Britain's 100 Biggest Brands Risers, fallers & basket cases

Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands Risers, fallers & basket cases

BBB16_01_cover.indd 3 11/03/2016 16:39

www.thegrocer.co.uk 19 March 2016 | The Grocer | 3

britain’s biggest brands leader

Over the next 42 pages there’s a lot of discussion about the price of groceries. We are in the midst of a price war, after all. Sixty one of Britain’s top 100 brands have seen their average prices per unit fall in the past year. What’s more, SKUs are

being jettisoned as the major mults fight to maximise the profit-ability of their shelves.

What you’ll also find in this year’s report is proof of the value of targeted, creative, effective and well invested marketing; proof that when done properly, advertising can be so much more than just hot air; that it can help fuel a brand’s rise above the deflation that has grounded so many of Britain’s biggest brands in the past year.

It all starts with the product, of course. But with shelf space squeezed and shoppers holding the purse strings ever more tightly, effective marketing of those products has never been more important. Indeed, it’s crucial if retailers are to be per-suaded that a brand is worthy of shelf space and, ultimately, shoppers are to be convinced it’s worth paying more for.

See the performance of Warburtons, at no 2, for proof. It’s win-ning share of a stale baked goods sector as Hovis and Kingsmill plummet. NPD has been central to this performance; so have Stallone and the Muppets. It’s significant that Warbies has main-tained a higher price per unit than its rivals in the past year.

Advertising pays, if it’s done well. Pepsi, the year’s second big-gest grower, continues to defy a difficult market, thanks partly to the innovative marketing of Pepsi Max, which uses digital media and viral videos. Number one brand Coke, which admits it’s struggled to communicate what no and low-sugar lines Zero and Life stand for, could learn a thing or two.

One of the year’s fastest growers is Monster Energy. That the brand, which only entered the top 100 for the first time two years ago, has got where it is today without ever advertising on TV is staggering. Monster proves that relevant marketing – in this case, sponsorship of motorsports, bikes and boobs on social media – has become as important as having relevant products.

There are many more examples in this year’s report; brands flying high thanks to the swift development of new products, expert negotiation of the tough conditions buffeting grocery and, crucially, innovative and relevant marketing. After all, that is what makes a brand a brand.

● Supplement editor: Rob Brown

● Sub-editor: Kit Davies ● Art editor: Stuart Milligan ● Designer: Beth Johnson

● Writers: Natalie Brown, Simon Gwynn, Amy North, Carina Perkins, Daniel Selwood, Emma Sturgess, Kevin White

Activia 31Air Wick 35Alpro 33Anchor 34Andrex 14Ariel 30Aunt Bessie’s 31Bakers 36Bernard Matthews 38Birds Eye 14Bisto 12Bold 35Cadbury 30Cadbury Dairy Milk 12Capri-Sun 38Cathedral City 18Chicago Town 35Coca-Cola 10Comfort 28Cravendale 30Dairylea 38Dettol 36Dolmio 30Doritos 26Evian 30Fairy 17Fanta 34Felix 18Finish 34Flora 31Galaxy 22Ginsters 35Haribo 28Heinz Beanz 22Heinz Sauces 26Heinz Soup 25Hellmann’s 35Highland Spring 38Hovis 17Innocent 25Irn-Bru 36Jacob’s 26John West 30Kenco 34Kettle 35Kinder 36Kingsmill 17Kit Kat 28Kleenex 36Lenor 32

Lindt 38Lucozade 14Lurpak 17Magnum 30Maltesers 28Mars 35McCain 17McCoy’s 36McVitie’s 12Monster Energy 35Mr Kipling 31Müller Corner 25Müllerlight 30Napolina 34Nescafé 14Old El Paso 36Pedigree 25Pepsi 14Persil 18PG Tips 35Philadelphia 36Pizza Express 36Plenty 38Pot Noodle 36Princes 22Pringles 26Quaker 22Red Bull 18Ribena 30Richmond 34Robinsons 18Schweppes 35Special K 38Surf 34Thorntons 34Tropicana 20Twinings 35Twirl 38Uncle Ben’s 28Velvet 34Volvic 26Walkers 12Walkers Sensations 35Warburtons 11Weetabix 30WeightWatchers 34Whiskas 25Wrigley’s Extra 22Yeo Valley Organic 32Young’s 31

Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands Risers, fallers & basket cases

BBB16_01_cover.indd 3 11/03/2016 16:39

contributors

Where to find Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands

“In a climate of brutal rivalry, creative

advertising has never been more important for Britain’s brands”

in association with nielsen

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4 | The Grocer | 19 March 2016 www.thegrocer.co.uk

Britain’s biggest brands


Grocery brands are falling back to earth with a bump. With deflation gripping the economy, competition for supermar-ket shelf space never fiercer and the dis-counters doing a roaring trade with their

‘like brands but cheaper’ promise, 56 of Britain’s 100 Biggest Grocery Brands have suffered a fall in value in the past year. and 61 have seen prices fall.

And it’s across the board. Just three of grocery’s 10 biggest names – Dairy Milk (4), Nescafé (7) and Pepsi (9) – have managed to grow value in the past year. The combined loss of the top 10 brands stands at an eyewa-tering £105.6m, accounting for more than a quarter of the top 100’s combined loss of £408.5m, a 2% decline. The plummeting sales are not all down to price defla-tion, either; Britain’s biggest brands have shifted 87.8 million (0.6%) fewer units.

Yet some are still gaining altitude at an impressive rate. Alpro (59) has turned in the greatest growth, worth £27.6m. Pepsi (9) has defied slumping sales of carbon-ated soft drinks with growth worth £22.6m. Kinder (83) is soaring, its £22.4m growth taking it into the top 100 for the first time. How are they doing it? And who’s down and out?

One thing’s for certain: it’s considerably harder for brands to get off the ground than it was a year ago. In our 2015 report, 42 of the top 100 brands were suffer-ing from deflating average unit prices. As competition between the supermarkets has escalated, the prom-ise of cheaper brands is being used to lure shoppers through the doors.

“Clearly there’s more promotional pressure and retailers are also taking a view on the everyday price of one brand versus another,” says Leendert den Hollander, general manager at Coca-Cola Enterprises, which has seen the average price of three of its five top 100 brands – Fanta (62); Monster Energy (73); Capri-Sun (97) – fall in the past year. “In partnership with our

Who’s flying high?Who’s down?

Who’s out? Market headwinds have led to a £400m decline for the top 100, but some are still sky high. How?

Rob Brown




THE RANKINGRANK BRAND SALES CHANGE

2016 2015 £m £m %1 1 Coca Cola 1,145.8 –30.1 –2.62 2 Warburtons 695.3 –19.8 –2.83 3 Walkers 599.3 –37.7 –5.94 4 Dairy Milk 528.5 3.1 0.65 5 Birds Eye 490.2 –25.3 –4.96 6 McVitie’s 464.5 4.5 –1.07 8 Nescafé 432.7 6.6 1.58 7 Lucozade 426.7 –0.2 0.09 9 Pepsi 423.2 22.6 5.6

10 11 Andrex 350.3 –20.3 –5.511 13 McCain 318.5 4.2 1.312 10 Kingsmill 312.6 –58.4 –15.713 14 Fairy 301.8 –7.8 –2.514 15 Lurpak 295.6 –4.0 –1.315 12 Hovis 288.7 –62.1 –17.716 16 Cathedral City 276.9 –1.8 –0.717 18 Red Bull 273.0 9.5 3.618 17 Robinsons 262.9 –15.5 –5.619 22 Felix 251.3 15.3 6.520 21 Persil 246.6 –0.8 –0.321 19 Tropicana 241.9 –21.3 –8.122 23 Galaxy 233.0 7.1 3.223 20 Princes 229.3 –27.3 –10.624 28 Wrigley’s Extra 223.4 9.5 4.525 26 Heinz Beans 211.6 –3.7 –1.726 30 Innocent 211.2 3.5 1.727 31 Pedigree 203.4 –0.6 –0.328 27 Müller Corner 202.9 –11.5 –5.429 24 Whiskas 202.5 –29.4 –12.730 29 Heinz Soup 199.3 –10.8 –5.131 40 Pringles 196.2 16.2 9.032 37 Volvic 192.6 8.7 4.733 33 Heinz Sauces 187.8 –5.2 –2.734 38 Jacob’s 187.3 5.6 3.135 43 Doritos 186.6 10.8 6.136 36 Maltesers 181.6 –4.9 –2.637 47 Haribo 181.4 9.8 5.738 48 Comfort 180.2 11.4 6.839 42 Kit Kat 179.8 1.9 1.140 39 Uncle Ben’s 178.1 –2.3 –1.341 45 John West 178.1 6.1 3.642 44 Müllerlight 178.0 5.2 3.043 25 Cadbury 174.7 –47.7 –21.544 41 Weetabix 174.2 –1.3 –0.745 35 Ariel 174.0 –12.5 –6.746 50 Mr Kipling 169.5 3.7 2.247 32 Activia 167.8 –25.4 –13.248 49 Young’s 164.4 –3.8 –2.249 46 Flora 163.1 –8.6 –5.050 34 Aunt Bessie’s 160.3 –26.4 –14.1

Source: Nielsen 52 w/e 2 January 2016

customers, we need to try to define how we can bring value. To a large extent the onus is on us. We have to ask: how do we bring new news; how do we get con-sumers ready to pay the right price?”

Responding to consumer trends with relevant NPD is crucial. The £16m growth of Monster Energy, which has risen seven spots up this year’s ranking, is a case in point; in September, CCE unleased zero-sugar sub-brand Monster Energy Ultra, a range that has been a key driver of the brand’s overall growth. The launch of no-added-sugar Capri-Sun, in anticipation of Tesco’s July axing of added-sugar kids’ drinks, and the January extension of Coke Zero Cherry into 330ml cans are other examples of how brands are changing with the times.

Note the absence of sugar. With Britain going to war with the white stuff and health a growing concern for Brits at the checkouts, brands that have developed ‘healthier’ lines or marketed themselves on their nutri-tional benefits are defying the downturn.

Examples abound. Alpro is flying high off the back of booming demand for dairy-free products and its extension into new categories, such as potted des-serts. Innocent (26) is offsetting slumping sales of fruit juices with new functional smoothies, veg juice and coconut water.

Developing ‘healthier’ products is one thing; ensur-

ing consumers understand what it is that differentiates them from the standard offering is another. For exam-ple, Coke (1) has conceded that it needs to do more to communicate what its different variants stand for, say-ing that only around half of consumers understand that Coke Zero contains no sugar, and new variant Coke Life contains 45% less sugar than standard Coke.

It could take a leaf out of Pepsi Max’s book. The ‘no sugar maximum taste’ cola has been the driving force behind Pepsi for years, and once again accounts for the lion’s share of the brand’s gains, thanks in no small part to marketing aimed with pinpoint preci-sion at Pepsi Max’s target audience of young adults and teenagers.

“Ultimately, carbonates is suffering from a decline in relevancy amongst today’s consumers due to growing health concerns and a shopper base that is purchasing on autopilot,” says Phil Sanders, commercial director at Pepsi’s bottler & distributor Britvic.

