easy open ringpulls becoming more or less standard. But familiarity has bred contempt among consumers, and even easy open, easy pour, microwaveable formats are vulnerable to flashier alternatives such as doy packaging and pouch options. As with other staples, multiples use price as the main promotional tool in the canned section, offering multibuy discounts and larger pack sizes which further devalue the category. In fact, the only canned sector that is growing is baked beans and canned pasta, up 0.3% to £277.7m. Heinz increased its share of this segment by 3.6% to £171.7m (a 61.8% share). And Heinz has been busy launching into other canned categories. As well as adding a variety of different pasta shapes including Man U and Pokémon, it launched organic versions of baked beans and spaghetti in the autumn. And it tied up with La Doria with the aim of bringing brand strength to the canned tomato fixture and add value to a commodity market driven by own label sales. Green Giant put in a good performance this year, perhaps buoyed by Pillsbury's decision to bring the Jolly Green Giant back to front its advertising campaign, and now has a 7.8% share of the canned vegetable market. This is the first year we have included canned fish in the table. The category dropped 2.1% to £261.9m over the past year. Own label accounts for 43.2% of this category. The biggest canned fish brand is John West, but its sales fell 2.2% to £71.7m, giving it a 27.4% share. It spent £500,000 on its first packaging revamp for 10 years in a bid to givemore prominence to the John West name ­ and ideally to boost sales. Princes increased its canned fish sales by 1.9% to £57.1m (a 21.8% share). And it went one step further in promoting the can's cause with a £2m Best Before...' brand building campaign to persuade shoppers how healthy and convenient cans can be. And a PR campaign is currently trying to convince consumers that corned beef is good for male fertility. It remains to be seen whether a new campaign from Canned Food UK ­ a new organisation formed of food processing and metal packaging companies ­ can give consumers fresh ideas about canned foods before the whole sector goes stale. {{MARKETING }}