M back. With Corner, its three top 10 brands - Müller Corner, Müllerlight and Cadbury - contributed a staggering £44m in extra sales in the past 12 months [Nielsen 52 w/e 12 October].
“Müller had a lot of very strong NPD that it supported heavily. This enabled them to grow significantly,” says Nielsen senior client manager Jonathan Briggs.
But Müller’s success - and the increase in sales of Greek yoghurt - is not replicated across the market, with a slowdown in total category growth to 1.8% (against last year’s 3.3% value growth), and volumes sinking 1.8%, fuelled by a reduction in pack weights according to Briggs.
So how has Müller cornered the market? The launch of Kids Corner in January has delivered £6m in retail sales value to date. And the Müller de Luxe Corner (see below) adds a luxury edge “to capitalise on the treat appeal consumers increasingly crave”, says Michael Inpong, Müller Dairy’s marketing and R&D director. The launches created a £12.5m sales uplift.
In contrast, Danone’s launch of an Activia Summer Specials sub-brand, its use of new brand ambassador Gok Wan and the addition of two on-trend new flavours to its Intensely Creamy sub-brand - Scrumptious Banana Toffee and Bursting Blueberry - could not prevent an acceleration in its sales decline from -1.7% last year, to -8.5% this year, wiping £20.3m off total sales.
At least Danone’s fledgling Greek brands are performing strongly. Danone Oykos sits in 19th place in our ranking, and has racked up sales of £9.7m in the past year, following its May 2012 debut. Similarly, Danio has achieved sales of £8.9m since launch in January. “Both brands brought significant incremental contributions to the category,” says a Danone spokeswoman. Not to be outdone, Müller says Müllerlight Greek-style yoghurt helped the brand add £26.9m - that’s a 19.5% surge in value, on volumes up 4.8%
With Chobani in the process of pulling out of the UK market – ahead of a relaunch in 2014/2015, once it has a planned UK production base up and running – arch rival Fage’s Total Greek yoghurt brand grew sales by 6.6%, while another premium player - Yeo Valley - did even better, growing sales by 10% to £74.5m. Conversely, sales of Gü declined for the first time ever, and by £6.5m.
In kids’ yoghurt, a 3.6% decline dragged Petits Filous below the £100m mark. But the success of Müller Kids Corner, as well as a 4.1% uplift in sales of Nestlé’s Munch Bunch yoghurt suggests kids - or rather their mums - are still shopping the category.
General Mills also had a mare with WeightWatchers, with sales down £8m.
Read The Grocer’s full Top Products Survey.
Top launch: Müller Corner de Luxe Müller
When Müller launched its luxury de Luxe Corner sub-range in April, it was clear that it had star quality. And who better to front it than temptress Nicole Scherzinger? The range comprises five indulgent flavours, After Dinner Mint, Crème Praline, Marc de Champagne, Coconut Dream, and Irish Cream, with the latter three even containing a small amount of alcohol. Sold in two-packs, in dark packaging, they have contributed to Corner’s impressive growth over the past year.
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