Digital activity including YouTube videos of extreme sports, the brand’s UEFA sponsorship and cross-brand promotions with fellow PepsiCo-owned snack brands Walkers (3) and Doritos (35) have also helped, as has a social media and nationwide sampling campaign for Pepsi Max Cherry, which has delivered nearly £20m growth for the flavour variant.

Who’s in? 83 (109) Kinder: A keen eye on portion control and sharing formats and savvy NPD have delivered an extra £22.4m 94 (101) Plenty: Big ad spend has helped Plenty clean up in a category defined by falling prices and own label growth. Up £6.8m

95 (11) Twirl: Sharing is caring for Twirl. The brand’s £12.4m growth, driven primarily by sharing format Twirl Bites, has catapulted it into the top 100

96 (110) Lindt Lindor: Up a cool £11m and into the top 100, thanks partly to the launch of its first foray into sharing slabs with the Hello collection

99 (107) Highland Spring: The posh bottled water brand has sprung into the top 100 with growth of £5.1m. A £1.6m TV campaign helped

“The onus is on us. We have to ask: how do we

bring new news? How do we get consumers ready to pay the right price?”


Bringing new consumers to

the CDM brand

Helping to bring new consumers to the category

On TV, with outdoor

and digital advertising too!

*Cadbury’s Dairy Milk is the UK’s no.1 chocolate brand – Nielsen, Total Coverage, MAT value sales to w/e 26.12.15

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THE RANKING RANK BRAND SALES CHANGE

2016 2015 £m £m %51 53 Magnum 156.6 7.3 4.952 65 Lenor 153.3 16.2 11.853 59 Evian 152.7 9.7 6.854 62 Yeo Valley Organic 151.3 13.2 9.555 51 Ribena 150.6 –14.2 –8.656 64 Bisto 146.2 9.1 6.757 57 Cravendale 145.3 –0.9 –0.658 67 Quaker Oats 139.3 3.4 2.559 78 Alpro 139.0 27.6 24.860 56 Dolmio 138.8 –9.3 –6.361 60 Napolina 137.7 –5.1 –3.662 66 Fanta 136.7 0.8 0.663 69 Finish 136.7 3.2 2.464 54 Richmond 131.9 –16.9 –11.365 68 Kenco 131.8 –1.9 –1.466 52 WeightWatchers 130.9 –32.2 –19.767 70 Thorntons 130.4 –2.5 –1.968 71 Surf 130.4 3.4 2.769 63 Anchor 129.7 –8.4 –6.170 55 Velvet 129.2 –19.4 –13.171 58 PG Tips 129.0 –15.6 –10.872 61 Schweppes 128.8 –10.7 –7.773 80 Monster Energy 126.5 16.0 14.574 74 Bold 122.8 –0.2 –0.275 72 Mars 119.3 –6.4 –5.176 75 Ginsters 117.1 –2.0 –1.777 79 Chicago Town 113.1 2.5 2.278 81 Air Wick 113.0 3.1 2.879 77 Hellmann’s 112.1 –1.2 –1.080 82 Twinings 110.1 1.0 0.981 90 Pizza Express 107.6 8.9 9.182 83 Philadelphia 105.7 –2.2 –2.083 109 Kinder 104.6 22.4 27.384 76 Bakers 102.5 –14.4 –12.385 84 Kleenex 101.7 –6.0 –5.686 98 Pot Noodle 100.6 8.6 9.487 86 Irn-Bru 100.0 –5.4 –5.188 89 Dettol 99.2 0.1 0.189 85 McCoy’s 99.0 –8.5 –7.990 91 Old El Paso 98.6 1.0 1.091 93 Kettle 97.2 1.9 2.092 87 Bernard Matthews 96.0 –8.9 –8.593 73 Special K 95.1 –28.1 –22.894 101 Plenty 94.6 6.8 7.795 111 Cadbury’s Twirl 93.8 12.4 15.296 110 Lindt Lindor 93.0 11.0 13.497 95 Capri-Sun 92.3 –1.4 –1.598 100 Dairylea 90.2 2.3 2.699 107 Highland Spring 89.6 5.1 6.0

100 88 Tetley 88.5 –10.9 –11.0Source: Nielsen 52 w/e 2 January 2016

Health concerns are redefining the snacking mar-ket also. Walkers, for example, has lost £37.7m (5.9%) of its value in the past year as shoppers have begun to turn away from fried potato crisps in favour of baked savoury snacks, such as United Biscuits’ Jacob’s (34), which has climbed four places up the ranking thanks to a flurry of launches, such as July’s Cracker Crisps, designed to lure shoppers away from potato crisps. No wonder Walkers and Walkers Sensations (101) have unveiled baked snack ranges in the past year.

The two biggest casualties of the year also reflect changing consumer habits (albeit retailers also played a part with delistings). Hovis (15) has lost £62.1m, Kingsmill (12) £58.4m, as consumers continue to ditch bread, partly as a result of negative health associations with white sliced. In response, Hovis has pledged to invest in developing its range of ‘healthier’ loaves, such as the protein-rich Sunflower & Pumpkin Seed product it launched in February. Meanwhile, fewer Brits are eating breakfast at home; fewer are packing lunches.

This is where innovation can play a crucial role. In recent years, Weetabix (44) has diversified with drinks and biscuits. Value has still fallen £1.3m – but its per-formance is much stronger than Special K (93), which is now in serious danger of falling out of the top 100 after nearly a quarter of its value (£28.1m) was wiped out.

Similarly, Warburtons (2) has weathered the storm with a combination of savvy innovation and big budget marketing. “NPD is a key area of investment – demon-strated by the launch of several new products over the last 12 months including Thin Bagels and most recently Giant Crumpets,” says Warburtons’ marketing director Mark Simester. The ad featuring the Muppets helped drive growth for the innovation. “‘The Giant Crumpet Show’ was also declared the most successful Christmas ad of 2015, according to consumer research carried out by independent researchers.”

Ensuring products are in the right format is also cru-cial. Pringles (31) has benefited from growing demand for snacks in sharing formats, a trend that’s also ben-efitted brands such as Kinder (83) and M&M’s (105).

John West (41) is another case in point. The brand has offset intense price competition in canned tuna through the development of new formats and prod-ucts, such as its Spreadables range of sandwich fillers, and Infusions and Steam Pots ranges of added value tuna. The brand is up £6.1m in a floundering canned food market.

That a brand in one of the most commoditised mar-kets in grocery can achieve such solid growth, makes it clear: brands can still fly high, so long as low prices isn’t their only USP.

Who’s out? 102 (96) Dr Pepper: A casualty of the war on sugar and the resulting backlash against fizzy pop, the doc has lost a whopping £4.1m

105 (99) Snickers: Investment in ads starring Rowan Atkinson and NPD hasn’t been enough to stop Snickers from bowing out. Sales are down £602,000

108 (97) Rowntree’s: Nestlé’s flagship confectionery brand has lost £7.2m as retailers have cut space for sweets and rivals have invested in sharing formats

111 (94) Wiseman: The milk brand’s days as a top 100 brand had been numbered for some time. Continuing price cuts in dairy have sealed its fate; down £12.3m

137 (92) Tate & Lyle: Sales have been anything but sweet for the sugar brand as retailers have hammered down prices and the market was flooded with cheap EU beet. Down £37.8m, or 39.4%. Ouch

“NPD is a key area of investment for Warburtons

– as demonstrated by several new products over

the past 12 months”


*Kantar World Panel – Total Colas – Total Market– 52 W/E – Period MAT to Aug 15. © 2016 The Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero and the Coca-Cola Contour Bottle are registered trademarks of The Coca-Cola Company. All rights reserved.

Coca-Cola cherry with zero sugarAvailable in 330ml and 500ml packs, Coca-Cola cherry with zero sugar will be supported by a multi-channel marketing campaign in 2016. Cherry fl avours are on the rise with 22% growth.

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britain’s biggest brands

● Sales: £1,145.8m (–2.6%) Coke has become a byword for excessive sugar consumption. And with sugar the white devil of the age, it’s no surprise Coke is suffering. Britain’s biggest grocery brand has been hit by the seventh largest value loss of the year, with sales down £30.1m and 23.8 million (2.8%) fewer units sold. Ouch.

“It’s fair to say it’s been a challenging year,” says Coca-Cola Enterprises general man-ager Leendert den Hollander. “There’s never been more scrutiny of the category on sugar than there is now.”

See the performance of red Coke for the impact of that scrutiny: £26.3m (4.2%) has been wiped off its value, which now stands at £599.2m; 17.6 million fewer units (3.7%) have been sold. It’s still huge, of course, but if we were meas-uring red Coke as a brand in its own right, it would have lost its standing as Britain’s sec-ond biggest brand to Walkers (3) in the past year.

Diet, Zero and Life now account for 44.6% of the 830.4 million units shifted in the past year, up from 44.2% a year ago; no and low sugar has racked up £546.6m, or 47.7% of the brand’s total sales, up from 47% a year ago. This shift is the result of the wider debate around health – and CCE’s response to it.

“I’d talk about our strat-egy in just five words: ‘inspir-ing sustainable soft drink choices,’” says den Hollander, pointing to the masterbrand campaign that kicked off in the UK last March and for the first time saw all four Cokes advertised as a single brand. The strategy has since been rolled out globally.

Growing emphasis on no or low sugar lines could prove crucial in appeasing health lobbyists. “We don’t debate that there’s an obesity crisis,” says den Hollander, adding volumes of Diet, Zero and Life are up (in litres; Diet and Zero units are down due to a shift to larger multipacks). “What we’d debate is whether a sugar tax, apart from the fact that we already pay 20% in VAT, will change consumer behaviour or deal with the obesity crisis.”

Hence Diet, Zero and Life being brought to the fore in Coke’s ads – the ‘choice’ part of den Hollander’s mantra. Not that it’s delivered much growth so far: only Life is up, by 44.3% to £21.1m. And full-year sales don’t tell the whole story: sales crashed 60.5% in the last four months of 2015, as the trade support given to Life after launch in 2014 tailed off.

Growth could have been hampered by confusion over what Life actually is. In January, CCE announced the scrapping of the original Life, which had 33% less sugar than red Coke, after admitting half of consumers didn’t under-stand what it is. Production of the new Coke Life, which has 45% less sugar than red Coke, began this week. The aim now is to spread the word about the new, lower-sugar Life.

“Repeat sale rates on Coke Life are in the high 30s; take any benchmark in fmcg and that’s very good,” says den Hollander. “We’re going to a new look, a new formula and a new campaign talking about its specifics. There’s a great opportunity to build aware-ness, trial and the brand.”

Whether that ends Coke’s associations with the obesity crisis is another matter.

1 (1) Coca-Cola

The new ads unite all four Cokes under one master brand

BBB16_10_01_02.indd 10 14/03/2016 17:50


● Sales: £695.3m (–2.8%)The most sensational, inspira-tional Warburtons show is still running. The production was hit by the supermarket price war, doing £19.8m of dam-age, but compared with the shaky staging of its wrapped rivals, and with the plant bread simultaneously affected by changing consumer habits, the loss, which was combined with a 1.2% volume sales increase, looks like a very credible performance.

Inevitably, the advertising stole the show.

As head of the family bak-ery, Jonathan Warburton has been featuring in its advertis-ing for years but in April 2015 Warburton took this personal touch to a whole new level, featuring alongside Sylvester Stallone in The Deliverers, a lavish campaign to high-light the lengths to which Warburtons goes to deliver over two million loaves of fresh bread to more than 18,000 stores every day.

He followed this up six months later with a big song and dance number featuring almost the entire cast of the Muppets – Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, the Swedish Chef, Sweetums, Fozzie Bear, Statler & Waldorf – for the debut of

Giant Crumpets. The first-to-market NPD has performed well for being a fits-the-toaster innovation, says Warburtons. It also says that its Thin Bagels, its sandwich alter-natives range, has sold more than 4.6 million units since launching last April.

Both the crumpets and the bagels were supported by the opening of another sandwich alternatives plant in Burnley in May at a cost of £20m, and, five months later, a £7m crum-pet plant at the Bolton bakery.

The year also saw a num-ber of new product launches from its Free From sub-brand Newburn Bakehouse, includ-ing Classic White Artisan Loaf and White Sourdough Artisan Cob (April 2015) and Mini Wholegrain Wraps (October 2015). “The main pressures that faced the category and the business over the last 12 months are not dissimilar from those facing the wider food industry as a whole; however in spite of this, Warburtons has continued to perform well,” says a spokes-woman for the company.

Warburtons also became the first food manufacturer to make The Sunday Times’ Top 25 Best Big Companies list late last month.

2 (2) Warburtons


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● Sales: £599.3m (–5.9%)Crumbs! Britain’s biggest snack brand has lost a whop-ping £37.7m, as the products churned out by Walkers’ NPD conveyor belt failed to make up for losses elsewhere.

● Sales: £528.5m (+0.6%)Sales are up £3.1m but Dairy Milk has shifted 3.9% fewer units, suggesting the steady stream of NPD from rival Galaxy (22) has hit Britain’s biggest chocolate brand hard.

● Sales: £464.5m (–1.0%)It was always going to be tough for McVitie’s to keep up the pace of growth of recent years. In our 2015 ranking, it was up £6.2m, having shifted an extra 14 million packs.

Sure enough, the value of Britain’s biggest biscuit brand has begun to crumble as UB has succumbed to price pres-sures. Volumes are still up, by 1.3% or 5.3 million packs, but this has been undermined by lower prices.

Take Chocolate Digestives, McVitie’s top seller, which is now selling for 3.5 pence a pack less than a year ago. “This is due to a combina-tion of promotional frequency and depth, driven by pound, half-price and better than half-price deals,” says UB mar-keting director Sarah Heynen. She adds that although deals are set by retailers, UB recog-nises their importance in driv-ing volumes. McVitie’s volume share of sweet biscuits now stands at 28.3%, up 0.6 per-centage points, she claims.

● Sales: £490.2m (–4.9%)The frozen aisles are a chal-lenging environment right now – one of the reasons behind Birds Eye’s decline.

But the Captain’s not roll-ing over. “We firmly believe

3 (3) Walkers

4 (4) Cadbury Dairy Milk

6 (6) McVitie’s

5 (5) Birds Eye

Its performance shows just how fickle the snacks market is: Pops and Deep Ridged, two of Walkers’ biggest launches in recent years, have lost nearly £10m a piece; only standard Walkers has been hit harder, down £16m.

February 2015 saw the launch of Mixups – a mix of snacks such as Wotsits, crisps and popcorn. The range is now worth £21.5m. It launched Crispy and Melty Crackers in November; they’ve racked up £580k. And in January Tear & Share – bags that can be con-verted into bowls – landed. Hopes are high.

Beneath the surface, it’s clear the Dairy Milk family is undergoing an epic rebal-ancing. Countlines are down 16.4% – £21.9m in lost sales – with seasonal lines, tablets and Giant Buttons in growth and making up for the losses.

Larger ‘sharing’ formats is where the money is in choc-olate, so CDM has launched 300g Big Taste tablets, the latest in NPD that last year included soft-centred Puddles, now worth more than £10m. The Free the Joy ads, featuring the boogying Keith (left), were the brand’s most popular ads ever, says Mondelez.

there’s an opportunity to be more innovative,” says Steve Chantry, Birds Eye marketing director. “We are spearhead-ing a drive to revitalise our existing portfolio and create new products that play a role in adult meal occasions.”

Tapping this market has already proved fruitful; Birds Eye Inspirations is now worth £24.6m, up 21.4%. Ready meals are also proving lucra-tive with Stir Your Senses racking up £7.8m in its first year. Breakfast is Birds Eye’s next target, which it is going after with frozen breakfast goods range Hello Morning!

Despite the dip in value, McVitie’s is outperforming the overall category. Heynen puts this down to UB’s masterbrand strategy and Sweeet ad cam-paign that began two years ago. Spontaneous awareness of the brand is up from 24% to 29%, while the proportion of people calling it a ‘brand I love’ has shot up from 18% to 28%. It used to be 22 points behind rival Cadbury, but the gap has narrowed to 14 points.

Now McVitie’s is chasing confectionery brands with renewed intent with its latest launch, Maltesers (36) looka-like Digestives Nibbles. “That takes our brand and, more importantly, biscuits into a more premium occasion: even-ing sharing,” says Heynen. “Initiatives like that are key to driving category growth.”

Along with this launch, which is targeting sales of £15m-17m in year one, UB has created a McVitie’s Sweeet mobile app and new TV ads aimed at young adults, who under-index in biscuits.


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● Sales: £432.7m (+1.5%)Nescafé took something of a leap into the digital unknown last September when it announced it was ditch-ing its traditional websites and moving its web presence

● Sales: £426.7m (0.0%)Repositioning Lucozade away from younger consumers and towards ‘daily strivers’ has kept the drink from falling into decline.

The brand’s £14m Find Your

● Sales: £350.3m (–5.5%)With the bottom falling out of the toilet paper category thanks to ramped up deals and strong growth for own label and the discounters, it’s perhaps no surprise that sales of Britain’s biggest loo roll brand are going down the pan.

Andrex has lost £20.3m and shifted 3.8 million (3%) fewer units in the past year, thanks to the growing com-petition and significant shelf space losses in Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Now Kimberly-Clark is fighting back by ditching its traditional mar-keting focus on the quality of the product (‘soft, strong and long’), and going down a slightly more risqué route, emphasising how clean the brand can get users’ bottoms.

“We need to reframe the cat-egory from being a bulk paper commodity to unleash inher-ent value and change the way consumers see the category,” says Karel Van Der Mandele, Kimberly-Clark marketing director for UK family care.

● Sales: £423.2m (+5.6%)For a brand as established as Pepsi to have added £22.6m, the second greatest gain of the year, is impressive. Even more so, given that Pepsi turned in the most growth last year.

7 (80) Nescafé

8 (7) Lucozade

10 (11) Andrex

9 (9) Pepsi

exclusively to Tumblr, in what it claimed was a first for a global brand. It also teamed up with Google to launch a ‘fully immersive virtual reality experience’ of a Brazilian cof-fee field.

These are both signs of a brand keen to stay cutting edge, and succeeding – its growth is coming not only from premium lines Azera and Dolce Gusto, but Gold Blend too. The latter is still win-ning converts from standard Nescafé, which is in serious decline. In May, it diversified further by bringing chilled Shakissimo RTDs to the UK.

Flow campaign, launched in June 2015, included a 60-sec-ond TV ad designed to show how Lucozade can help peo-ple ‘find their flow’. The ad showed ordinary people doing everyday things in an extraordinary way, and was supported by a sampling cam-paign with 500,000 bottles given away over five months. A social media campaign with the hashtag #findyourflow also followed.

Tropical additions includ-ing Lucozade Energy Grafruitti and Lucozade Sport mango & passionfruit have also proved popular with the public.

So this is no flash in the can. It’s been achieved primarily by pushing Pepsi Max Cherry through ads and sampling. The variant has delivered an extra £19.5m in the past year, growth of 137.8%, and is now worth £33.7m at the tills.

“Pepsi Max Cherry has been a phenomenal success since launch,” says Britvic com-mercial director Phil Sanders, pointing to social media activ-ity and in store activation as key drivers. “It’s the number one sugar-free flavoured cola.”

No wonder Coca-Cola (1) launched Coke Zero Cherry in 330ml cans in January.

So Andrex put the ‘clean routine’ on its packs and launched an ad campaign pushing both its Classic White and Gentle Clean Washlets and asking kids how clean they feel after using the prod-ucts. The ads appear to be paying off, for the moist toilet paper at any rate. Value sales of Gentle Clean Washlets rose 637% in 2015 to £2.9m with an extra 2.3 million packs sold.

And with moist paper cur-rently bought by just a fifth of households, Van der Mandele says Andrex will clean up if it can convince more shoppers to give Washlets a try. “Once people start using Washlets they spend 45% more in the total category,” he adds.

There’s more reason for optimism, with sales having picked up later in the year as retailers reinstated some of the brand’s lost space after suffer-ing significant category defla-tion. “The retailer support plan was back-weighted to the second half of the year,” says Van Der Mandele.


BBB16_14_07_10.indd 14 14/03/2016 17:49

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“ Bread with bits is worth £200m; Hovis is outperforming the sector”

● Sales: £288.7m (–17.7%)It’s not quite toast yet, but what was once Britain’s big-gest bread brand continues to fall down our ranking, having lost an eyewatering £62.1m in the past year, the greatest loss of any brand in our ranking.

Look no further than the brand’s 13.9% fall in aver-age price – again, the greatest decline in this year’s top 100 – for the key source of Hovis’ loss of value.

With bread a key weapon in the price war, Hovis has been the biggest casualty of the past year’s hostilities.

Hovis isn’t rolling over, how-ever. In September it entered the sandwich alternatives market with white, wholemeal and Best of Both sandwich thins; a month later it began its � rst TV ad push in thee years with a new version of the classic ‘boy on bike’ ad to back its forti� ed Good Inside range.

Hovis is going big on health, in a bid to distance itself from negative health associations with white bread. The Good Inside range boasts containing omega-3 from seeds, wheat-germ and � bre and Hovis claims it is the “healthiest bread on the market”.

It’s also relaunched the pre-mium Seed Sensations range, adding Seed Sensations Chia Bread in February – the � rst attempt by any of the big bread brands to tap booming sales of chia – and a limited-edi-tion protein-rich Sun� ower & Pumpkin Seed loaf.

“Bread with bits is worth £202m and Hovis is outper-forming the sector, at 5.5% unit growth,” says category controller Simon Hancock. “We’re always looking to develop exciting products that meet the functional needs of consumers, as well as deliver on taste.”

● Sales: £318.5m (+1.3%)Innovative launches backed by heavyweight marketing have helped McCain shi� an extra 11.4 million (+7%) packs.

McCain Roasts, marketed as being on a par with home-made roasties, was the big-gest launch, with four million packs sold since September [McCain]. Other notable NPD included Crispy Sweet Potato Fries and Frozen Mash.

On the marketing front, the brand forked out £8m on Real Teatimes With McCain. Deals also drove volumes, resulting in a 4.5% fall in average price.

● Sales: £312.6m (–15.7%)Kingsmill had £58.4m wiped o� its value in 2015. Only Hovis (15) has lost more, show-ing how hard bread has been hit in the price war. The loss also re� ects Tesco’s power. It delisted Kingsmill last March, before reinstating the 50/50 and No Crusts lines at the rock bottom price of 75p a loaf in July. Further relistings fol-lowed at the year’s end. Of the big three bread brands, Kingsmill has the lowest aver-age price per unit. In February owner ABF said bread prices hit an eight-year low.

● Sales: £301.7m (–2.5%)Fairy has lost £7.8m overall, with 2.9 million (2.1%) fewer units sold. P&G says sales re� ect wider trends in laundry and household, pointing to the detergent sector’s 2% value decline, and e� orts to simplify its ranges and concentrate on ‘power SKUs’.

To turn sales around, P&G is pushing the ‘little goes a long way’ message for Fairy Liquid, claiming a 780ml bottle is enough to wash 12,616 plates. In June Fairy Non Bio Pods were launched to tap growth in the capsule format.

● Sales: £295.6m (–1.3%)Britain’s biggest butter brand has lost £4m due to � erce deals aimed at halting own label’s growth in the butters & spreads market.

Price cuts have helped the brand sell an extra 3.2 million (+2.5%) units, while not being so severe as to undermine value market share, which Arla says has grown.

The premium Cook’s Range was scrapped in July due to poor sales. “We were try-ing to change consumer hab-its,” says senior director Mike Walker. “It’s really di� cult.”

11 (13) McCain 12 (10) Kingsmill 13 (14) Fairy 14 (15) Lurpak

15 (12) Hovis


BBB16_17_11_15.indd 17 14/03/2016 17:48



● Sales: £276.9m (–0.7%)Britain’s biggest cheese brand is deflating, fast, with average prices down 4.5% as Cheddar continues to take a battering in the supermarket price war. That’s not to say Dairy Crest has given up on its efforts to add value. NPD has focused on the core block business, with a 550g Extra Mature vari-ant, an extended flavoured block range and a limited-edition 20-month matured Reserve Cheddar all hitting shelves. The brand has also extended its adult snacking portfolio and returned to TV.

● Sales: £273.0m (+3.6%)It might contain more sugar than Coke, but launching new flavours on Instagram and posting bespoke messages on trains, cycle routes and in fit-ness clubs has helped Red Bull keep its wings. The brand reckons the sports & energy drinks category could grow by more than £600m over the next five years if brands mar-ket their products as aids to studying, working and driv-ing and tap the convenience and online shopping trends. It ended the year kicking off its Can You Make It campaign.

● Sales: £251.3m (+6.5%)Felix is the cat who got the cream. For another year Purina scoops the top spot in this ranking for petcare and increases the gap between it and closest competitor, Whiskas (29). “In 2015 the top six selling SKUs in all of pet-food were Felix pouches,” says Purina market development director Liz Wood. Felix plans to maintain its mischievous personality with the pinnacle of internet humour – online cat videos. Felix Catdaq is a made-up stock market for the hottest, trending cat antics.

● Sales: £246.6m (–0.3%)Persil continues to innovate, with recent NPD including dual-action capsules (mar-keted in one of 2015’s more memorable ad campaigns fea-turing a breakdancing little girl) and ecologically friendly pouches for its Small & Mighty range, which promises effi-cient 30-minute washes at 30C. Persil also produced limited-edition packs for Red Nose Day. Increased promo-tional activity meant more vol-ume was sold on deal, which had an impact on overall sales value.

16 (16) Cathedral City 17 (18) Red Bull 19 (22) Felix 20 (21) Persil

“ Since 2012, Britvic has removed 18 billion calories from the market”

● Sales: £262.9m (–5.6%)A tough year for Britain’s big-gest squash brand, which has seen its SKU count reduced in the supers as the debate about how much sugar kids drinks contain has come to the fore.

“The impact of the ongoing sugar debate on the soft drinks market can be seen in the types of segments experienc-ing growth, with water-based categories thriving while other categories are showing slower growth,” says Britvic commer-cial director for at home Phil Sanders. In Robinsons’ case, the controversy around sugar content has contributed to a £15.5m decline, so it’s stepping up its efforts to reduce its use of the sweet stuff.

“Since 2012, following the delisting of regular Fruit Shoot and Robinsons squash, and reformulations to J2O and Juicy drench, we have removed 18 billion calories

from the soft drinks market,” adds Sanders. “By 2020, the aim is that 60% of our new products will be lower sugar or have added nutritional ben-efits. We’re also reducing the average number of calories consumed per 250ml by 20%.”

The brand is also investing in ads. It celebrated its 80-year partnership with Wimbledon in 2015 with limited-edition versions of the Squash’d pocket squash format backed by TV, outdoor, print and social media activity. A nos-talgic summer TV ad featuring two parents sitting in a garden watching their baby boy grow up tugged at the nation’s heart strings but wasn’t enough to deliver growth. With the stra-pline ‘They grow up fast’ the ad ran to the tune of ‘Give me just a little more time’ – which is exactly what Robinsons needs to return the brand to growth.

18 (17) Robinsons


BBB16_18_16_20.indd 18 14/03/2016 17:46

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● Sales: £241.9m (–8.1%)It’s not surprising Tropicana is preparing to launch its big-gest campaign in three years, aimed at educating shoppers about the benefits of juice, given its £21.3m decline.

PepsiCo says activity will help shoppers understand how much juice they should drink. The brand also focused on functional benefits with the February 2015 revamp of its Essentials range. Three new fruit & veg blends joined the line-up, and Fruitamins and Immune Support juices have gone into 150ml bottles.

● Sales: £233.0m (+3.2%)Britain’s number two choco-late brand has managed to shift 5.7 million (2.6%) more units, ending several years of decline and netting an extra £7.1m in the process.

It hasn’t come cheap, with Mars claiming to have spent £18m on ads that have been on TV for 35 of the past 52 weeks. NPD, such as Galaxy Salted Caramel and Duet, has also been crucial. And the inno-vation continues: Golden Eggs and a third Duet flavour, Toffee & Popcorn, have been launched so far this year.

● Sales: £223.4m (+4.5%)An extra £9.5m in sales and a 3.6% increase in average price have given Wrigley’s Extra something to smile about.

The brand has spent a lot of time and energy on attract-ing more young chewers, with a range refresh and the intro-duction of two new soft-chew flavours into the Extra range: Strawberry and Bubblegum. Celebrity couple Marvin and Rochelle Humes were signed to promote the brand’s tie up with National Smile Month and ads starring Ashton Kutcher continued on TV.

● Sales: £211.6m (–1.7%)Beanz are sliding off the menu: the brand’s volumes are down 4.5%. Brits bought almost six million fewer 415g single cans, more than two million fewer four-packs, and three million fewer 150g tins.

In May, Heinz responded to consumer demand with a ‘50% less sugar’ version of Beanz, sweetened with stevia, but the new variant has failed to markedly increase sales from the previous reduced sugar option. One product is flying off shelves, though: Beanz with Pork Sausages.

21 (19) Tropicana 22 (23) Galaxy 24 (28) Wrigley’s Extra 25 (26) Heinz Beanz

“Princes is making significant investment to address challenges”

● Sales: £229.3m (–10.6%)Canned & ambient isn’t look-ing too peachy right now. As store cupboard staples take a battering, so is Princes, having lost £27.3m.

Fish saw the biggest decline, with 60% of its losses caused by deflation as the brand passed commodity cost reduc-tions on to customers. In a bid to reverse this, it’s going after new, younger shoppers with relaunched Tuna Fillers, Limited Editions and a £2m campaign to inspire new usage occasions.

Juice is also struggling as the sugar war rages, with Princes further hit by distri-bution losses. To counteract concerns over sugar, it has introduced no-added-sugar NPD Princes Fruit Refreshers in six flavours, which will replace its existing juice drink range. “While there are certain market conditions,

mainly deflation, which have affected Princes Fish and Princes Juice, there is a posi-tive story for Princes Fruit and Meat, which are both ahead of the market,” says marketing director Neil Brownbill.

Savvy promotional tactics helped Princes gain volume in ambient meat, as well as value and volume in fruit, adds Brownbill. Hoping to replicate this success across its portfo-lio, Princes is about to embark on a new campaign called Really Simple, Royally Good across TV and radio.

“The Princes brand is mak-ing a significant investment over the course of the next 12 months to address the chal-lenging market, communi-cate positive messages for the canned food sector, attract new consumers into the mar-ket, and lock in loyalty from existing shoppers,” says Brownbill.

23 (20) Princes


BBB16_22_21_25.indd 22 14/03/2016 18:01

Biggest value growth in the top 1001

Sales up +23.5% yoy – double-digit growth third year running2

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1Britain’s 100 Biggest Grocery Brands. No. 58 The Grocer, 19th March 2016; No. 78 21st March 2015; No. 100 22nd March 2014. 2Nielsen MAT +23.5% value growth Jan 16 vs. Jan 15 Nielsen MAT +26% value growth Jan 15 vs. Jan 14. 3 Nielsen w/e 05.12.15

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“As part of our shift in strategy, we’re engaging through mobiles”

● Sales: £202.5m (–12.7%)It’s enough to make you cough up a fur ball. Britain’s num-ber two petfood brand has had £29.4m swiped from its sales in the past year as Felix (19) has continued to rise up the ranking in leaps and bounds.

Unlike most of its fellow petcare brands, Whiskas has not managed to scratch its way out of the supermarket price war, with average prices down 3.1%. To help restore value, the brand is pouring £10m into TV ads, PoS materials and in-store activations to promote newest formulation Whiskas Pockets – crunchy parcels with a soft filling for moggies who like a variety of textures in their diets.

The move follows a major reformulation that hit shelves last summer in an attempt to turn around the decline. The brand says the refresh resulted in a wave of repeat purchases

and low rates of money back guarantee redemptions, but despite this the brand is still some way from returning to its former glory.

For the year ahead, Whiskas is sinking its claws into a raft of NPD and lighthearted marketing campaigns. Most recently, the sickeningly cute digital campaign Kitten Kollege was designed to help owners learn more about their feline family members by watching cats go to college.

“As part of the brand’s shift in communications strategy, focused on engaging with consumers through mobiles, Kitten Kollege has gone from strength to strength since launch,” says a Mars Petcare spokeswoman.

“Developed to share Whiskas’ expert knowledge, it is a hilarious combination of satire and charming kitten chaos.”

● Sales: £211.2m (+1.7%)Innocent is starting to make Tropicana (21) look out of touch with its steady stream of innovative, on-trend NPD. Coconut Water has racked up £11.2m since last April, contributing the most to the brand’s overall £3.5m growth.

Juices and smoothies con-tinue to decline, due to the sugar backlash and deals on own label, but its functional Super Smoothies and water/juice mix Bubbles are up. July saw the launch of Light & Juicy, a reduced-sugar range made with coconut water.

● Sales: £203.4m (–0.3%)Pedigree might not be look-ing too bright eyed and bushy tailed at first glance... until you compare its performance to Bakers’ (84).

The top dog has grown share thanks to a new dry food SKU for the growing popula-tion of small dogs and its roll-out of PoS message Feed, Care, Play. For 2016, Pedigree plans to bark a bit louder with a new feelgood mass-media cam-paign, lifestyle app Tracks, and new wet dogfood pouches to cash in on growing demand for premium options.

● Sales: £202.9m (–5.4%)Britain’s biggest yoghurt brand has had a tough year, with a backlash against indul-gent yoghurts and a shift towards more natural prod-ucts contributing to a loss of £11.5m. That’s despite the launch of Müller Püd Corner, made with 75% skimmed milk and a side of crunchy top-pings, and Nicole Scherzinger entering her third year as poster girl for the brand.

Corner will launch a range of limited-edition flavours next month in preparation for the Rio games in August.

● Sales: £199.3m (–5.1%)As the biggest name in canned soup, a sector continuing to lose out to fresh, Heinz was always fighting an uphill bat-tle for growth. It’s lost £10.8m, with unit sales down 6.4%. That’s more than the losses of Heinz Beanz (25) and Sauces (33) combined.

The biggest losses were suf-fered by Classic Soups, with four-packs of Cream of Tomato down £3.5m, or 26%. It’s not all bad, though; the brand’s instant soups and posher Black Label canned range have delivered strong growth.

26 (30) Innocent 27 (31) Pedigree 28 (27) Müller Corner 30 (29) Heinz Soup

29 (24) Whiskas


BBB16_25_26_30.indd 25 14/03/2016 18:15



● Sales: £196.2m (+9.0%)Pringles’ growth is almost entirely accounted for by last year’s big NPD, Pringles Tortilla, which racked up more than £16m in nine months on shop shelves, and grabbed 6.6% of the tortillas segment.

Modest 2% growth in the standard range, meanwhile, was cancelled out by a fall in older spinoff Pringles Xtra. Kellogg’s says the brand has benefited from big sharing occasions and this year will celebrate its 25th birthday with a competition to win a private gig with Olly Murs.

● Sales: £192.6m (+4.7%)Sugar might not be doing the wider soft drinks market any favours at present, but it’s helping drive sales for Volvic.

The new Touch of Fruit range is the key source of Volvic’s growth, with the strawberry and lemon & lime lines (containing 13.7g of sugar per 250ml) delivering £4.5m of the brand’s £8.7m. That said, the brand’s sugar-free variants are also driving sales and the whole range was supported by a new TV ad for Touch of Fruit in summer 2015 – the first ded-icated ad for Volvic since 2013.

● Sales: £187.8m (–2.7%)Tomato Ketchup, which accounts for two thirds of the total, is holding its own, with value and volume sales down ever so slightly. The 550g SKU of ketchup with 50% less sugar, launched in October 2014, is now worth £5.9m and has grown sales from the pre-vious reduced sugar version.

But Salad Cream is falling out of favour, with sales down 6.1% in value and 4.6% in vol-ume. This year, the brand will take the fight to Hellmann’s with its new Seriously Good Mayonnaise.

● Sales: £187.3m (+3.1%)As number one brand in the renascent savoury biscuits sector, Jacob’s is leading the fight against crisps by banging the drum for baked snacks.

In May, it launched Cracker Crisps, moving into a bagged savoury snacks category that overtook crisps for the first time last year. It also saw Jacob’s go head to head with Ritz, which launched simi-lar product Crisp & Thin. This year Jacob’s wants to replicate the success of UB stablemate McVitie’s Sweeet campaign with its own push, Crackin’.

31 (40) Pringles 32 (37) Volvic 33 (33) Heinz Sauces 34 (38) Jacob’s

“There’s been a 62% rise in 16 to 28-year-olds buying into Doritos”

● Sales: £186.6m (+6.1%)When it comes to NPD gam-bles, the stakes don’t get higher than Doritos Roulette, a line launched last April that mixes ultra-spicy chips in with Tangy Cheese flavour.

The odds were stacked in PepsiCo’s favour, and the product became the cat-egory’s biggest single-SKU launch of the year. “The key driver is that it offers consum-ers a fun ‘big night in’ with a spicy twist,” says PepsiCo UK marketing director Thomas Barkholt.

The launch was supported by a TV campaign in the brand’s usual deadpan/sur-real style, depicting an actual game of roulette with the snack in a dingy room; when one of the participants is too scared to eat one, he trans-forms into a chicken. This was backed up with cinema and digital ads later in the year.

Roulette helped the brand’s volumes jump 13.4%, though price pressure means value growth has lagged behind this somewhat. It wasn’t entirely responsible, though – Barkholt says sales have risen across the whole flavour range, driven by the brand’s appeal to young consumers.

“There has been a 62% increase of consumers between the age of 16 and 28 buying into the brand in the last two years,” he says. “Its success over the past year has been driven by the new For The Bold global positioning, which appeals to a younger adult audience. We have also seen significant growth in sharing bags.”

For The Bold launched last March with a TV ad depicting a young man made stylish and confident with the power of Doritos, and returns in a new campaign this month.

35 (43) Doritos


BBB16_26_31_35.indd 26 14/03/2016 18:15

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● Sales: £181.6m (–2.6%)Maltesers is £4.9m lighter than a year ago, a decline that to an extent reflects choco-late’s overall performance, as changing consumer habits reshape the category.

As one of the original shar-ing brands, Maltesers faces stiffening competition as rivals move into sharing bags and slabs. The year’s big push was a partnership with Comic Relief encouraging wannabe Paul Hollywoods to bake with Maltesers; 2016 is the brand’s 80th anniversary. It’ll be hop-ing for a party to remember.

● Sales: £181.4m (+5.7%)As a reliance on £1 price-marked hanging bags erodes the overall value of the sugar confectionery market, the sec-tor’s biggest brand has man-aged to grow value ahead of volume, adding almost £10m.

Here’s how: Haribo spent big on ads (Nielsen identified its Kids Voice ads as fmcg’s most impactful in our 2015 Top Products report); gave away 2,000 family cinema tickets in an on-pack promo; and tied up with Minions, one of the hot-test films of last summer, for a new range. Sweet stuff!

● Sales: £179.8m (+1.1%) It’s good to share. Hence the growing focus for chocolate brands on sharing formats.

In July Nestlé’s flagship con-fectionery brand launched the 170g Snap & Share format, aimed at those of us who eat chocolate in the evening to broaden the reach of Kit Kat, which is more skewed towards daytime snacking.

The brand also bene-fited from a £10m marketing splurge in 2015, which went on TV ads, an on-pack promotion and digital activity. All this helped Kit Kat win share.

● Sales: £178.1m (–1.3%)Uncle Ben’s has seen the way the wind is blowing: rice alone no longer cuts it for many con-sumers. And for those it does, convenience is king.

So, in response to the health trend fuelling demand for alternatives to white rice, the Uncle launched a range of wholegrain pouches in 2014 and followed it up in April with five Rice & Grains prod-ucts using only the trendiest (and healthiest) grains such as quinoa and pearl wheat. A further three variants will be launched in June.

36 (36) Maltesers 37 (47) Haribo 39 (42) Kit Kat 40 (39) Uncle Ben’s

“Comfort is challenging category norms with its intense freshness”

● Sales: £180.2m (+6.8%)Here’s one brand that’s fly-ing high. Comfort’s value at the tills has grown by £11.4m despite a 2.1% drop in units sold. It’s sailed 10 spots up the ranking. How?

By “challenging category norms and providing consum-ers with intense freshness at all stages of the laundry process, from wash to wear, without compromising on softness,” according to sen-ior brand manager Fernanda Tubini-Roberts.

That means a combination of value-added innovation and hefty marketing sup-port. Last March, Unilever launched super-concentrated conditioner Comfort Intense, a range that’s racked up £21m so far and been a key driver of the brand’s overall 9.1% rise in average price. The launch was backed by a £5m market-ing campaign including TV

ads that focused on the prod-uct’s super-concentrated for-mula and unique 15ml dose, compared with the standard UK fabric conditioner dos-age of 35ml. Unilever is now expanding the range and has just launched Comfort Pure Ultra Concentrate, using the same 15ml dose and targeting consumers with sensitive skin, backed by a £1m ad campaign.

Sales of the standard Comfort product totalled £60m while the Comfort Creations range – marketed on its exotic fragrances, including Honeysuckle & Sandalwood and Indian Rose & Musk – generated sales of £48.7m. Still, for a new product to have generated more than 10% of the brand’s total sales in under a year on shelf is no mean feat. It was also voted laundry product of the year in the 2016 Product Innovation Awards.

Intense indeed!

38 (48) Comfort


Drive profit with great-tasting Maryland Special Treats

– a £12m* range with a largecookie for every occasion

*Nielsen Total Grocery MAT to 30 Jan 2016.



● Sales: £178.1m (+3.6%)Greenpeace’s tuna campaign doesn’t appear to have dam-aged Brits’ appetite for John West, with the canned brand delivering 14.2% volume growth. With prices for stand-ard tuna under serious pres-sure, the brand maintained its focus on added-value NPD, rolling out its new Spreadables range of single-serve sand-wich � llers. John West also extended its Infusions and Steam Pots ranges in 2015 and refreshed its Mackerel Sauces line-up with new variants aimed at the foodie crowd.

● Sales: £178.0m (+3.0%)Sales are up by just over £5m, thanks in part to the launch of Müllerlight Goodies last March, a twin-pot dessert containing low-fat yoghurt in three di� erent � avours along-side crunchy pieces.

The brand has overtaken Activia (47) to become Britain’s second biggest yoghurt brand behind Müller Corner (28). It wants to maintain momentum with this month’s launch of an Olympic-themed range featur-ing pineapple crush, tropical punch, passionfruit, orange and lime � avours.

● Sales: £174.7m (–21.5%) Cadbury is one of Britain’s most desirable brand licences, with third parties using the name in a host of categories, from ice cream to hot bever-ages. But performance has been mixed.

Ice cream is up 6.1%. Cadbury Doughnuts and Tri� e also made signi� cant gains, but not enough to o� set he� y losses, particularly for Cadbury biscuits. Snowman Selection fell £17.7m; the Biscuits Selection lost a fur-ther £5.7m. The overall loss amounted to £47.7m.

● Sales: £174m (–6.7%)Ariel is looking all washed up next to the full-year sales of rival Persil (20), although P&G says sales returned to growth in the second half of the year.

Nearly � ve million (11.5%) fewer units were shi� ed dur-ing the full year. Liquitabs helped buoy brand value by converting shoppers from cheaper formats such as pow-ders and bulk liquids. “Our focus is to continue to drive consumers to try and use our more convenient and better-performing products,” says P&G sales director Ian Morley.

41 (45) John West 42 (44) Müllerlight 43 (25) Cadbury 45 (35) Ariel

“Weetabix On The Go is probably the sector’s success story of the year”

● Sales: £174.2m (–0.7%)Breakfasters might be aban-doning the cereal bowl in favour of on the go options, but at least Britain’s biggest cereal brand isn’t going too soggy. Bigger ad spend, pro-tein-packed NPD and On The Go drinks have helped to slow, if not eliminate, value decline, which stands at £1.3m for the year.

“We’re increasing our ad spend in a declining mar-ket,” says head of brand Richard Lawrence. 2015’s Weetabuddies campaign, part of a £5m push, was its “most successful to date” and returned in January with a year-long partnership with the Cartoon Network.

Over the summer, master-brand campaign Incredible Inside emphasised Weetabix’s nutritional qualities. “We’re doing our best to make our products healthy

and communicating rele-vant health bene� ts,” says Lawrence. On The Go was on screen in April in a commuter-friendly ad, and the breakfast drink has contributed £9m to overall brand value. “This is probably the category suc-cess story of the year,” says Lawrence. “Adding around £5m of incremental value is pretty incredible and we expect that level of phenome-nal growth to continue.”

As well as On The Go Protein June saw the intro-duction of Protein Crunch, extruded tubular cereal in chocolate and original vari-ants; sales are worth £650,000 so far.

And in January this year Weetabix answered high-pro-tein breakfast challengers with a potential juggernaut: Weetabix Protein . It will be supported by a £1.3m above-the-line spend in April.

44 (41) Weetabix

BBB16_30_41_50.indd 30 14/03/2016 18:05


“Frozen food still has a negative perception for some consumers”

● Sales: £160.3m (–14.1%)Trading has been tough for Aunt Bessie’s. The brand, owned by William Jackson Food Group, lost £26.4m as it struggles to make gains in the declining frozen food mar-ket. A sizeable chunk of this loss came from its frozen pota-toes, a market in which rival McCain (11) stormed ahead – sales were up £4.2m.

“Frozen still has a negative perception for some consum-ers though we believe this can be tackled by a number of means including strong NPD,” says a spokeswoman.

For Auntie this included ‘Special Recipe’ premium lines Chunky Chips coated in beef dripping and King Edward roast potatoes, as well as Homestyle Wedges and sweet potato mash. The new products, claims the brand, are performing well. Special Recipe Yorkshire puddings,

meat and family-size pies also joined the frozen range.

Away from the frosty aisles, Aunt Bessie’s expanded into ambient cake for the first time with a nine-strong range of tarts, loafs cakes and shar-ing cakes. The brand went big on advertising as well, with sponsorship of two major ITV shows – Downton Abbey and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! It splashed out £6m to sponsor the hit reality TV series, which saw nosey neigh-bours Margaret and Mabel spying on the celebrities in the Australian jungle.

“I’m A Celebrity... is a key marketing initiative for the brand over the next 12 months. This sponsorship will see our adverts being seen by over 32 million people,” adds the spokeswoman. “We also have a huge on-pack promotion, which is featuring on over 30 million packs.”

● Sales: £169.5m (+2.2%)An exceedingly good year for Mr Kipling. The brand is up £3.7m and it’s sold an extra 7.8 million (5.1%) units, thanks to a host of NPD, such as Milkshake Slices, and the launch of four and nine-cake snack packs to replace the sixes. The NPD and format change were a bid to broaden the brand’s appeal to younger consumers. To this end, Kipling also ran an on-pack promotion with ZSL London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo, and launched a microsite featuring downloadable animal masks.

● Sales: £164.4m (–2.2%) Frozen fish took another bat-tering last year, and Young’s frozen volumes fell 6.5%. This was tempered by 50% growth from the extended premium sub-brand Gastro.

Young’s also celebrated 30 years of Chip Shop with a new recipe and packaging. After relaunching its master brand, Young’s kicked off 2016 with another TV ad campaign fea-turing Malcolm the Cat. New Gluten Free Fish Fingers will hit freezers in the spring.

This data doesn’t include sales of Young’s chilled fish.

● Sales: £163.1m (–5.0%)Flora’s fighting a battle on sev-eral fronts – consumers are reappraising butter after years of considering it unhealthy; bread sales are falling; and average prices have crashed 10.5% (Flora’s volumes are actually growing).

In January, Unilever launched the first dairy-free spread under the brand, Flora Freedom, and revamped the range’s packaging to empha-sise its plant-based ingredi-ents. Last October, it updated Pro-activ with more promi-nence for its scientific claims.

● Sales: £167.8m (–13.2%)The travails of the yoghurt sector continued in 2015 and Activia lost more than £25m as health-focused single-serve yoghurts came under scru-tiny over sugar content and shoppers switched to natural yoghurts and big pots.

Range rationalisation also hit hard. “We’ve removed some of our sub-ranges such as pouring yoghurt and our fat-free single pots to focus more on our core portfolio” says a spokeswoman. New campaign Feed Your Inner Smile launched in January.

46 (50) Mr Kipling 48 (49) Young’s frozen fish 49 (46) Flora47 (32) Activia

50 (34) Aunt Bessie’s


BBB16_30_41_50.indd 31 14/03/2016 18:06



● Sales: £152.7m (+6.8%)Evian’s £9.7m rise outshines market leader Volvic’s (32). Creating cocktail-themed bot-tles (Evian-jito, Evian-colada, etc) for Dry January was a shrewd move; doubtless it will stick with babies in its broader marketing after brand ambas-sador Maria Sharapova’s fall from grace this month.

● Sales: £138.8m (–6.3%)Steep price cuts have hit Dolmio hard. Cooking sauces’ biggest brand suffered a £9.3m hit despite only losing 1.1% in volume sales, though Mars claims penetration is up. This year Dolmio celebrates its 30th anniversary with a brand new campaign aimed at getting families around the table.

● Sales: £146.2m (+6.7%)Not only has Bisto put an extra £9.1m through the tills, it’s also helped the frozen ready meal sector return to growth. The launch of Chef’s Special ready meals helped, as did the £4m it put behind Bisto Best gravy, a makeover of its sauces and the extension of the Bisto Made Simple range.

● Sales: £139.3m (+2.5%)“Younger, more urban con-sumers entering the cereals category to take advantage of convenient, portable solu-tions” has helped add £3.4m to Quaker’s value. The brand has launched three trendy granola formats and teamed up with Darcey Bussell for the #SuperStart campaign.

● Sales: £150.6m (–8.6%)Eight months after the Tesco Ribenagate delisting of added-sugar kids’ drinks, the brand continues to suffer despite a refresh and new low-sugar lines. It’s now target-ing ‘pre-family’ young adults and focusing on the unique ‘Ribenary’ taste with a £6m campaign.

● Sales: £145.3m (–0.6%)Cravendale managed to shrug off the worst of the crisis in dairy, and a savage price war in own-label milk, to turn in sales that were just £897,000 lower than 2014. The brand has shifted 5.6 million (6.1%) extra units in the past year, thanks in part to a significant fall in average price.

● Sales: £151.3m (+9.5%)Yeo Valley’s near 10% hike in sales is down to “increased demand for healthy, high quality British food that in turn helps support the nation’s farmers and growers” says marketing director Dan Rusga. The brand’s plain and Greek-style yoghurts have proved particularly popular recently.

● Sales: £153.3m (+11.8%)The year’s fifth biggest climber, thanks to the aptly named Unstoppables range of fragrance boosters. Not only did the product, for use with fabric conditioners, rack up £30m in its first 18 months on shelf, it’s created a new laun-dry subcategory and is start-ing to prompt imitations.

● Sales: £156.6m (+4.9%)Pink & Black was Britain’s biggest ever ice cream NPD, says Unilever, worth £23.8m. Last March, Magnum multi-packs switched from threes to fours, contributing to a 6.5% fall in unit sales (multipacks are counted as single units). In January, Magnum Almond shrank from 110ml to 100ml.

● Sales: £139.0m (+24.8%)The Alpro juggernaut showed no signs of slowing down in 2015, following 2014’s 24.7% jump in value sales, with the greatest value gain of any brand in this year’s ranking, worth a cool £27.6m.

Alpro is now the UK’s sec-ond largest milk brand, after Cravendale (57), and just £6m now divides the two. “The growth is down to our cross-channel strategy, which combines a multi-category, multi-ingredient approach to NPD with integrated market-ing and a drive to be best in class when it comes to shopper marketing” says marketing controller Vicky Upton.

Sales were also boosted by a greater focus on convenience, adds Upton. “Our consumer is a typical top-up shopper” and Alpro has been focused on providing a “select range of products that will help stores to optimise their limited chiller space”.

This approach contributed to an increase in value sales through the convenience channel of 39.6%, adds Upton. The brand started 2016 with new ad campaign Make Over Your Morning and the launch of Alpro Go On, a high-protein single-serve soya alternative to yoghurt. It has pledged to source half its soybeans from Europe this year.

59 (78) Alpro

53 (59) Evian

60 (56) Dolmio

56 (64) Bisto

58 (67) Quaker Oats

55 (51) Ribena

57 (57) Cravendale

54 (62) Yeo Valley Organic

52 (65) Lenor51 (53) Magnum

“Alpro’s growth is down to the brand’s cross-channel strategy”


BBB16_32_51_60.indd 32 14/03/2016 18:24

*Kantar worldpanel online 52 w/e 31st January 2016, household penetration

At Napolina we have been passionate about simple, good quality ingredients for 50 years. It is this dedication that

has seen us become the UK’s No.1 Italian cooking brand.*

Our integrated marketing campaign, including primetime TV sponsorship of Gino’s Italian Escape on ITV, new online recipe videos and bespoke anniversary packs will continue

to drive consumer awareness and encourage category growth.

There has never been a better time to stock Napolina.

BURSTING WITHNAPOLINA

PASSION SINCE 1965

The heart of Italian cookingwww.napolina.com

01480_05 Napolina OliveOil_Grocer_297x210.indd 1 08/03/2016 16:58



● Sales: £122.8m (–0.2%)Last year P&G launched Bold Pearls, a version of liquitabs. “Laundry is a fixed consump-tion category, so the way to grow value is to persuade con-sumers of the benefits of using products that deliver great results at a higher price,” says sales director Ian Morley. Still, overall average price fell 2.7%.

● Sales: £109.2m (+0.9%)It hasn’t suffered like its lower-priced rivals, but Twinings has still seen volumes fall by 2.4%. Value is up, however, due to average prices rising as shop-pers switch to more premium green and herbal varieties. Twinings’ new Steamed Green Tea and Freshly Picked Taste ranges further tap this trend.

● Sales: £113.1m (+2.2%)A strong year for the Takeaway range and a busy programme of snack-focused NPD helped value grow despite 4.1 mil-lion (6.9%) fewer pizzas being sold. Pizza Melts merged for-mats by putting pizza toppings on a burger bun; the Sub, Takeaway and Deep Dish lines were extended.

● Sales: £112.1m (–1.0%)Blame it on the sunshine – or the lack thereof. “In 2015, the weather index across the summer months was lower than the previous two years,” says brand manager Hannah Webb. That’s Hellmann’s explanation for losing £1.2m in a year in which it added a BBQ-friendly olive oil variant.

● Sales: £117.1m (–1.7%)Ginsters has beefed up its offer with its first meat snacks, the four-strong Meat Club range, and appointed Coca-Cola vet-eran Kieran Hemsworth as MD. It also launched two lim-ited-edition pasties, but axed the H+Eat microwaveable hot dogs and burritos it launched in 2014. Volumes fell 2.1%.

● Sales: £113m (+2.8%)Further proof, if it were needed, that Brits will pay more for products with a pleas-ant pong. Pricier formats have helped boost Air Wick’s aver-age price by 9%. See the 2015 launch of Life Scents, a plug-in offering constantly changing fragrances. It now accounts for a fifth of Air Wick’s sales.

● Sales: £119.3m (–5.1%)Mars continued its decline as units sold and average price slid. Prospects for recovery look bleak at present, after it was involved in last month’s massive recall. In the UK, it was mostly Funsize products affected, though Lidl did recall some full-size packs supplied through Mars Germany.

● Sales: £128.8m (–7.7%)Schweppes is suffering from the continuing decline of the lemonade sector and CCE’s decision to ditch the Abbey Well sub-brand in favour of the ascendent Smartwater. Mixers and the new sparkling fruit juice range are in growth, says CCE, but Schweppes is down £10.7m overall.

● Sales: £129.0m (–10.8%)PG Tips’ standing in the top 100 is plummeting as black tea falls out of fashion: sales are down a whopping £15.6m. The brand is fighting back with last autumn’s £4m multibrand campaign Keep It Tea and increasing focus on its green and herbal ranges, expanded last month to 20 variants.

● Sales: £126.5m (+14.5%) Not many top 100 brands have got where they are today with-out ever going on the telly. One is Monster. “We’ve never used a TV commercial for Monster,” says Leendert den Hollander, GM at Coca-Cola Enterprises. So how has it reached such heady heights?

A steady stream of bikes and boobs on the brand’s social media channels has helped, as Monster has sought to appeal to its young, predomi-nantly male target drinker. As well as sponsorship of various motor sports, including Moto GP and Supercross, a rapidly expanding range of products has helped drive growth.

“What we’ve learnt with Monster is that it’s about offer-ing multiple variants,” says den Hollander, pointing to the now 12-strong range. “Growth is absolutely about more dis-tribution for the variants, such as The Doctor, which we’ve teamed up with Moto GP star Valentino Rossi for.”

Monster is up £16m, with units up 16.6 million (+20.2%). Impressive stuff, in light of all the commotion about sugar: 500ml contains 55g of the stuff. So CCE has launched an alternative: zero calo-rie Monster Ultra. “The next phase for Monster is Ultra,” says den Hollander. “I believe it has a lot of legs in the UK.”

73 (80) Monster Energy

74 (74) Bold

80 (82) Twinings

77 (79) Chicago Town

79 (77) Hellmann’s

76 (75) Ginsters

78 (81) Air Wick

75 (72) Mars

72 (61) Schweppes71 (58) PG Tips

“We’ve never used a television commercial for Monster Energy”




● Sales: £104.6 (+27.3%)Kinder has finally cracked the top 100, and with some force. Its whopping £22.4m gain in value marks the third biggest gain on this year’s list. The Minions were of major benefit to sales in the summer, with the characters getting their own Surprise egg. The limited-edition Joy helped too.

● Sales: £98.6m (+1%)A solid year for Old El Paso, with unit growth keeping up with value. The brand has been cashing in on Brits’ growing appetite for exotic cuisines, with experiential activity linking the brand with street food, and YouTube vid-eos showcasing Mexican meat and fish dishes.

● Sales: £100.0m (–5.1%)A loss of £5.4m for Scotland’s other national drink. All vari-ants, including the sugar-free version that’s delivered strong growth in recent years, have suffered, with the stand-ard version Bru hardest hit. Not even the brand’s first Christmas ad campaign in nine years put the fizz back.

● Sales: £99.0m (–7.9%)McCoy’s is suffering as com-petition from baked snacks, popcorn and a host of ‘health-ier’ snacks stiffens. In the past year it’s sold 4.9 million (4.4%) fewer packs despite launching McCoy’s Street Menu, a selec-tion of street food-inspired fla-vours, to coincide with a major revamp of its portfolio.

● Sales: £101.7m (–5.6%)Kleenex sales caught a cold in 2015 with units sold down nearly 10%. Seeking to reduce its dependence on the cold and flu season and “inspire daily usage”, the brand’s new ‘Someone needs one’ adver-tising campaign highlights a wide range of uses for facial tissues.

● Sales: £99.2m (+0.1%)Dettol is cleaning up after the 2014 launch of the UK’s first laundry cleanser, a product used in tandem with deter-gent to kill germs. As the prod-uct hurtles towards the £10m mark, RB has been emphasis-ing how its disinfectants can help halt the spread of colds and flu. Volumes fell 4.2%.

● Sales: £102.5m (–12.3%)It’s a dog’s life. Current trends are favouring smaller, single-serve wet options rather than the dry offering Bakers is best known for, hence the brand’s £14.4m loss. What’s more, as pet owners spend more on posher petfood (see Gourmet at 122), Bakers’ average price is down 6.2%.

● Sales: £105.7m (–2%)Philly launched a trio of whipped cheeses last year backed by a £3m market-ing push and expanded its range in January with a Mediterranean Herbs vari-ant as it sought to tap demand for soft cheese with herb infu-sions. Volumes held steady, but value still slipped £2.2m.

● Sales: £107.6m (+9.1%)Pizza Express has passed the £100m mark, rising nine spots up the list. Chilled pizza, made under licence by BakkavÖr, was the biggest source of growth, with two new clas-sic lines and a Romana pizza launched in November. Light Dressing, made by All About Food, also boosted growth.

● Sales: £100.6m (+9.4%)Pot Noodle is no longer just for lads. Gone are the more risqué ads, such as the 2013 Peel the Top Off A Hottie campaign that prompted a slew of complaints of sexism to the ASA; in is the more universal appeal of the brand’s You Can Make It push, aimed at young go-getters of both genders.

“Young people are more ambitious yet busier than ever,” says marketing manager Monique Rossi to explain the ads’ central message: that by opting for a Pot Noodle rather than cooking a meal from scratch, one can save time that would be better spent chasing dreams.

Of course, Unilever hasn’t done away with Pot Noodle’s trademark sense of humour. One ad proclaims: “There’s no time to dilly dally (if you do you’re a silly billy).” Another follows a boxing fan’s journey to a Las Vegas venue in pursuit of his dream of making it not as a boxer, but as a ring girl.

Recent key NPD included Pot Noodle Sausage Casserole, to tap the trend for traditional flavours, and putting Chinese Chow Mein, one of its most popular variants, into the King Pot Format. Next came a new Mac & Cheese line. “Cheese has seen a massive increase in usage as part of savoury snacks,” adds Rossi.

86 (96) Pot Noodle

83 (109) Kinder

90 (90) Old El Paso

87 (86) Irn-Bru

89 (85) McCoy’s

85 (84) Kleenex

88 (89) Dettol

84 (76) Bakers

82 (83) Philadelphia81 (90) Pizza Express

“Cheese has seen a massive increase in usage in savoury snacks”


BBB16_36_81_90.indd 36 14/03/2016 18:20

GOOD FOOD DESERVES LURPAK®

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● Sales: £93.8m (+15.2%)Twirl’s big growth is down to its bags format, Twirl Bites, launched in 2013 and now in all the major mults. Mondelez also invested in singles with two big promos: Fly Cadbury Air gave away weekend trips to � ve European cities, while Joynormous gave out £320,000 of bespoke prizes.

● Sales: £92.3m (–1.5%) Sales are down £1.4m, but Capri-Sun has sold two mil-lion (3.6%) more units. Not bad, considering Tesco axed the brand’s added-sugar lines in September. The rollout of a no-added-sugar line-up four months earlier helped keep Capri-Sun shining, replacing the SKUs ditched in Tesco.

● Sales: £90.2m (+2.6%)Dairylea shrugged o� a fall in value and volume sales during 2014 with a £2.3m boost in rev-enues in the past year, despite an average price reduction of 2.6%. It launched Cheesy Cheddar and Cheesy Bacon variants, and followed 2014’s Moo-sical cow campaign with a Moo-ing racer promotion .

● Sales: £88.5m (–11.0%)Is this the last year in the top 100 for what was once Britain’s number one tea? It looks that way. Volumes have crashed 6.5% despite price cuts as the cuppa falls out of fashion. Tetley’s not going without a � ght, however. In December it launched a £10m campaign in a bid to boost sales.

● Sales: £96.0m (–8.5%) Britain’s biggest poultry brand has taken a stu� ng. It’s lost £8.9m overall, with its chilled meat, which now accounts for just under half of Matthews’ branded business, down by almost £10m, partly as a result of cut-price deals on own label. That loss was mitigated by gains in frozen poultry.

● Sales: £89.6m (+6.0%)A� er entering the top 100 for the � rst time in its 35-year his-tory thanks to activity includ-ing a £1.6m TV ad campaign with British Tennis, Highland Spring is ramping up e� orts even further in 2016. The brand will be back on TV from April with a £3m tennis-orien-tated campaign.

● Sales: £93.0m (+13.4%)Those bunnies are at it again! Lindt has achieved another year of double-digit growth with sales up £11m, something the brand attributes to its marketing campaign and the launch of the Hello lifestyle range. With an early Easter , Lindt is keen to drive impulse purchases.

● Sales: £94.6m (+7.7%)Despite decline in the paper category, this brand has plenty to cheer about. Plenty has consolidated its position as Britain’s top kitchen roll brand, despite selling 0.5% fewer units. Shoppers were convinced to pay more by ads trumpeting superior strength and absorbency.

● Sales: £97.2m (+2.0%)Up £1.9m, although sti� com-petition in sharing bags has seen 11% wiped o� Kettle’s average price per unit. The brand blames an “exception-ally competitive market with aggressive promotional activ-ity”. It hopes the new upmar-ket Chef’s Selection will help restore brand value.

● Sales: £95.1m (–22.8%)Special K is losing weight, but it’s no cause for celebration. Its bruising £28.1m drop in value, accompanied by a fall in packs shi� ed of 24.1 million (–30.6%), ranks as the seventh steepest decline of the year, and the greatest in cereals.

The decline is re� ected across the Special K portfolio, with the brand’s new Super Porridge and Protein Crunch lines, launched to tap demand for functional breakfasts, the only products in signi� cant growth. Cracker Crisps have been the biggest casualty, down £8.2m; Original is down £6.7m; Multigrain Porridge lost £4.5m.

“The brand has been on a journey to reposition itself from diet food to an ongoing healthy eating choice, so we’re continuing to try to move the dial,” says Gareth Maguire, commercial director for cereal at Kellogg’s.

The new Nutri K � ake, with 10% less sugar, launched in May, and an Eat Special Feel Special TV campaign, focused on Special K Red Berries, ran this January. It’s hoped Kellogg’s forthcoming tie-up with the Olympics will be persuasive.

Special K Nourish, contain-ing � akes, clusters and seeds, came in this month backed by a £4m support spend.

93 (73) Special K

95 (111) Twirl 97 (95) Capri-Sun

98 (100) Dairylea 100 (88) Tetley

92 (87) Bernard Matthews

99 (107) Highland Spring

96 (110) Lindt Lindor

94 (101) Plenty91 (93) Kettle

“Special K has repositioned from diet food to healthy eating choice”


BBB16_38_91_100.indd 38 14/03/2016 18:21

· The No.2 boxed chocolate brand*

· The No.1 premium countline*

· The No.1 premium milk bar*

Stock up now*Source: IRI Value Sales, Total Market, 52 w/e 30th January 2016

Make your sales blissful with LINDOR

LINDOR is now a top 100 brand!

62283 Lindor Independant News A4 Advert.indd 1 11/03/2016 08:48

40 | The Grocer | 19 March 2016 www.thegrocer.co.uk40 | The Grocer | 19 March 2016 www.thegrocer.co.uk

britain’s biggest brands rising high

With sales crashing for many of Britain’s biggest brands, there’s no shortage of players ready to sail in and take their place in the top 100. Here’s our pick of the high risers that could make the ranking in next year’s report...

105 (119) M&M’s ● Sales: £87.9m

(+19.3%)Arguably the biggest

bene� ciary of the shar-ing trend in chocolate, M&M’s has turned in confectionery’s great-est growth, worth an impressive £14.2m.

Canny marketing and colourful NPD have

helped. Last April the brand jumped on the election bandwagon

with ads inviting shop-pers to vote for their

favourite M&M’s char-acter (red, yellow or brown) and launch-

ing single colour bags. A� er the election,

the brand o� ered the chance to win a trip to the United States, with

a US-inspired red, white and blue colour mix.

103 (111) Hula Hoops ● Sales: £88m (+8.4%)

It might be crunch time for crisps as shoppers switch to snacks per-ceived as healthier, such as savoury bis-

cuits and popcorn, but no one seems to have

told the original potato rings brand that. Hula

Hoops has helped itself to an extra £6.8m in sales this past year, selling an extra 1.4

million (9.1%) units. Playing the health

card has helped; KP launched Hula Hoops Pu� , a lighter version

of the original with just 74 calories per bag, in

January last year.

108 (114) Celebrations ● Sales: £84.7m

(+7.8%)Talk about bringing the party crashing down: Celebrations’ achieve-ment in making it into

our top challengers is likely to be bitter-

sweet for Mars, as the brand was one of the

few products a� ected in the UK by last month’s

mega recall. It is a move bound to impact

the brand’s perfor-mance this year. Prior

to this Celebrations was soaring, with vol-umes up 11.4%. Sales over the all-important Christmas period were

given a boost by the � rst TV ad for the brand

in a decade, which debuted during The X Factor on 1 November.

102 (110) Buxton ● Sales: £88.3m

(+8.4%)Buxton is on the verge of becoming the third bottled water brand in the top 100, a� er put-ting an extra £6.8m

through the tills over the past year. The

Nestlé Waters brand is bene� ting from the tec-tonic shi� s taking place

in so� drinks as Brits ditch sugary drinks

in favour of products perceived as health-ier, such as good old

H20. Buxton isn’t leav-ing it all to chance, of course: it’s continu-ing to support a host of popular sporting

events and will sponsor next month’s London Marathon for the third

year running.

106 (112) Mattessons ● Sales: £85.6m

(+5.8%)A robot called

F.R.H.A.N.K has helped Mattessons shi� an

extra 4.4 million packs of meat snacks over the past year. The

Fridge Raiders Hunger Automated Kit took the

brand straight to the core of its target teen-

age audience by linking up with YouTuber Ali-A.

Owner Kerry Foods, meanwhile, went a� er a more adult audience

with premium NPD Mattessons Savagers – cured meat sticks made from 100% prime pork.

It also worked with retailers to make meat snacks a destination category for adults.

BBB16_40_the challengers.indd 40 14/03/2016 18:03

www.thegrocer.co.uk 19 March 2016 | The Grocer | 41www.thegrocer.co.uk 19 March 2016 | The Grocer | 41

113 (121) Wispa ● Sales: £80.4m

(+9.8%)Vindication, if it were needed, of Cadbury’s 2008 decision to bring

back Wispa a� er axing it � ve years ear-lier. Eight years a� er

relaunch, the brand is on course to sail into

the top 100. Mondelez says Bitsa Wispa shar-ing bags have helped the brand rise up the ranking. Chilled des-serts, hot drinks and biscuits made under

licence by third parties are also doing their bit; Wispa Biscuits, manu-

factured by Burton’s Biscuits Co, picked up a Grocer New Product

Award last year.

128 (143) Sheba ● Sales: £65.4m

(+19.8%) More proof that pets

are escaping the penny pinching at the tills:

Sheba’s average price is up 12.2% as it’s sought to cater for our � nicky felines’ every whim.

Sauce Lover is for those who prefer more gravy, Fresh Choice was devel-oped for moggies who

like meals little and o� en, and for indeci-

sive cats Delicious Duos combines two meats.

“The performance has been driven by our

focus on variety and quality,” says a spokes-

woman. “Indulgent meals and treats are in strong growth; retailers

are giving them more shelf space .”

122 (137) Gourmet ● Sales: £70.9m

(+19.0%)Owners of discern-ing felines are will-

ing to pay a premium for indulgence; as a

result Gourmet’s sales are purring, with the

lion’s share of its £11.3m growth driven by

higher-priced products. NPD is � ying, particu-

larly Mon Petit, o� ering hard-to-please moggies

a tasting menu of � a-vours in 50g pouches.

Soup aimed at cats is also doing down a treat. “Gourmet Soup

is only the latest exam-ple of true innovation in petfood, testament to brand’s leading role in this category,” says market development

director Liz Wood.

121 (131) Belvita ● Sales: £70.9m

(+15.7%)A� er its growth slowed

in 2014, Belvita has picked up again, reas-

serting its domi-nance of breakfast

biscuits with further NPD and a return to

TV in September. Last August it introduced

So� Bakes, which have added £4m in four

months. “Our success has been driven by

product performance,” says Mondelez bis-

cuits category lead Rick Lawrence, who cites

its 62% repeat rate and continued innovation as key growth drivers. “Each new product has

a distinct purpose to bring in new consumers

to the brand.”

135 (148) Cushelle ● Sales: £58.6m

(+14.9%)Cushelle’s manufac-

turing technique uses heated air to boost so� -ness and absorbency, says brand manager Sian Dixon. “This is likely to capture the

attention of shoppers looking for something extra from their toilet tissue,” she says. The brand’s £7.6m growth was partly driven by a 6.7% increase in aver-age unit price, helped

no doubt by TV ads and a Good Housekeeping Reader Recommended accreditation in 2015.

Proof that brand owner SCA Hygiene’s story

isn’t all hot air!


BBB16_40_the challengers.indd 41 14/03/2016 18:03


britains biggest brands 00_00NotesAndrex: includes moist tissue wipes.Alpro: includes desserts.Aunt Bessie’s: includes gravy, potatoes, ready meals, vegetables, trimmings, frozen desserts, dumplings, ambient stuffing and pastry mix.Birds Eye: includes frozen poultry, veg, fish, ready meals, red meat, bakery and rice products.Bisto: includes frozen ready meals.Cadbury: products sold under the Cadbury brand, excluding distinct brands in their own right (ie Dairy Milk, Caramel etc). Includes cakes, biscuits, potted desserts, drinking chocolate and ice cream.Extra: includes gum, mints and strips.Euroshopper: for the purposes of this report, Booker’s Euroshopper range has not been defined as a brand, so does not appear. Fairy: includes all main household & laundry categories.Heinz Beanz: excludes WeightWatchers.Heinz Soup: excludes WeightWatchers.Hovis: includes bread, bread alternatives, bagged snacks, biscuits and morning goods.Innocent: includes smoothies, juice, juice drinks and coconut water. John West: includes ambient ready meals.Kingsmill: includes bread, bread alternatives, bagged snacks, biscuits and morning goods.Lucozade: includes all still and sparkling variants.Napolina: includes canned vegetables, oils, pasta and cooking sauces.Nescafé: includes instant, ground and on demand.Persil: includes all main household and laundry categories.Philadelphia: includes Simply Stir.Pot Noodle: includes Pot Rice, Mini Pot, Posh Noodle and King Pot Noodle.Princes: includes fish, ready meals, fruit juices and juice drinks; excludes Jucee.Robinsons: includes Fruit Shoot.Special K: includes cereals, biscuits, bagged snacks, hot cereals and cereal bars.Walkers: includes Deep Ridged, Baked Stars, Lights, Baked, Crinkles, Max, Extra Crunchy, Walkers Crisps bags and Market Deli; excludes Sensations.Warburtons: includes bread, bread alternatives, bagged snacks, biscuits and morning goods.Weetabix: includes cereals, biscuits and RTDs.WeightWatchers: includes frozen and chilled ready meals, trimmings, desserts, cakes, biscuits and yoghurts.Young’s: includes all branded Young’s frozen fish; excludes fresh fish products. All chocolate brands: measured across the chocolate confectionery, ice cream, RTD, hot chocolate beverages, cake and biscuits categories.

MethodologyThe data in Britain’s 100 Biggest Grocery Brands is for the period 52 w/e 2 January 2016. Data in Britain’s 100 Biggest Grocery Brands is taken from Nielsen’s Scantrack service. Scantrack monitors weekly sales from a nationwide network of EPoS checkout scanners covering the grocery and convenience markets.

Nielsen’s retail measurement service provides comprehensive information on actual purchases, market shares, distribution, pricing and promotional activities, and is the fastest and most accurate measure of consumer sales. Nielsen’s services are always dynamic and are constantly being improved to reflect the grocery marketplace.

Nielsen Total Coverage now includes EPoS data from Wilkinson, Superdrug and Boots, and excludes any estimation for Aldi and Lidl. Nielsen provides clients with consultation on product innovation, retail and shopper strategies, market structure and segmentation, brand and portfolio management, marketing performance, pricing and promotional strategies, advertising effectiveness and social media intelligence, based upon expertise and data assets.

Nielsen’s retail measurement services provide the fmcg industry with expert information and analysis of consumers, categories and the retail marketplace. For the purposes of this report, a brand is defined as all products within categories that are sold and marketed under a given brand name. The report includes grocery and household categories and does not include tobacco, alcohol, personal care or OTC.

© William Reed Business Media Ltd 2016.All Rights Reserved. ISSN 0017-4351. Printed by Wyndeham Group. For more information: William Reed Business Media Ltd, Broadfield Park, Crawley, West Sussex, RH11 9RT. Tel: 01293 613400. Web: www.william-reed.co.uk

Copyright:Britain’s Biggest Brands report was compiled by The Nielsen Company exclusively for The Grocer magazine/William Reed Business Media. No reproduction of this list or data within, full or in part, for commercial use is permitted without prior consent of The Nielsen Company.

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